Carl Niedbala

Lumosity’s $2M Fine & the Risk of “Fake It ‘Til You Make It”

How Lumosity got in trouble Lumosity, the San Francisco-based company offering brain-training tools, came under fire from the FTC this week for the deceptive advertising allegations.  Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection Jessica Rich said the following: “Lumosity preyed on consumers’ fears about age-related cognitive decline, suggesting their games could stave off memory

2015 Employment Lawsuits: Where are Startups at Risk?

2015 employment practices lawsuit data is in: which states are at the highest risk? Every company encounters a hiring situation in which things don’t play out quite as planned — hiring is a liability.  A candidate is overly demanding or misaligned with the hiring team, an employee didn’t perform as expected or wasn’t a cultural

The Importance of Tail Insurance Coverage for Startups

A tail insurance policy is one of the most important risk mitigation tools for a startup approaching an exit. The mission for every founder is pretty much the same: get some traction, get funded, scale rapidly, and hit an exit opportunity.  While the occasional unicorn might be fortunate enough to IPO, most startups go the

4 Key Things to Look for On Your Business Insurance Quotes

It would be extremely surprising if you didn’t have some questions when looking at your first business insurance quotes.  They’re extremely detailed and certainly not the easiest document to digest.  Here’s a quick overview of the major items you should be looking at on your quote. [Note: this article is mainly pertaining to errors and

Getting Business Insurance for On-Demand Startups

Mary Meeker of KPCB Sounds the Cyber Security Alarm

With the release of her annual report this week, veteran internet analyst and Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker sounded the alarm on the state of cyber security. Meeker’s reports are essentially the bible to investors and entrepreneurs in the space.  The report contains valuable data on everything from mobile to emerging markets, but the slides on cyber security

Top Reasons Your Startup Needs Product Liability Insurance

Product liability insurance is an extremely important piece to the risk management puzzle, particularly for startups that sell a tangible product.  Usually included in a General Liability policy (though sometimes offered standalone), product liability insurance protects your company from liability lawsuits related to bodily injury or property damage caused by product defects. Whether you’re e-commerce

Best HR Practices for Your Startup

This is a guest post from Amy Klimek, VP of HR at ZipRecruiter.com. Startups cannot run their businesses the way established companies can. Established companies leverage their name and stability to attract the best talent in the industry. Your startup does not have an established name or track record of stability, but you do have other principles

The Business Insurance Renewal Checklist (for Startups)

Business insurance renewals are usually uncharted territory for a young startup.  Typically, venture-backed startups experience significantly more change/growth year over year compared to your standard new business venture.  It’s important to understand how this affects your startup’s insurance coverage and how to ensure you’re properly protected.  Here’s the “checklist” of items to be aware of as your policies renew.

The 2013 Target Data Breach: Insurance Coverage Recap

Retail Giant Target was hit with a massive data breach incident during the holiday season of 2013.  We posted a few articles outlining the severity of the breach and speculating on how cyber insurance may be their lifeline.  Here’s a quick follow up on the claims the company has seen since the incident. VentureBeat recently reported

Founder Shield’s SXSWi 2015 Recap

Now that the dust has settled from this year’s SXSW Interactive weekend in Austin and we’re back in the big Apple, we wanted to share some of the highlights of our weekend with you.  Founder Shield’s VP of Sales, Jeff Samuels, recaps what went down:

Startup Risk Tips: Don’t Let Your Business Insurance Lapse

Sometimes things don’t go quite as planned and your company ends up a bit more cash strapped than anticipated at year end.  The typical gut reaction is to pull the rip chord and cut any and all “extraneous” expenses.  Insurance is considered by some to be one of those expenses.  Here’s why you shouldn’t be quick to

Insurance for Fintech Companies

  Founder Shield 101: Insurance for Fintech Companies. From financial products to payments to investing, fintech is a red hot.  The market is forecasted to grow to $6-8 billion by 2018 and Q1 2014 alone saw 1.7 billion invested across 167 deals.

Don’t Wait: 7 Reasons to Find a Good Startup Lawyer Now

We’re all about teaming up with great startups on a mission to help the startup community excel.  Priori Legal is one of those awesome companies.  This guest post from proiri is important from an insurance perspective because many underwriters will ask for the legal work described below when quoting your insurance policy.  Without these documents, insurance can be more

Insurance for Ecommerce Companies

Consumer Ecommerce is booming. With the vast array of web developers, payment processors and digital currencies, it has never been easier to get an online business off the ground. The US market alone is estimated at $409 billion for 2017. By 2022, it’s expected to make up to as much 17% of all retail sales nationwide. Risks

Priori Legal’s Guidelines for Finding the Right Lawyer

We’re all about teaming up with great startups on a mission to help the startup community excel.  Priori Legal is one of those awesome companies.  This guest post provides some helpful tips for hiring a startup lawyer. Priori Legal is an online platform for connecting start-ups and SMB’s with a network of vetted lawyers at below-market (and wherever possible)

Inside Job: The 2014 Morgan Stanley Data Breach

While most of us are coming back rested and refreshed for the new year, Morgan Stanley can’t quite say the same as the bank’s 2014 ended with a massive data breach. Just two days after Christmas, information security employees at the bank discovered the data breach.  The bank was conducting a standard sweep of known criminal websites

Meet Priori Legal: Connecting Startups to Trusted Lawyers

  We’re all about teaming up with great startups on a mission to help the startup community excel.  Priori Legal is one of those awesome companies.  This guest post will introduce the company and shed a little light on the kind of advice they’ll be sharing on our blog.  

Intellectual Property Insurance — What Startups Need to Know

Startup Risk Tips: Know When Business Insurance Kicks In

Q: When is my company actually covered by our insurance policies?

3 Risks an On-Demand Services Company Needs to Consider

Update: We’ve released a new whitepaper examining the Sharing Economy industry. We dive into the insurance landscape, legal climate and how to approach risk management for companies in this sector. You can download the report here! Food for thought: on-demand services company risk profile The on-demand services company (think Uber, Makespace, Fly Cleaners…) is taking over the

2 Sneaky Ways Business Insurance Adds Value for Startups