Carl Niedbala

The Top 3 Startup D&O Insurance Lawsuits / Claims

D&O Insurance is one of the most important types of insurance for startups.  You’ll undoubtedly see it on the term sheet of the vast majority of institutional investors because it’s a big risk exposure for both you (the founder) personally and your investors.

Startup CEOs & Cyber Security: Track your Tech!

Why startup CEOs should care about cyber security The data breach that Target suffered around Thanksgiving last year has finally worked its way up to the top of the organizational totem pole.  A couple of weeks ago, Target’s CEO Gregg Steinhafel lost his job a result of the cyber security shortcomings or liabilities that cost the company

Startup Internships: What Founders Need to Know

**This is a guest post by Scott Smedresman of Sorin Rand.**

Vibram Shoes: how to put your $4M foot in your mouth

  “Barefoot” running shoes have trended hard over the last few years.  Vibram is the company behind this revolution with their “FiveFingers” shoe product.  They touted the shoes as having a full range of benefits including: Strengthen muscles in the feet and lower legs Improve range of motion in the ankles, feet, and toes Stimulate neural function important

Death of a Co-Founder: The Importance of Key Man Life Insurance

Key Man Life Insurance can be touchy subject for most startup founders.  Most of the time it’s a “just-don’t-think-about-it” situation, and the only time the idea even comes up is when it appears on the Series A term sheet.  Entertaining the thought of losing a co-founder is one of the last things any entrepreneur wants to

Announcing Disability and Ancillary Benefits Coverage

  Founder Shield is happy to announce that we now offer a full suite of Disability and Ancillary Benefits insurance!  Here’s the high-level overview on both: Disability Insurance Disability insurance is usually required for all companies with employees.  It’s just like Workers Comp insurance…you need it!  Disability insurance covers your employees when they are unable

EPLI Risk Exposure Checklist for Startups

  Last week we posted about the importance of Employment Practices Liability Insurance (“EPLI”) for rapidly growing startup companies.  If you read that post, it should be pretty clear why there’s so much risk exposure related to employment practices.  I wanted to follow up that post with a quick EPLI risk exposure checklist for startups.  Here’s

Does EPLI Insurance Matter for Startups?

  We place a lot of D&O coverage for our clients because it can be vital to startups for several reasons.  D&O Insurance is only one piece of the overall Management Liability puzzle.  The other big piece is Employment Practices Liability Insurance (“EPLI”).  This post will answer two important questions: what is EPLI insurance, and

A Founder’s Guide to Workers Compensation Insurance

[note: this post originally appeared on WeWork’s fullstart blog; you can view the original post here.] Worker’s compensation insurance is one thing that founders seem to stress about quite a bit. We answer tons of questions about WC every day.  So here we go…a startup founder’s brief guide to workers compensation insurance.

How to Read an Insurance Quote

When we give our clients quotes, most of the time they have questions for us.  Usually the same questions pop up over and over again.  I’m hoping that this post will serve as a valuable resource for our future clients (or anyone else out there staring at a quote and scratching their head).  So let’s

What is Inland Marine Insurance?

Target’s Cyber and D&O Insurance Might Save Them Serious Cash

  We can’t resist talking about this Target Data breach incident.  It has become a major talking point in tech community and the news that keeps surfacing makes for a great little case study.  So in the latest bit of news to surface:

We created a new Key Man insurance product…and it’s awesome.

Key man insurance for startups doesn’t really exist in the life insurance markets.  There are a few reasons for this and I’ll explain the big ones.

Snapchat gets hacked, basically says “NBD, you guys”

  Only weeks after Snapchat made the headlights for spurning a $3+ billion buyout offer, the company is back in the limelight in a less-than-ideal fashion.

UPDATE: Target’s Data Breach and the Need for Cyber Liability Insurance

Recently we wrote about the data breach that occurred at Target’s point-of-sale systems in stores across America.  The breach lead to the theft of roughly 40 million credit card numbers, names, and CSV codes.  Here’s what’s been happening since the announcement:

What Startups Need to Know About Business Interruption Insurance

What is it? At a very high level, business interruption insurance (“BII”) protects the insured when business operations are interrupted (no, really?!).  Typically this coverage is paired with others, including General Liability and Cyber Liability.

Startups that Give Us More to be Thankful For

  With Thanksgiving upon us, it seems appropriate to do a post about some of the startups out there that are giving people more to be thankful for.  So here’s a small cross section of those companies:

One Trade Agreement Startups Should Know About

  Venturebeat originally posted about this earlier this week and we thought it was an important one to be aware of. Unbeknownst to most, a new trade agreement between the Trans Pacific Parternship (the “TPP”) has been in development for almost a year now.  The TPP consists of the United States, Mexico and a handful

Startups: Don’t Overlook Key Man Insurance

  We usually talk about key man insurance with our clients in the wake of a freshly closed round of institutional funding.  Investors typically make their portfolio companies get key man insurance to protect their own cash.  They realize that at most startups, the team is the company.  It takes a truly phenomenal team to guide

Snapchat: Proof that Startups Need D&O Insurance

  One of the major products we provide for our clients is Directors and Officers Insurance.  Admittedly 90% of our D&O clients sought us out because their investors required them to get coverage.  Don’t be mistaken, though…startups need D&O insurance regardless of the investor situation.

Even Sony Can Mess Up Their Insurance

Admittedly this probably can’t be considered a “current” event, but we stumbled across this article somewhere on the interwebs and it’s an important story to tell (particularly on an insurance blog).   Big lessons can be learned by this one.  Here’s the gist:

Our new site launched!

Welcome to the newly redesigned Foundershield.com!