Start-ups & Emerging Companies
Early-stage companies throughout Massachusetts, the region and beyond seek our team’s help at every stage of corporate development and across a wide range of industries, both tech and non-tech. The members of our Start-ups & Emerging Companies industry group advise and represent clients from concept, business planning, organization and financing through to cultivating a team, and protecting intellectual property.
Clients turn to us to help resolve difficult disputes and litigation, handle sophisticated transactions and advise on complex regulatory issues, including:
- Angel and venture capital financings and fund formation, management and raising capital
- Biotech deals
- Licensing agreements and other complex business contracts
- Mergers and acquisitions, combinations, structured financing and tax credits
- Restructuring
- Real estate investments, permitting and construction
- Energy, environmental and land use requirements and regulatory compliance
- Strategic collaborations, public finance, project finance and government incentives
Our clients comprise private businesses of all sizes as well as public companies, Fortune 100 corporations, financial institutions, institutes of higher education, energy utilities, nonprofit and quasi-public entities and healthcare providers focusing on the cutting-edge innovations that help grow our economy. Our team’s members collaborate with clients to create and provide comprehensive and cost-effective solutions for early-stage enterprises, investment funds and business management.
As corporate counsel, we help our start-up clients navigate the opportunities and challenges of formation, financing, market entry and regulatory requirements. We also introduce them to our network of VCs, angel investors, bankers, financiers, investors, industrialists and other service providers.
Start-ups and early-growth entities know us as their peers. We are active members of The Venture Forum, the Worcester CleanTech Incubator, and other preeminent organizations supporting thought leadership and incubation for emerging companies.
Changes in formation and strategic partnering for a tech company
The founders of a mobile application had initially set up a German entity to hold the intellectual property for an invention that recognizes consumer products on a television screen or other visual medium and directs the consumer to websites where the products can be purchased. We helped the company set up a Delaware corporation to become the parent entity and negotiated strategic partnering arrangements with German and Swiss media companies. With our help, the company is currently raising $6 million in a Series A financing.
Growing a new business
A newly-established business needed assistance preparing a distribution and sales agreement for its products. We drafted and negotiated the agreement and has, since then, efficiently put together additional agreements for the sale of goods into new territories.
Other experience
- Counsel to a Santa Monica-based clean tech venture fund through several rounds of financing and investment transactions
- General counsel to a New York-based venture fund dedicated to helping early-stage startups enterprises and entrepreneurs
- Prepared investment agreements for early-stage sustainable building software company
- Shared economy company with developing terms, conditions, privacy compliance for its application-based sharing platform
- For-profit client with on-line fundraising (crowdfunding) under Title III of the federal JOBS Act
Partners






Of Counsel

Publications
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Client Alert: Connecticut Paid Leave Act and Family Medical Leave Act Notice Requirements as of July 1, 2022
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Client Alert: Employment Law Updates for Massachusetts and Rhode Island Employers
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Client Alert – Wage Act Updates: Massachusetts’ Highest Court Finds Limited FLSA Preemption of Wage Act Remedies and Employers Should Prepare for Potential Wage-Related Changes to Come
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Client Alert: Department of Homeland Security Announces Extension of the Form I-9 Flexibilities Until October 31, 2022
Events + Recordings
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David Mawhinney to Present at ABI’s Northeast Bankruptcy Conference & Northeast Consumer Forum
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Jon Barooshian Moderated “Challenges for a Cannabis Business Owner” at Worcester Business Journal’s Business of Cannabis Forum
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Paul Bauer to Moderate MassEcon’s “Spotlight Series: Greater Boston Region Spotlight”
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Joshua Lee Smith Spoke at Worcester Chamber’s “Woostapreneurs Forum 2022”
News
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Tracy Thomas Boland Quoted in Boston Business Journal’s “Boston-area HR execs answer how to recruit, retain amid workforce shortage”
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Paul Bauer Quoted in Worcester Telegram’s “As life sciences industry in Worcester grows, panel says city needs more space for lab”
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Chelsie Vokes Quoted in MetroWest Daily News’ “Mask mandates dropping could mean more customers, but mixed messages”
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Bob Young Quoted in Worcester Telegram’s “Businesses optimistic about new era of pandemic with end of mask mandate”
At the Bar With Bowditch
Client Alert: Supreme Court Rules on COVID-19 Vaccine/Testing Requirements – Big Business Mandate Blocked, Health Care Mandate Revived
Client Alert: Updates Relating to OSHA’s Emergency Vaccination/Testing Requirements for Employers with 100 or More Employees and the CDC’s New Isolation and Quarantine Guidelines
13th Annual Employment Law Update (Webinars)
Campus Counsel
Wage Act Updates: Massachusetts’ Highest Court Finds Limited FLSA Preemption of Wage Act Remedies and Employers Should Prepare for Potential Wage-Related Changes to Come
Client Alert: Congress Approves Limits on Arbitration Agreements and Joint-Action Waivers for Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault Claims
Client Alert: Supreme Court Rules on COVID-19 Vaccine/Testing Requirements – Big Business Mandate Blocked, Health Care Mandate Revived
Commercial Real Estate Insight & News
Paul Bauer Quoted in Worcester Telegram’s “As life sciences industry in Worcester grows, panel says city needs more space for lab”
Paul Bauer Spoke at Bisnow Life Sciences Summit
Client Alert: Supreme Court Rules on COVID-19 Vaccine/Testing Requirements – Big Business Mandate Blocked, Health Care Mandate Revived
The Case for Inclusion
AiVi Nguyen Quoted in Worcester Business Journal’s “Experts: Retaining women during and after the pandemic requires communication and empathy”
COVID-19 + Working Women: How to Reverse the Shecession (Webinar)
Chelsie Vokes Quoted in Worcester Business Journal’s “The shecession: COVID’s impact on the female workforce could cost trillions in GDP”