Samuel Yuen - Funding for Start-Ups

An excellent overview of business vehicles and common objectives of business ownership with sufficient depth of details, as a platform for attaining a deeper understanding of individual topics. Certainly a good source of technical information for any aspiring entrepreneur.

Kelvin Tan Miang Ser
Founder & Chairman, Genesis-Global Gems & Jewellery Group

I applaud Samuel in writing a series of easy to understand books to provide a helpful guide for start-ups from a legal perspective. The first book, Funding for Start-ups, is well organised. You can either read through it in a chronological order or flip to the topic of interest for a quick reference.

This book will be invaluable to anyone who is preparing for a new startup and also to those who have already started the exciting journey.

Lucas Chow
Chairman, Health Promotion Board

[This] book will be most valuable to aspiring entrepreneurs, especially the technical ones with little to no legal knowledge.

It provides a broad overview of cardinal legal concepts, the types of companies and funding mechanisms and the legal implications. It then drills down and highlights the key points to note while fundraising, particularly the legal components, which I agree would definitely be a headache for most entrepreneurs.

In fact, I think that this book would also be of value to some of my new investment managers embarking on their new journey.

I hope this book will be useful and valuable as a starting guide for entrepreneurs-to-be.

Chng Zhen Hao
CEO, Cap Vista Pte Ltd

I find that [the book] offers very practical and comprehensive insights on not only funding for new start-ups but also for established companies which may be keen to start new businesses. It also offers a crash course on contracts and different forms of entities a start-up can take. The most valuable advice I gleaned from the book is the safeguards and pitfalls an entrepreneur needs to consider and look out for when negotiating a deal with prospective investors.

A must-read book for those looking to raise funds for their start-ups or existing companies.

John Lim
Deputy Managing Director, Hupsteel Ltd

Samuels comprehensive work with case examples is simply written and digestible. I recommend this book for all who want to gain insight into the complex world of deals and start-ups.

Dr Raymond CS Teo
Medical practitioner & author

FUNDING
FOR START-UPS

2020 Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited
Text Samuel Yuen

Published by Marshall Cavendish Business
An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International

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National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Name: Yuen, Samuel, 1975
Title: Funding for start-ups : a guide to fundraising / Samuel Yuen.
Description: Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Business, [2020]
Identifier(s): OCN 1129793753 | ISBN 978-981-48-4140-5 (paperback)
Subject(s): LCSH: New business enterprises--Finance--Law and legislation--Singapore. | New business enterprises--Law and legislation--Singapore. | Fund raising--Singapore. Classification: DDC 346.5957065--dc23

Printed in Singapore

For my earthly father, Charlie Yuen,
who taught me to think critically.
You are missed.

#7: Interpretation of Contracts Paradigm Shift:
Contracts as a Form of Legal Risk Management

It gives me great pleasure to write this Foreword for Samuel Yuens maiden law guidebook.

Alejandro Cremades, in The Art of Startup Fundraising (2016), wrote that Most startups eventually pivot to adjust to what the market is telling them. I would venture to add that start-ups should, right from the start (not eventually), pivot to adjust to what the law is telling them. Samuel Yuens book is one such potential pivot.

Funding for Start-ups is a timely and thematic guide on fundraising for start-ups. Singapore has, of late, taken numero uno position for start-up talent and overtaken the US in this regard. This is not a hyperbole or a slick marketing pitch. Instead, this finding comes from a 2017 research report by the Startup Genome project, a US-based think-tank.

Being in pole position, our nation needs to be positioned strongly to build capacity for our embryonic entrepreneurial start-ups. The guide in your hands could not have arrived at a better time.

The ambit of content coverage of this book includes:

(1) the legal aspects of different approaches to fundraising;

(2) an outline of fundraising in phases;

(3) how to perfect a pitch to an investor;

(4) understanding the investors mindset; and

(5) managing negotiations in the fundraising process.

The authors straightforward but salutary aims include providing legal information and anecdotal guidance on the essentials of setting up new start-ups.

The greatest value proposition of this handy guidebook is that it demystifies the applicable law and deconstructs complex legal concepts. Among other things, Samuel doles out bitesized, digestible knowledge and information on key legal concepts in this commercial sphere. These include separate legal personality, lifting the corporate veil, how contracts are made, electronic contracts and contractual interpretation. It is to Samuels credit that his clear and concise communicating style make this an intelligible and interesting read for the layperson rather than gobbledygook. Exemplars within this work include the tabulated summary of legal entities in , to select a few illustrations. And yet the narrative and outline is neither dry nor dull. The reader will be engaged by the writing style reflecting the authors alacrity. Samuels conversational (possibly, chatty) style gently guides the reader through the technical aspects to help them see the forest for the trees.