Investment Accelerators

This Article documents and explains the legal and extralegal dimensions of Investment Accelerator (IA) systems. Accelerators are a new class of institution that supports entrepreneurs and early stage startups. Investment Accelerators take an ownership stake in companies that participate in an intensive, time-limited program. Interviews reveal the surprising extent to which parties in many Investment Accelerators exchange economic value in the absence of formal agreement. Startups share proprietary information with highly accomplished mentors who, in turn, contribute their time and connections without direct compensation. This under-contracted and informal arrangement raises concerns about opportunism. Data from an original investigation presents a description of Investment Accelerator organization and its effects. Research reveals three notable findings about how lAs organize resources in the service of innovation objectives. First, Investment Accelerators mingle formal and informal mechanisms to assemble a system of stakeholders that spans an entrepreneurial community. Second, informal mechanisms attract a wider pool of mentor participants, including desirable professionals who would not participate as full time hires or as contributors pursuant to a contract. Third, Investment Accelerators show that, under certain circumstances, informal network governance constrains opportunism, even where a network is rapidly assembled and new entrants are included

The Defensor Pacis of Marsilius of Padua and its Relation to the Reformation

Any event in history that is linked in either a small or large way to the Reformation demands investigation. In examining the causes and the background of the Protestant uprising in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; historians usually make mention of the Defensor Pacis written by Marsilius of Padua in 1624. Some make much of it. Others ignore it. Yet the Defensor Pacis, directed as it is against Pope John XXII, remains the most daring and the most independent ecclesiastic-politica1 work of the entire medieval period. Whether this document in any way influences the Reformation this thesis will endeavor to show

Investment Accelerators

This Article documents and explains the legal and extralegal dimensions of Investment Accelerator (IA) systems. Accelerators are a new class of institution that supports entrepreneurs and early stage startups. Investment Accelerators take an ownership stake in companies that participate in an intensive, time-limited program. Interviews reveal the surprising extent to which parties in many Investment Accelerators exchange economic value in the absence of formal agreement. Startups share proprietary information with highly accomplished mentors who, in turn, contribute their time and connections without direct compensation. This under-contracted and informal arrangement raises concerns about opportunism. Data from an original investigation presents a description of Investment Accelerator organization and its effects. Research reveals three notable findings about how lAs organize resources in the service of innovation objectives. First, Investment Accelerators mingle formal and informal mechanisms to assemble a system of stakeholders that spans an entrepreneurial community. Second, informal mechanisms attract a wider pool of mentor participants, including desirable professionals who would not participate as full time hires or as contributors pursuant to a contract. Third, Investment Accelerators show that, under certain circumstances, informal network governance constrains opportunism, even where a network is rapidly assembled and new entrants are included

Procedural Architecture Matters: Innovation Policy at the Federal Communications Commission

This Article examines the puzzle of whether today\u27s Federal Communications Commission ( FCC or the Agency ) is institutionally suited to craft telecommunications innovation policy and, if not, what changes are needed to better equip the Agency to respond to twenty-first century realities. Evaluation of FCC innovation policy performance is stubbornly difficult. Some criticize the FCC as a brake on innovation yet, under the FCC\u27s oversight, the United States\u27 communications industry has become an innovative engine propelling the overall economy more than ever before. It is difficult to untangle whether the FCC deserves credit for helping usher in today\u27s communications age, whether the FCC deserves blame for hamstringing innovation, or both. New tools are needed to address this puzzle. This Article develops such a tool, the procedural architecture analysis. A detail-rich examination of the FCC\u27s procedural architecture-viz., the Agency\u27s formal and informal procedures, resources, and institutional norms-reveals systemic FCC leanings that are in tension with oft-stated innovation objectives. The Article cracks the black box problem, whereby much Agency decision-making is not readily observable, by studying a key yet understudied input: the advocacy of those who practice in front of the FCC. Procedural architecture analysis reveals surprising gaps between administrative process theory\u27s ideals and FCC realities. Moreover, it underscores crucial reforms needed to enable the FCC to act faster, marshal independent expert resources that it conspicuously lacks, and broadly fulfill its twenty-first century imperative to facilitate telecommunications innovation

The Evolution of Entrepreneurial Finance: A New Typology

There has been an explosion in new types of startup finance instruments. Whereas twenty years ago preferred stock dominated the field, startup companies and investors now use at least eight different instruments—six of which have only become widely used in the last decade. Legal scholars have yet to reflect upon the proliferation of instrument types in the aggregate. Notably missing is a way to organize instruments into a common framework that highlights their similarities and differences. This Article makes four contributions. First, it catalogues the variety of startup investment forms. I describe novel instruments, such as revenue-based financing, which remain understudied within law and entrepreneurship. Second, this Article shows the limitations of the debt vs. equity distinction as a classification method for startup financial contracts. Reliance on this traditional distinction obscures understanding of how instruments function. Third, the Article proposes a “new typology” to classify investment instruments based upon their economic, control, time, and regulatory dimensions. Three new broad categories— Payouts, Lock-in, and Park-n-ride—provide an insightful way to group these contracts. And fourth, the new typology explains how an expansion in instrument types creates complex capital structures which increase horizontal conflicts among startup investors. Further, new instruments increasingly place investors into a non-shareholder role that is outside the boundaries of corporate law’s protections. As early-stage investors increasingly fall outside the protections of corporate law, a greater burden shifts to contract law to resolve disputes arising from divergent investor interests

A Queer Approach to Agatha Christie, 1920-1952

This thesis provides the first extensive queer reading of a ‘Golden Age’ British detective fiction writer. The aim of this thesis is to assess queer potential in texts published by Agatha Christie between 1920 and 1952. Human identity can be read as self-consciously constructed in Christie’s novels, which were written in a context of two world wars, advances in technology and communication, and what Michel Foucault called the ‘medicalization’ of Western culture. The self-conscious stereotyping in Christie’s prose undermines her texts’ conservative appeal to the status quo. Chapter One justifies this project’s critique of identity essentialism in the texts by considering the manufacturing of ‘Agatha Christie’ as a widely-read celebrity author. Reading Christie’s authorial identity as something established and refined through a market-driven response to readers’ expectations and a conscious engagement with earlier forms of detective fiction provides space for reading identity itself as a stylized, performative, and sometimes parodic theme within the texts. In subsequent chapters, employing theoretical insights from Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Judith Butler, and Lee Edelman, I explore Christie’s participation in contemporary debates surrounding masculinity, femininity, and the importance of the family in shaping individual identity. Finally, I consider Christie’s reputation in the twenty-first century by exploring nostalgic television adaptations of her work. Comparing the presentation of ‘queer’ characters in the literary texts to the adaptations’ use of explicit homosexual themes and characters, I conclude that there is a stronger potential for ‘queering’ identity in the former. As the first full queer reading of a ‘Golden Age’ detective novelist, this thesis expands queer notions of archive and canonicity: few scholars to date have considered mainstream literary texts without overt LGBTQ+ themes or characters from a queer perspective. Given Christie’s global reach and appeal, locating queerness in her texts means understanding queerness as fundamental to everyday culture. This means engaging with a subversive potential in twentieth century middlebrow conservatism

Dibenzimidazolium Salts and Their Interactions with 1,5-dinaphtho-38-crown-10

The use of imidazolium salts in mechanically interlocked molecules, like pseudorotaxanes, is of interest because they can be functionalized with side arms that allow for coordination chemistry. It has been previously shown that tetraakylbenzobisimidazolium salts successfully thread through crown ethers, such as 15DN38C10 or BPP34C10, to form pseudorotaxanes. As an extension of the results that were gathered about this novel template, it was our goal to explore the degree to which larger imidazolium salts interact with such crown ethers. This research focused on the interactions between 15DN38C10 and dibenzimidazolium cations that were tetra-substituted with methyl groups, butyl groups, and benzyl groups, respectively. These interactions were assessed using 1H NMR spectroscopy

Outlines of the Standard Gospels

Outlines on the Old Standard Gospel Lesson

The Evolution of Entrepreneurial Finance: A New Typology

There has been an explosion in new types of startup finance instruments. Whereas twenty years ago preferred stock dominated the field, startup companies and investors now use at least eight different instruments—six of which have only become widely used in the last decade. Legal scholars have yet to reflect upon the proliferation of instrument types in the aggregate. Notably missing is a way to organize instruments into a common framework that highlights their similarities and differences. This Article makes four contributions. First, it catalogues the variety of startup investment forms. I describe novel instruments, such as revenue-based financing, which remain understudied within law and entrepreneurship. Second, this Article shows the limitations of the debt vs. equity distinction as a classification method for startup financial contracts. Reliance on this traditional distinction obscures understanding of how instruments function. Third, the Article proposes a “new typology” to classify investment instruments based upon their economic, control, time, and regulatory dimensions. Three new broad categories— Payouts, Lock-in, and Park-n-ride—provide an insightful way to group these contracts. And fourth, the new typology explains how an expansion in instrument types creates complex capital structures which increase horizontal conflicts among startup investors. Further, new instruments increasingly place investors into a non-shareholder role that is outside the boundaries of corporate law’s protections. As early-stage investors increasingly fall outside the protections of corporate law, a greater burden shifts to contract law to resolve disputes arising from divergent investor interests

The Power of the We: An Autoethnographic Exploration of Attitudes Towards Exercise in a Cato Manor Workout Group

This study explored attitudes towards exercise within a workout group in Cato Manor, Durban. Taking an autoethnographic approach, I have interwoven narratives of group members with my own experiences, both as a participant in the workout group and as a long-distance runner. Using focus groups, in-depth one-on-one interviews, and direct observations, as well as running as a method of introspection, I aimed to examine both individual and collective perceptions of and motivations for exercise. All but one of the workout group members I spoke with were women, reflecting the makeup of the group while I was there. My findings indicate that the workout group has had a positive impact on participants’ attitudes toward exercising. While weight concerns were identified by the majority of participants as the initial motivator to join the group, the welcoming, fun group environment kept them coming back. Moreover, participants identified the group itself as a powerful source of motivation and social support. Such findings carry important implications for understanding motives for behavior change specific to a consistent exercise routine within the Cato Manor community, and were utilized within the scope of this project in the participatory development of an informational poster