Oakland Business Attorneys & Lawyers

What Is an Acceleration Clause?

An acceleration clause (also called an acceleration covenant) is a provision, often written into loan agreements and promissory notes, that gives the lender, under certain circumstances, the right to require the borrower to pay off the entire loan amount immediately. Acceleration clauses are most commonly found in mortgage contracts and real estate loans. In the case of a mortgage, the acceleration clause is often triggered when the borrower (mortgagor) fails repeatedly make his payments on time.

Acceleration Clauses and Startups

In regard to startup businesses, acceleration clauses can be found in

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Updated June 23, 2020:

A non-solicitation agreement says that if you work for a competitor, you won't solicit any clients, bring over any employees, or use any confidential information from your current job.

What Is a Non Solicitation Agreement?

A non-solicitation agreement is a common contract clause that says if you work for a competitor, you won't solicit any business clients, bring over any employees, or use any confidential information connected to your current job. In other words, you can't use your old company contacts to help your new company. In any business, two of the most important groups of people are the employees and the customers. Stealing customers takes something extremely valuable from a company.

For example, imagine you're a high-ranking salesperson for a company that sells copper wire. Because of your job, you've spoken with copper wire buyers all across the glob

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Anti-Dilution provision is a clause that gives an investor the right to maintain the same percentage ownership of a company by purchasing a proportional amount of shares in the future when securities are issued.

Dilution: What Is It?

To understand what “anti-dilution” is, you must first understand the meaning of dilution.

The term, “dilution” refers to an event in which the shareholders’ ownership of a company is reduced due to the issuance of new shares in that particular company. The ownership percentage is decreased as the whole capital is increased, the concept is simple as that.

Dilution occurs when you issue new stock in a company. Consider an investor who owns 30 out of a company's 100 shares; technically, he owns 30 percent of the company.

Imagine the corporation

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What is Secured Debt?

Secured debt is a debt that's secured by pledging an asset for collateral. It means someone took on a debt and backed it with a piece of property they own. The lender puts a lien on the asset that's been pledged, giving them the ability to legally take the asset if the debt is defaulted on.

Common examples of a secured debt include a mortgage and a car loan. The car or the house become the security asset for the debt that you took on. If you default on the payments for any reason, the lender has the right to take you to court in order to recover the asset.

A lender usually requires the asset be maintained and/or insured to a set standard in order to maintain asset

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