MintzTech Connect Industry News — April 2020

April 21, 2020 Dan DeWolf

Dear Readers,

We hope everyone is safe, healthy, and finding a comfortable place to work from while we ride out this “storm.” We also want to give a special shout out to all our health care workers and first responders who have stepped up and shown incredible dedication, professionalism, and bravery in the midst of all this mayhem and chaos.

While one can never predict a “black swan” event, we have clearly been experiencing one in the last several weeks with the global pandemic. Further, this pandemic has ushered in a new paradigm that has major implications, both with respect to the short-term effect on our economy and businesses, but also just as importantly, on the long-term effect on our economy and how businesses will be conducted in the future. The question now on everyone’s mind is where do we go from here in an era with so many unknowns and very little verifiable data regarding the pandemic.

We are hugely skeptical of any pundit who claims to know what the economic future portends. As John Maynard Keynes once sarcastically said: “The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.” That said, we do know that there are always opportunities in periods of dislocations for creative and smart entrepreneurs. We have already seen with a number of our clients aggressive moves to create and accelerate the use of platforms that excel for remote work environments such as telehealth. We can also report that we see robust activity in emerging life science companies and enterprises focused on our changing energy needs. We have no doubt that many of these companies will change our world for the better.

While the pace of business activity has definitely slackened in the short term, we are in fact seeing transactions closing and people pulling together to find ways to move businesses forward. Moreover, we are seeing entrepreneurs continuing to develop businesses that have the potential to be disruptive and significant. While we at Mintz are also working remotely during this current “pause” we remain ready and available to “give flight to your ideas!”

This edition of MintzTech Connect includes (i) a recent post on the Federal Reserve’s Main Street Lending Program; (ii) an excellent summary of Choice of Business Entity: Pros and Cons of Corporations and LLCs; and (iii) a recent podcast on FDA issues for start-ups.

Stay safe and be well,
Dan + Sam

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