Matt McKenna

3 cyber insurance lessons from the HBO data breach

Copyright 2017 Home Box Office, Inc.   Winter is com…wait, nope, those are lawyers. Lawyers are coming. Fresh off the heels of the personally identifiable information (PII) of every registered voter in the United States being stolen, another American institution is on the defense. OK so maybe it’s not an “institution” per se. HBO was the

Insurance for Bitcoin: 3 facts startups need to know

Bitcoin has been occupying the news but unless your only interest is today’s this minute’s price, there are still plenty of unanswered questions for startups. Jamie Dimon calls Bitcoin investors “stupid” and John McAfee says the price is going to $1 million by 2020. Meanwhile the grey area in-between is filled with noise. So we want to

Startups giving us more to be thankful for (2017 edition!)

IronOx‘s robotic growing operation (via wired.com) It’s that time of year again! Time to bundle up, be with family and look back on what you have to be thankful for. We at Founder Shield are lucky enough to work with some of the most exciting and ground-breaking companies in the world. So, like we do

Insurance 101: what’s a retention?

Ever feel like reading your policy creates more questions than it answers? You’re not alone. Insurance is filled with jargon. While there’s good reason for your insurance policy being a 100+ page monster filled with a dizzying web of definitions and exclusions, the ‘why‘ doesn’t really matter to most people…they just want to know what’s

What you need to know about insurance when you sell your company

The goal of so many high growth startups today is “the exit.” Big companies are happy to meet this demand. They’re looking to expand market share or improve their product and an efficient solution has been snapping up these startups. Experts believe this trend will only accelerate over the next year. While there’s an understandable tendency

FS ALERT: Equifax data breach

Equifax data breach On Thursday, September 7th, consumer credit reporting agency Equifax announced they had been the target of a data breach. According to the agency, the records of 143 million Americans have been compromised by an attack which was discovered on July 29th. Stolen data include names, birthdays, addresses, social security numbers and (in

ERISA fidelity bonds and fiduciary liability insurance: what’s the difference?

You just launched a 401(k) plan for your employees and they couldn’t be happier! This is going to help recruiting and morale by letting employees grow their nest egg with minimal effort. But it also opens the door to lawsuits against you. Now you’re being told to look into ERISA fidelity bonds and fiduciary liability

5 reasons why your PEO’s EPL insurance isn’t enough

If you use a professional employer organization (PEO), you know the benefits. PEO’s provide convenience by allowing you to outsource your HR duties to them. Their teams guide you through laws and regulations that you don’t have time to study. The model itself provides less tangible (but no less real) benefits by allowing small businesses

How your company may be like NBC’s The Office (and how insurance can help)

“The Office,” NBC   Okay, so your office is probably nothing like the one from the hit NBC show, The Office. You’re no Michael Scott and your boss looks (almost) nothing like Kathy Bates. You’re a professional after all! Well, we have some bad news for you: every office has a bit of Dunder Mifflin

Key Person Insurance Types: Death vs. Disability

Key fintech insurance polices you need to know about

Rest easy…your fintech insurance answers live here It is not a secret that the fintech industry has experienced significant growth over the course of the last 5 years. $9.4 billion dollars was invested in fintech companies in Q2 of 2016 alone. Whether it is the sheer size of investments, growth in revenues, or other KPI’s,

Entrepreneur’s Cheat Sheet: Intellectual Property Insurance

Intellectual property insurance: the basics Intellectual property insurance can be a huge asset to highly innovative companies.  These are the need-to-know basics of IP insurance coverage. Why you need it: You build things, write code, or otherwise create a product that could be infringing on an existing patent It’s realistic that an infringement lawsuit could

The Top 2 Dangers of Portfolio Company Lawsuits

In our previous piece on Venture Capital Insurance, lawsuits from your employees and Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) took the spotlight.  This article focuses on the risks posed by portfolio companies.  For more info on how to protect your VC, take a look at our intro post, as well as our summaries of SEC investigations and lawsuits from

Techie v. Troll: The Dangers of Intellectual Property Lawsuits

Employee Lawsuits: The Top 3 Risks Faced by VC’s

This is the fourth installment of Founder Shield’s VC-Focused series. Last week, we reviewed some examples of lawsuits from your investors and how you can protect yourself. Be sure to also check out our introductory post as well as our discussion of the impact of regulatory investigations and the insurance policies that will help you stay afloat when the SEC

Top 4 Venture Capital Insurance Claims from Investors

This is the third installment in Founder Shield’s VC-Focused series and explains venture capital insurance claims VCs might face from their investors. If you’d like to learn more about the basics of what these insurance policies do and don’t cover, check out our intro post as well as our post about regulatory investigations.      

Venture Capital Insurance and the SEC

In our first post on venture capital insurance, we took a high level view of four scenarios where this management liability, professional liability, and employment practices liability insurance policy could protect you, your firm, and your investors. We also spoke about the potential costs of having — as well as not having — this coverage

Venture Capital Insurance is an Investment, Not a Cost

This is the first of a series of articles we will be posting about the world of venture capital insurance.