Does anyone know who Viaweb used or who is considered the Wilson Sonsini of startup accounting?
Where did you 'hear' that? Have you mixed this up with Viaweb engaging a top "PR" firm [0] to get better exposure? [1] It's still a good question though.
[0] "... When we started our startup in 1995, the first three were our biggest expenses. We had to pay $5000 for the Netscape Commerce Server, the only software that then supported secure http connections. We paid $3000 for a server with a 90 MHz processor and 32 meg of memory. And we paid a PR firm about $30,000 to promote our launch. ..." ~ http://www.paulgraham.com/vcsqueeze.html
[1] "... Our startup spent its entire marketing budget on PR: at a time when we were assembling our own computers to save money, we were paying a PR firm $16,000 a month ... Our PR firm was one of the best in the business. In 18 months, they got press hits in over 60 different publications" ~ http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
Thanks for the confirmation. I'd never come across the accounting angle before. Was this later in the startup process where some recognition of Viaweb, introduction or wads of cash like the PR firm?
No stone unturned hey. Didn't think you would have to work that hard at it :)
Excellent, thanks. Shows there's a bit more in the talks than the writing , mp3's etc.
Very early on you are better off selecting a small firm to help you with the basics of bookkeeping and taxes until you either raise a real A round (e.g. $4M or more) or have significant revenue. Ask your attorney for a "due diligence" checklist: both funding and acquisition teams tend to look for the same documents and disclosures. The more you can keep all of that straight and documented from the beginning (e.g. purchase agreements, license agreements, major supplier contracts, ...) the easier it is later on.