New Ventures Spotlight: Imani Tibbs Boone
As an associate in the firm’s New Ventures practice group, I represent venture capital funds, company founders and emerging companies from formation through funding to exit. I also advise private equity funds, hedge funds, and prospective investors on securities laws and related issues, including formation, offerings, and regulatory compliance. Before joining Thompson Hine, I professionally advised C-suite executives in the banking and financial services industries on the development and implementation of revenue-driving business strategies. I would end up leveraging this professional experience during law school, serving as a legal assistant with teams in the National Basketball Association, National Football League and Major League Soccer.
Cincinnati Founders Forum Networking Event – November 12
Be part of the conversation shaping Cincinnati’s startup community—an evening of networking, collaboration, and opportunity. Hosted by Thompson Hine’s New Ventures practice and Book + Street, this event brings together founders, investors, advisors, and community leaders to strengthen relationships, share ideas, and celebrate the momentum of innovation in Cincinnati. Join us on November 12 at Wenzel Distillery at 4:30 p.m. RSVP here.
Thompson Hine Recognized for Innovation with Multiple National Award Nominations
Thompson Hine LLP is proud to be recognized nationally for its leadership in innovation and technology-enabled client service. The firm has been named a finalist for ThinkAdvisor’s 2025 Luminaries Award in the Industry Disruption/Innovation category and a finalist in two categories at the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards North America, including Innovation in New Legal Products.
Both honors highlight the firm’s groundbreaking “Fund in a Box” solution, a first-of-its-kind, technology-enabled toolset that streamlines the end-to-end legal process for launching and documenting investment funds. Designed for emerging and first-time fund managers, Fund in a Box provides a clear, step-by-step pathway to establish compliant structures, prepare fundraising materials, onboard investors, and complete regulatory filings, all aligned to a transparent budget and timeline.
By combining proprietary templates, market-calibrated resources, and AI-enabled workflows, Fund in a Box accelerates fund formation, reduces costs to roughly one-third of traditional models, and shortens timelines from several weeks to about a week and a half for standard structures. The result is a faster, more predictable, and more accessible path to fund formation, helping democratize access to capital and empowering a more diverse generation of fund sponsors.
StartupCincy Week: Tackling Term Sheets LunchPad Presentation
During StartupCincy Week, Thompson Hine hosted a packed Lunch & Learn event at The Eagle, where Lindsay Karas Stencel led an interactive session on how founders should approach and negotiate venture term sheets. Framed around three essentials—Money, Power, and Respect—we explored the economic terms every founder must understand, strategies for preserving governance influence and voting rights, and practical guidance on focusing negotiations on what truly matters rather than negotiating for its own sake. The packed audience brought sharp questions, leaving with greater clarity and confidence in navigating the term sheet process.
Venture Atlanta 2025: Key Takeaways from the Southeast’s Leading Venture Conference
Our team attended Venture Atlanta earlier this month, one of the nation’s premier gatherings for founders, investors, and innovation leaders. The event brought together hundreds of startups and venture firms, highlighting the Southeast’s growing role as a major tech and investment hub. Key themes included the evolution of AI as an enabling foundation for business models, the renewed discipline in fundraising amid tighter capital markets, and the importance of strong, recurring revenue and efficient growth. Speakers also emphasized that the Southeast—particularly Atlanta—continues to gain momentum with deep talent, access to enterprise customers, and increasing venture capital activity.
Thompson Hine Sponsors Mid-Point Dinner for JumpStart’s Trailblazer HealthTech Accelerator
We’re pleased to announce that Thompson Hine is proud to serve as the sponsor of the MidPoint dinner for JumpStart Inc.’s Trailblazer HealthTech Accelerator program. This initiative supports early-stage Ohio health tech startups by providing access to expert mentorship, commercialization resources, and connections to investors. Our sponsorship underscores our commitment to advancing innovation in the region’s startup ecosystem, especially at the intersection of legal services, venture financing and health-tech commercialization. We look forward to meaningful conversations at the dinner and to supporting the program’s cohort of talented founders and funders.
8th Annual State of Venture in Ohio® at Innovate New Albany
This month marked the 8th Annual State of Venture in Ohio® presentation and the 10th Tiger Talk, led by Lindsay Karas Stencel at Innovate New Albany. Each year, Lindsay shares insights on Ohio’s venture capital landscape, including updates on active VC and angel funds, trends in the broader venture market, and an assessment of the overall health of Ohio’s startup ecosystem. This year’s event drew more than 130 founders and funders, offering a valuable pulse check on the region’s investment climate and emerging opportunities.
Data Insights: Venture Fundraising Benchmarks – 2025 Snapshot
Carta analyzed data from 2,000+ U.S. software startup funding rounds to reveal what’s “market” for valuations, round sizes, and dilution across venture capital deals in 2025.
The analysis, based on primary rounds only, highlights key benchmarks founders and investors can use to assess deal terms. Notably, dilution trends were calculated independently from valuation and round size—meaning that even larger cash raises don’t necessarily result in greater founder dilution, reflecting more balanced deal structures in today’s market.
QuickLaunch: Experienced Guidance for Startups and Investors
Our QuickLaunch program is tailored to entrepreneurs, startups and investors, providing guidance on growth and funding cycles and offering cost-effective counsel on day-to-day legal matters from formation to funding to exits. Our seasoned team helps navigate the confusing waters of growth, funding, expansion and those tricky legal issues that can arise, often at fixed or budgeted pricing by using our firmwide proprietary SmartPaTH™ tool. To learn more about our tailored, value-enhancing solutions, please visit our site.