At the Startup Organizers Summit on October 2nd, Startup Weekend Board of Advisors member Eric Koester gave a presentation to address legal concerns that may arise during the event. From one of the first questions often asked, “Is my idea patentable?” to the one of the final questions, “How should we distribute equity?” Koester provided straightforward and simple advice to Startup Weekend organizers.

Koester is an attorney at Cooley LLP in Seattle, the same city as Startup Weekend’s global headquarters. In his practice he focuses on emerging technology companies, venture capital firms and investment banks. He’s the author of the blog My High Tech Startup, which provides information and insights to individuals involved in the entrepreneurial world. He’s also authored two books, “What Every Engineer Should Know About Starting a High Tech Business Venture” and “Green Entrepreneur Handbook,” the latter of which will be coming out this month.

In addition to his professional credentials, Koester has a deep understanding of what takes place at Startup Weekend as he has been a participant and winner at past events. Most notably, after winning Startup Weekend Redmond in September of last year, his idea, Learn That Name iPhone app, was written about by the Wall Street Journal and later acquired by Gist.

After Koester concluded his presentation at the Startup Organizers Summit, I spoke with him to get his top three rules of thumb:

To recap:

1. Ideas themselves are not valuable, it's really about the execution.
2. Don't bother talking about equity too early.
3. Give yourself about a week until you get back together and figure out if the team is going to go forward.

Also, a bit of trivia: Koester is originally from Omaha, a 1995 graduate of Creighton Prep. For Koester's full bio, visit: cooley.com/ekoester. Learn more about the Startup Organizers Summit in our post: Startup Organizers Summit recap and takeaways.