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As the holiday season is in full swing, Thompson Hine would like to express our sincere gratitude for the opportunity to support you and your ventures throughout the past year. 2025 was a dynamic and impactful year for the startup and investor community. Entrepreneurs continued to push boundaries with meaningful advancements in AI, climate and sustainability solutions, and healthcare transforming markets and business models. Investors leaned into these innovations, fostering growth, collaboration, and long-term value creation. We have been proud to work alongside you, whether helping launch new ideas, navigate complexity, or celebrate important milestones. Your ambition, resilience, and creativity continue to inspire our work every day. As we look ahead to 2026, we remain deeply committed to supporting your goals and helping you create lasting impact across your industries. We wish you and your loved ones a joyful holiday season and a healthy, successful New Year.

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Thompson Hine Recognized on the National Stage for Fund Formation

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It was an exciting stretch in New York City for Thompson Hine LLP, with the firm earning national recognition across multiple awards programs for its innovation and forward-thinking approach to legal services. Thompson Hine was shortlisted by the Financial Times for two awards: Innovation in AI Strategy, recognizing the firm’s use of artificial intelligence across operational and legal processes, and Innovation in New Legal Products for the fund formation team’s Emerging Fund Managers Program (EFMP). EFMP combines streamlined workflows, proprietary processes, and technology to help private fund managers launch more quickly, cost-effectively, and with greater transparency throughout the formation process.

In addition, Thompson Hine was represented at the ThinkAdvisor Luminaries Awards, where the firm was nominated for the Industry Disruptor Award in Legal &amp; Compliance for its Emerging Fund Managers Program. The program has been developed over the past several years to help emerging fund managers get up and running in weeks rather than months, saving time, reducing costs, and simplifying what has traditionally been a complex process. While the firm did not take home the top awards, being recognized among a select group of finalists—chosen from hundreds of submissions and alongside some of the largest firms in the world—underscores Thompson Hine’s commitment to innovation and client-focused solutions.

Innovate New Albany’s 11th Annual Holiday Extravaganza Brings Together Community &amp; Celebration

Innovate New Albany wrapped up the year with its 11th Annual Holiday Extravaganza, bringing together more than 250 members of the entrepreneurial, startup, and venture community. The evening celebrated a strong year of innovation and collaboration across central Ohio, highlighting the continued momentum of a community that is increasingly drawing national attention.

During the program, Founder and Managing Director Neil Collins recognized a major Tiger Talk milestone, honoring Lindsay Karas Stencel, the host of the State of Venture in Ohio®, for leading the largest Tiger Talk audience for seven consecutive years and for being one of only two presenters to deliver 10 or more Tiger Talks.

On December 11, We Heard You: The New Era of Philanthropic Capital brought together foundation leaders, donors, and community investors for a virtual discussion on how venture philanthropy is reshaping the way capital drives long-term impact. The session explored how strategic co-investment models can blend philanthropic and private capital to create sustainable, compounding funds that support innovation across sectors such as health technology, agriculture, and workforce development.

The program featured insights from Lindsay Karas Stencel of Thompson Hine on the legal frameworks that enable these models, Edward Frindt of the KCRise Fund on proven co-investment structures, and James Stapleton, PhD, of Codefi on the regional impact potential in Southern Missouri. Designed as an educational deep dive rather than a pitch, the discussion highlighted how donors and foundations can move beyond traditional grantmaking to multiply impact through more strategic, collaborative approaches to capital deployment.

In the first episode of our Preferred Stock Series, Thompson Hine New Ventures associate <a href="https://www.thompsonhine.com/professionals/daniel-burns/">Danny Burns</a> breaks down the startup term sheet—the nonbinding blueprint that drives venture deals. The episode explores the difference between investor-led and company-led rounds and what “market standard” really means. We cover the key terms that matter most—valuation, liquidation preferences, board composition, protective provisions, founder vesting, information rights, antidilution protections, and exclusivity—and discuss which boilerplate provisions can often be deprioritized. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwNA7TxvVJE&amp;t=8s">Watch here</a> to learn how to navigate a cleaner, faster, and more effective financing process.

Data Insights: Startup Valuations by Dollars Raised

A new visual table highlights how capital raised translates into company valuation from Seed through Series C, offering founders a practical way to understand how fundraising dollars align with market expectations. Rather than focusing on round labels alone, the table emphasizes dollars raised as the most meaningful input, showing the wide valuation ranges that can exist even for companies raising similar amounts of capital. For example, while Seed rounds often raise approximately $4 million, companies raising between $1 million and $5 million show a median post-money valuation of $16 million.

The key takeaway is that round names provide only limited guidance, and while valuations and cash raised are correlated, the relationship is far from one-to-one. The data reinforces what many founders already suspect: valuation outcomes vary widely based on factors beyond capital raised, and 2025 continues to produce some notably unconventional deal structures.

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 <a href="https://www.thquicklaunch.com/">site</a>.

New Ventures Update – December 2025