The legal challenges of entrepreneurs was the topic addressed by four successful entrepreneurs at Panama’s Legal-Economic Forum, organized by ADEN University and the law firm SIGMA.
The participants in the conversation were Cristóbal Cortés, CEO and founder of Degusta, Juan A. Williams, CCO and co-founder of PayCaddy, Alex Friedheim, co-founder of ASAP, and Sébastien Hilaire, CEO & founder of Prospect1. Cecilio Castillero, partner at SIGMA, provided context to the conversation.
Their main recommendations were the following:
- Specify shareholder agreements and agree the roles of the partners in a corporate structure document to avoid future misunderstandings between partners.
- Study the legislation of the country where the company is going to operate and research in which countries the law would make the business more viable.
- Rely on legal professionals to navigate the regulatory landscape, either in-house or by hiring specialized law firms, depending on the business sector or the issue to be addressed.
- Set up a regulatory framework that supports entrepreneurship and attracts new regional companies to choose Panama as a base of operations. For these purposes it is necessary to legislate matters of the technology industry that are not stipulated and modernize the applicable legislation in those areas that might affect the industry.
