it:bd:legal:home

IT:BD:Legal
Process
- Why
- When
- What
- How
- Avoid
- The Future
Resources

IT:BD:Legal

(UP)

Summary

Legal advice costs. Which is always a hard thing to deal with when starting up, and there's no cash yet.

Process

Why

The core of the reason why is that you know your product, but you probably don't know much about the following:

Government:
- You don't want to create a corporate structure that exposes you to uneccesary tax liabilities, nor limits options.
- You don't want to create processes for ways of doing business that create unnecessary tax liability
- You don’t want to violate laws, and want to know what taxes you do owe, and contest what you don't.
Third parties and the public.
- You need to take steps to control risk in your interactions with customers, suppliers, users, employees, and the general public.
* Partners:
- When multiple people form a company together, it’s best to establish the rights and expectations of the founders upfront in case there are disagreements down the line.

When

You'll need advice when: * Incorporating and forming a business entity * developing your employees hiring contracts * Negotiating contracts with customers and suppliers, including:

establishing terms of service for websites
license agreements for software

* Website/Customer Agreements * Raising capital * Obtaining patents

What

Use legal advice especially for:

Company formation
Establishing ownership of IP (think: partners, employees during and after hours, 3rd party suppliers of services such as websites).
Watching out for protecting the company when getting financed.

How

Find a laywer who:

Find a business lawyer
Works for comparable industries (ask around other software startups)
knows startups. Not only will they have pertinent experience, but it costs less to get value built on reusing their effort for other startups.
been around to have a reputation. And it's a good reputation.
Prepare first, and then ask pertinent questions to get a good idea of who they are, and how your interactions with them will probably proceed.
Your startup is important to you and it should important to your attorney.
* You should be comfortable with the attorney you choose and have confidence that your business attorney can protect your business and help it succeed.

Avoid

Avoid lawyers who:

it doesn't feel right…there are always others out there.
seem to be learning on your dime.
surprise you with extra costs.

The Future

Ok at first, but avoid getting into a rut and using the same lawyer for everything. Down the road, you probably will need specialized experience in other domains than startup company formation.

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