Start-ups

Talking helps guide the progression of a business idea and focuses attention on the fundamentals: growing from a successful start-up to funding rounds, becoming investor-ready, and scaling the business. It also helps you see the problems and pitfalls coming.

Get professional advice, legal and accounting, as early as you can. If you work in a vacuum, it is very hard to protect yourself.

What we do for start-ups

Legal structure and corporate services

Company incorporation, all the necessary documentation, and the company secretarial services that follow as the business develops: company seals, shareholders' register, annual reminders for accounts. We will discuss your business and explain which legal structure to follow, and which to avoid.

Shareholders' agreements

Vital where the business is incorporated with shares and has more than one shareholder. It sets the parameters of the business within the context of the company's constitution and company law, and is tailored to the individual business.

Commercial agreements

Many start-ups begin trading without written agreements. You need a library of the contracts you have in place: supplier and purchaser contracts reviewed in the context of your business. We can do that for you.

Employment matters

Employment contracts can be the Achilles heel of a new business. Companies are often slow to put them in place and are then at a loss as to why an employee has left and gone into competition. Get them right from the outset.

Terms and conditions

Terms and conditions are very often generic. A start-up needs terms that meet its own requirements, so we prepare tailored terms for the business you are actually running.

Regulation

Most industries carry some level of regulation, and new entrants must consider their own compliance requirements. We help you get compliant and stay compliant.

Intellectual property

Trade marks, patents, copyright, design rights and passing off. A start-up must protect its own IP while making sure it is not infringing anybody else's.

Funding

Maximise investment and minimise the dilution of the founders' shareholding. We keep that goal in view throughout, while maintaining the philosophy of the business.