TALK 05
The legal decisions that shape a growing company
Some of the most consequential decisions a founder makes look like paperwork at the time. This talk is about finding them early.
WHAT THE AUDIENCE LEAVES WITH
01The legal decisions that compound over time, in the order a business meets them
02How to tell which decisions can be revisited and which cannot
03A checklist for founders and their advisers to review together, and when to do so
The early years of a business run on optimism. There is a product to build, a first customer to win and, very often, a bank balance that needs watching every week. In that rush the legal side is understandably done quickly and cheaply, often from a template or a handshake between friends, because every pound and every hour is going into the business itself. Nobody starts a company expecting to fall out with a co-founder or to fight over who owns the code. Those questions tend to surface later, when something forces them, such as an investor's due diligence, a co-founder leaving, a dispute with a customer or the sale of the company.
By then the decisions are expensive to undo. How the shares were divided between people who were friends when they signed, and what happens if one of them leaves. Whether the company actually owns the software, the brand and the data it is built on. What the first employment contracts said, and what was left unsaid. Whether the terms the business sells on can carry it once its customers become larger and more demanding.
This talk takes these decisions in the order a business meets them. It explains which can be revisited later at little cost, which cannot, and how to tell the difference. It closes with a short checklist that founders and their advisers can work through together, ideally before the next funding round rather than during it.
Dr Jackie Nagtegaal is a lawyer and a founder, and has spent around two decades building service businesses in South Africa and the UK. She sees these decisions from both sides, when they are made and when they arrive on a lawyer's desk.
FORMATS
Keynote, 30 to 45 minutes
Fireside conversation
Workshop for founders and accelerator cohorts
SUITS
Founders, scale-ups, investors, accelerator and incubator programmes
SHAPED TO THE EVENT
Length, format and emphasis are agreed with each organiser.
ENQUIRIES
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