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Todd H's avatar

Great list Charles, captures a lot of the key areas especially founder equity, non-founders on the cap table and founder vesting.

I would add to the banking question, who is their lawyer? I've seen some great and not so great answers, including "my brother in law the divorce attorney".

I also like to vet the IP, especially ensuring that employees and contractors have assigned their IP to the company with a PIIA. Easy to overlook that one contractor you hired where you can't find their IP assignment paperwork. Sometimes founders themselves won't have signed them. And going down this path will often highlight any other relevant patent, license or royalty issues.

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Meg's avatar

Hi Charles,

Agree with your list of categories. under founders section, I would also add investigating potential conflicts of interest on all key stakeholders. For example it is good to know of any of the decision makers are involved with other companies or have pecuniary interest in entities that the start up is paying for services. It is not necessarily a problem, but it provides a full picture of what might influence key decisions.

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