Templates and resources
The documents you will be asked for.
Free to download and yours to edit. Nothing here is legal advice.
Idea. Nothing is built yet and the work is finding out whether the problem is real. What matters is evidence from people who have it, and a founding team that has settled equity and IP before there is anything to argue about.
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13 resources
Finding the idea
- Problem one-pagerOne page to fill in before writing code: who has the problem, what they do today, and the three things you would have to be right about.DOCX · Sign in to download · Idea
- Customer discovery interview scriptTwenty minutes of questions that find out whether a problem is real, and the question never to ask because the answer is always a polite yes.DOCX · Sign in to download · Idea, Prototype
- Market research and interview logOne row per conversation, in their words rather than your summary. At seed this file answers how you know the problem is real better than any market size slide.XLSX · Sign in to download · Idea, Prototype
Setting up the company
- Founder agreement checklistEquity, vesting, roles, time and what happens if somebody leaves before the company exists. The questions founders regret not answering early, in roughly the order they cause damage.DOCX · Sign in to download · Idea, Prototype, Pre-seed
- Non-disclosure agreementWhat an NDA settles, when it is worth asking for, and the one situation founders reach for it that costs them the meeting.PDF · Sign in to download · Idea, Prototype, Pre-seed
- Intellectual property assignmentThe most common fatal finding in diligence is that the company does not own its own product. Who has to sign, what it must cover, and the agency clause to read twice.PDF · Sign in to download · Idea, Prototype, Pre-seed, Seed
- Incorporation checklistThe paperwork that has to exist from day one: formation documents, agreements between people, IP assignments and the option scheme.DOCX · Sign in to download · Idea, Prototype, Pre-seed
Equity and people
- Founder vesting scheduleFour years, one-year cliff, modelled per founder with the decisions to settle beside it. Vesting protects whoever stays, and the founder who argues hardest against it is describing the outcome it prevents.XLSX · Sign in to download · Idea, Prototype, Pre-seed
- Advisory board agreementWhat to settle before offering equity to an advisor, the usual range, and the filter that catches most relationships which do not work out.PDF · Sign in to download · Idea, Prototype, Pre-seed
- Offer letter with an equity promiseHow to word a grant you cannot make yet. Writing a percentage with nothing else is the promise that becomes a dispute.PDF · Sign in to download · Idea, Prototype, Pre-seed, Seed
Running the company
- Metrics one-pagerThe numbers investors ask for, with a column for the definition you are using. Net revenue retention computed two ways is two different companies.XLSX · Sign in to download · Every stage
- Monthly investor updateThe ask first, the numbers in a table, and a section for what did not go well. Investors who hear only good news stop believing the good news.DOCX · Sign in to download · Every stage