Templates and resources
The documents you will be asked for.
Free to download and yours to edit. Nothing here is legal advice.
Pre-seed. You are raising on the team and the insight. Investors will read a deck and ask for a cap table; they will not expect much traction, but they will expect the company to be properly formed.
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21 resources
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
- Corporate bylawsThe internal rulebook most founders adopt without reading. The four sections that decide who can stop the company deciding anything.PDF · Sign in to download · Prototype, Pre-seed
- Founder shares and the tax electionIssuing founder shares, and the election with a deadline measured in days. Getting the first right and the second late is an expensive ordinary mistake.PDF · Sign in to download · Prototype, Pre-seed
- Shareholders agreement checklistReserved matters, pre-emption, drag and tag, liquidation preference and leaver terms. What the document has to cover, so you brief a lawyer in one meeting instead of three.DOCX · Sign in to download · Pre-seed, Seed
- Customer terms and privacy policyTwo documents that must exist the day somebody other than you can sign up, and the parts that have to be true rather than only written.DOCX · Sign in to download · Prototype, Pre-seed, Seed
- Cap table starterFounders, an option pool and convertibles, with the fully diluted maths laid out. The number an investor will assume you mean.XLSX · Sign in to download · Pre-seed, 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
- Equity incentive planThe master document that creates the option pool and the rules every grant runs on. How to size it from the hiring plan rather than from a convention.PDF · Sign in to download · Pre-seed, Seed
- Stock option grant paperworkGrant agreement, notice of grant and exercise notice, plus which option type each person can receive and why it depends on status rather than seniority.PDF · Sign in to download · Pre-seed, Seed, Series A
- Option grant registerOne row per grant, with the valuation it was priced against and the date. A register rebuilt from emails eighteen months later is how share counts stop matching the cap table.XLSX · Sign in to download · Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, Series B+
Raising
- Pitch deck outlineTen to twelve slides in the order investors expect them, and a note on which number gets quoted in the partner meeting you are not in.DOCX · Sign in to download · Pre-seed, Seed, Series A
- SAFEs and convertible notesRaising without setting a valuation, and the terms that decide what you actually gave away. Model the stack before you sign the next one.PDF · Sign in to download · Pre-seed, Seed
- Raise trackerEvery firm, the intro path and where each conversation stands. Built before you contact anybody, and run in parallel batches rather than in the order people reply.XLSX · Sign in to download · Pre-seed, Seed, Series A
- Data room checklistEvery document an investor asks for, the stage it should open at, and why they want it. The spine of a data room you can build before anybody requests anything.XLSX · Sign in to download · Every stage
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