While Admiral J. Tiberius Kirk might have given us the immortal narrative of Space being the final frontier, if you’ve ever had a go at the complexities of the legal system, particularly for growing startups, you’d not be rebuffed in drawing conclusions about Black Holes and SuperNovae.
Setting out to assuage the stuffs of founders’ sleepless nights, including the legal challenges in hiring to fundraising and everything in between and thereafter, Seedcamp, Northzone, Molten Ventures, Cherry Ventures, Episode 1, and Tiny VC are among the supporting organisations that have partnered with law firms including Orrick, Withers, Mazanti, Goodwin, and Cooley to offer startups Seedsummit, a free, one-stop shop for all matters legal.
“When I first became a founder, legals were a black box to me. Seedsummit gave me the confidence to know what to look out for when I started working with a lawyer,” says Imi Faghmous, Co-Founder of Inovia Bio.
The Seedsummit offer is bringing a long overdue transparency to European legal documents and seeks to highlight best practices across the region. Needless to say, not only will this help a countless number of startups avoid legal pitfalls that would have perhaps otherwise befell them, but save founders a pretty penny along the way. Both before, and hopefully not after the crucial phase of any company's lifeline: from the moment they incorporate to their first institutional round.
“Seedsummit is a community effort to make the essential legal matters more fair, affordable, and transparent for founders,” commented Seedcamp managing partner Carlos Espinal. “In our current macro environment, where startups need to preserve capital, the Seedsummit initiative offers much-needed support to streamline speed and costs. Furthermore, as the European tech ecosystem matures, the legal framework also needs to evolve to better serve founders’ needs and ultimately support the sustainable growth of the whole ecosystem.”
Seedsummit is initially focusing on founders who choose to set up shop and incorporate in UK, France, Portugal, Denmark, and Germany, with additional jurisdictions planned for addition in the upcoming year.
“Seedsummit has been a very important part of the technology ecosystem since its inception, helping founders to navigate the often complicated legal landscape. Many technology startups (including our clients!) have benefited from the resources that they are able to access from Seedsummit," add Tina Baker and James Shaw, the cofounders of the London-based dedicated technology law firm Jag Shaw Baker, which joined Withers LLP in 2018 and is now known as Withers tech. "We are privileged and honored to have been involved with this committed and experienced group since the very beginning, and also to participate in its growth in response to changing times,”
Would you like to write the first comment?
Login to post comments