Solutions
Contracts for founders.
A founder signs a lot of contracts early, with no lawyer on the payroll to read them. Describe the deal in one sentence, read the contract it becomes in plain language, and send it to a co-founder, an advisor or an investor who never pays and never makes an account.
For founders
What a founder can do here.
Say the deal in a sentence
There is no form. Type what you agreed the way you would say it out loud, and a whole contract comes back in plain language, with a blank wherever it needs an answer from you.
How it worksRead what a clause means
Every clause has its plain-words line beside it. Lex, the reviewer, explains a clause in the words you would use, and reports what it found rather than what it understood. Lex drafts, proposes and explains; it never sends and never signs.
What Lex doesThe other side has it easy
An advisor or an investor opens the contract in a browser, replies to a clause and puts their name to it. No account to make, no fee to pay, nothing to install.
The other sideAgreed is a real state
Accepting the words and signing them are two acts, and the contract records which has happened and who did it. A contract can sit agreed and unsigned while the round comes together, and everyone on it can see what the deal is.
Accepting is not signingDelaware, England and Wales, or both
Pick the legal system the contract is written under. More than one is allowed, and the contract records which clause answers to which.
Every governing lawStart with a template
Kinds from the catalogue that fit this desk.
- Founders' agreementWhat the founders agreed between themselves: the split, the vesting, the roles, and what happens when one of them leaves.
- Advisor agreementIn the libraryFor somebody giving time and judgement rather than delivery work, usually for equity or a small fee.
- Two-way confidentiality agreementIn the libraryBoth sides expect to hear things they should not repeat, so both sides promise.
- Agreement for future equityAn investor pays now for shares issued later, without a loan or a repayment date.
- Convertible loan agreementMoney lent now that is expected to become shares later: what converts it, on what terms, and what happens if nothing does.
- Offer letter, CaliforniaIn the libraryThe letter that turns a decision to hire into something written down: the role, the pay, the start date and the terms.
Governing law this desk often names: Delaware, England and Wales, Singapore — or several at once. Every governing law.
The founders' agreement is one sentence away.
The other side never pays and never makes an account.
Last reviewed by the contracts.io editors. How these pages are written.