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by tom_pinckney 5984 days ago
someone needs to build a web app that asks a few basic questions, gives you some check boxes to click and then generates all the standard PDFs you need for seed funding, employee agreements, etc.
1 comments

You probably don't want it totally turnkey - I mean, you can - LegalZoom is the most well-known, but Wilson will incorporate you and give you the whole kit and caboodle for just $5k. Plus, if they like you, they'll make intros to angels and VCs for you when you're ready.

That said, there are some reputable forms and sample documents; here are some:

Wilson's Term Sheet Generator: http://www.wsgr.com/WSGR/Display.aspx?SectionName=practice/t...

YC's Series AA documents (also by Wilson): http://ycombinator.com/seriesaa.html

Yokum's walkthrough of the Series AA docs (he's the Wilson partner responsible): http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/2008/08/23/how-do-the-sa...

The incorporation docs for Founders Fund companies were once available on TheFunded.com, but I can't seem to find them in my thirty seconds of poking around.

I guess I just object to paying Wilson $5k to run search-and-replace for me. And I certainly wouldn't trust LegalZoom to actually have documents written by people who understand startups.

And the other sources don't seem to provide offer letters, NDA/invention rights docs, board motions, option grants and all the other boiler plate stuff that's needed.

That all said, I suppose making it too turn-key risks entrepreneurs not really understanding the legal issues involved and getting nasty surprises later on.

I'm pretty sure Wilson's $5K includes all those other docs you list. At least that was my understanding when I spoke to Yokum a while ago.

I did request that Wilson make a full list of what you get as part of an incorporation "package" and post the list and plain vanilla price publicly on their site. The non-transparency of legal fees is only matched by the non-transparency of health care prices.