May 31st, 2017 | By: Tristan Pollock | Tags: Strategy
Most startups find their first lawyers via their personal network.
“I know a guy who knows a guy.” — Saul Goodman
That’s how I started, too.
My co-founder and I got an intro to Orrick who temporarily delayed our first $10,000 of legal fees until we raised a seed round.
The first $10,000 included our company’s legal structure, incorporation, cap table, and our first convertible notes.
It was definitely more expensive than it had to be.
From there, my co-founder and I personally handled a lot of the duplicate work for our seed round raise, as well as drafted our own legal documents with help from free legal document templates online.
That saved us around $40,000 if we were going by Orrick’s rates ($200-$800/hour).
The other $60,000 was saved by actually working with a startup lawyer.
Whenever I needed legal work that I couldn’t do myself, I went to UpCounsel.com — a marketplace for on-demand legal services.
I’d usually save up to 60% off what a traditional law firm would charge for the same services.
Also, when I needed a specific legal specialty UpCounsel was a godsend.
I found some of the most impressive startup attorneys I’ve met who specialized in everything from real estate law to trademark contracts.
Full list of specialties I used:
-Trademarks
-Contract Review
-Real Estate Law
-Terms of Use
-Privacy Policy
-General Counsel
-Fundraising
-Geographic
My most used attorney was Jennifer Wang — who I swear by to this day.
So, if you like to save money on legal bills, here’s $100 off UpCounsel to start.
And remember, don’t Facebook it up.
Venture Partner at 500Startups. Founded Storefront(raised $10M, acq by OuiOpen) & SocialEarth (acq by 3BL Media). Forbes 30 Under 30. TEDx speaker. Twitter: @pollock
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