Field notes for founders, before the decision gets expensive.
Practical, original guides on the legal decisions that quietly shape a company: AI and data, ownership and IP, equity and fundraising, formation, and the diligence a buyer will one day run. Thirty-one guides and counting, organized into three disciplines plus the cornerstone read, written to be useful the week you need them.
If you read one guide in the journal, read this one. It ties every other topic together, from IP and equity to contracts and compliance, through the lens of the review that eventually judges all of it.
The Startup Legal Due Diligence Checklist
Diligence is where every shortcut a company took comes due at once. This is the checklist an investor or acquirer actually works through, the six areas they examine, the red flags that delay or re-price a deal, and how to build a company that passes in weeks rather than months.
Read the guide →Shipping an AI product means owning the data, holding the model terms, and standing behind what you promise. Where AI-era companies actually get exposed, and how to close the gaps before a customer, regulator, or investor finds them.
AI Agent Liability: A Founder’s Guide
Agents do not just answer, they act: spending, sending, committing. Where liability lands, and the scope-of-authority, logging, and indemnity terms most deployments lack.
Read →AI Terms of Service: What to Include
Who owns the output, whether anyone else can get the same output, what you promise about accuracy, and whether you train on customer data. The clauses generic terms miss.
Read →Non-Disclosure Agreement: A Startup NDA Guide
When an NDA actually earns its place, when it backfires with investors, and the definition, carve-outs, and residuals terms that decide whether it protects anything.
Read →Do You Need an AI Lawyer for Your Startup?
The phrase covers two searches: a person fluent in AI legal problems, or software that does legal work. What each one covers, and the four areas the real work clusters in.
Read →Who Is Liable When AI Makes a Mistake?
Courts keep landing on the company that deployed it. What the recent cases signal, where liability sits in your stack, and the contract architecture that allocates it on purpose.
Read →Open-Source AI Licenses: Commercial Use
‘Open source’ on a model card is marketing, not a legal conclusion. What MIT, Apache 2.0, AGPL, and Llama-style licenses actually permit, and the traps diligence finds.
Read →What Is a DPA? When Startups Need One
The contract behind every B2B data relationship: controller and processor roles, the mandatory clauses, subprocessor lists, and the preparation that buys back weeks of sales cycle.
Read →Can AI Replace a Lawyer for Your Startup?
An honest answer: AI is excellent for understanding and preparing, dangerous for deciding and finalizing. The five failure modes, and a stakes-times-reversibility test for what is DIY-safe.
Read →US State AI Laws in 2026
Colorado repealed and replaced its AI Act, Texas and Illinois rules took effect, and California finalized ADMT regulations. The patchwork decoded, and the four moves that cover most of it.
Read →Does Your Startup Need a Privacy Policy & Terms?
Almost certainly yes, and sooner than you think: state laws, GDPR’s reach, app stores, and deception liability all push the same way. What each document must do, and where templates fail.
Read →Can You Copyright AI-Generated Content?
Purely AI-generated output is not copyrightable, and prompts alone do not count. What founders building with generative AI can actually own, and how to protect the value copyright will not cover.
Read →Does the EU AI Act Apply to Your US Startup?
The Act borrows GDPR’s long arm and lands its main deadline in August 2026. Who is in scope, the four risk tiers, and the short list a lean AI startup actually has to do now.
Read →AI Startup Legal Checklist: IP, Data & Privacy
AI founders are not just shipping software. They ingest data, generate output, and lean on model providers. A founder-level checklist for launch, enterprise sales, and fundraising diligence.
Read →Who Owns the Code a Contractor Writes?
You paid the invoice, but by default the contractor still owns the work. The assignment language that fixes it, why one word decides ownership, and how the gap stalls a deal.
Read →AI Vendor & Model-Provider Terms
The clauses that decide what happens to customer data, training, retention, output rights, indemnity, prohibited use, and the promises your sales team can safely make.
Read →Enterprise AI Sales Legal Checklist
What enterprise buyers ask before buying from an AI startup, and how to prepare the MSA, DPA, AI addendum, security summary, and trust packet before procurement slows the deal.
Read →The founding deal, the cap table, and the first money are cheap to settle early and brutal to renegotiate later. How to structure ownership, taxes, and capital so they hold up under pressure.
Founder Vesting Schedules and the Cliff
The four-year standard, what the one-year cliff does on a bad day, and the reverse-vesting and acceleration terms that quietly decide who keeps their stock.
Read →Contractor vs Employee: Getting Classification Right
The label does not decide, the tests do. What misclassification costs, the DOL’s 2025 shift, the strict state ABC tests, and the IP trap inside every contractor relationship.
Read →ISO vs NSO Stock Options for Startups
Who can receive each option type, how they are taxed at exercise and sale, the AMT trap, the 409A valuation you need first, and how to size an option pool without over-diluting.
Read →QSBS After the 2025 OBBBA
The 2025 tax law upgraded the founder tax break: tiered 50/75/100% exclusions, a $15M cap, a $75M asset limit, and a hard July 4, 2025 dividing line. What changed and what to do.
Read →The 83(b) Election: The 30-Day Deadline
One form, a strict 30-day window, and a board-approval-date trap that makes founders miss it. What it does, who needs it, and why it does not cover RSUs.
Read →How to Split Startup Equity With Co-Founders
The 50/50 handshake feels generous until a founder leaves or diligence asks for the paper trail. How vesting, decision rights, and IP assignment keep the cap table clean.
Read →SAFE vs. Convertible Note vs. Priced Round
The three ways startups raise their first real money, what each actually costs in dilution and control, and why the terms you defer today all arrive together in the next round.
Read →The entity is the foundation everything else attaches to: your equity, your option pool, your first financing, your exit. Get it right once and you rarely think about it again.
Startup Legal Documents: The Founder Checklist
Not the hundred-item scare list. The documents that create the company, protect what it owns, and keep its promises, in the order they start to matter.
Read →Articles of Incorporation: A Startup Guide
The public document that creates the corporation, the authorized-share and par-value details that bite, and the founder-stock steps that have to follow right after filing.
Read →LLC Operating Agreement: A Startup Guide
The private rulebook your state writes if you do not: ownership, control, money, and the exit terms founders wish they had put in writing. Yes, even a single-member LLC.
Read →How to Convert an LLC to a C-Corp
Investors want a C-corp, options need one, and the QSBS clock starts only at conversion. The three routes, the timing that is worth real money, and the mechanics checklist.
Read →How to Trademark Your Startup Name
The clearance search that prevents an expensive rename, choosing a mark you can protect, use vs intent-to-use, USPTO fees and timeline, and why an LLC name and a domain are not trademark rights.
Read →Should You Still Incorporate in Delaware in 2026?
The DExit headlines are real at the top of the market, but new-company formations in Delaware rose in 2025. Why venture-track startups still default to it, and when not to.
Read →LLC vs. C-Corp: How to Incorporate Your Startup
Both give you a liability shield; the real differences are tax, ownership flexibility, and whether the structure can carry investment and stock options. How to choose, and why QSBS favors a C-corp.
Read →Beyond the journal: the practice.
Focused pages on AI product and governance readiness, AI contracts and data, technology-company strategy, and founder equity, for when a topic here becomes a decision in front of you.
Have a founder decision in front of you now?
A focused first conversation can identify the risk that matters, ignore what does not, and decide whether the work deserves a deeper engagement.