Most startup entrepreneurs spend a lot of time worrying about their legal. When legal tasks pop up, it can be hard to figure out what to do, how to do it, and how to pay for it. One of the most common solutions? Put it on the back burner. Unfortunately, that back burner comes with worry and a significant degree of risk.
Whether your startup is growing by its own design or participating in an incubation or acceleration program, legal resources can be hard to come by. Many startups do not have the luxury of hiring an expert startup law firm to advise them, even when lawyers provide initial services at "teaser" rates, as is often the case with incubation and acceleration programs. Hourly fees are hourly fees, and they add up alarmingly fast.
Out of necessity, founders often turn to the internet to try to do things themselves. Most of the time, it takes a fair amount of digging to figure out how to do something, let alone what the best way of doing something might be. Then, when a founder completes a legal task based on stuff found on the internet, the founder can spend a lot of time worrying over whether the task was done correctly or whether they missed something that will come back to haunt them. Feel familiar?
Lexcela is designed to address all of these problems.
Lexcela is a tool designed by experienced startup lawyers so founders can apply self-help effectively and efficiently to accomplish legal tasks when the option of paying lawyer fees is limited or non-existent. Through a combination of informational resources and guided self-help documents, Lexcela gives entrepreneurs the legal tools to help their companies thrive – and to help their founders rest easy. Building a clean legal foundation will set up your startup for everything that comes next, from hiring employees to landing your first funding round. That's legal acceleration!
Lexcela provides a library of informational resources and checklists to help startup entrepreneurs learn about legal tasks and how to do them correctly. Founders can spend as much or as little time as they like learning the legal lay of the land.
Lexcela also provides startup-specific legal documents for entrepreneurs to use easily and confidently, even when there is no time to look at the checklists or read background information. Lexcela documents are based on industry-standard legal documents customarily used for startups and early-stage companies. Lexcela leverages those documents so you can create legal documents tailored to your business. Lexcela documents are questionnaire-driven, saving you from having to read through a "form" document and figure out what to modify and what to leave alone. Important tips are built right into the documents, helping you to get things right the first time. No more scrubbing the internet, no more guessing. Now that's peace of mind!
Every resource on Lexcela is designed specifically for the needs of startup companies.
If you are ever confused about something, do not know where to start, or have a problem with a document, we are standing by to help. Lexcela offers open, online Office Hours at scheduled times throughout the week. Register for a session anytime you want to participate (you will need to be a Lexcela user to sign up). If you need more immediate help, chat with us through our live chat or send your question through our Contact Us form. We will get back to you as soon as possible to get you on the right track.
Lexcela will help founders maximize whatever budget their startup has for legal. If your company has no option other than to use self-help, our documents are designed to be affordable and time-efficient. If your Company uses a lawyer, you may be able to save legal fees by using Lexcela to prepare your documents first, taking them to your lawyer only for review or for the addition of special provisions needed to address your company's unique circumstances. Getting your startup more legal for less money is important – and one of the keys to legal acceleration.
Like your company, Lexcela is a startup. We live legal, sure, but we are also in the trenches building a business, just like you.
Lexcela's offerings are not static. Our user's needs are paramount, and we will be adding content on our own and in response to user feedback. If you need something and are not finding it on the Lexcela site, please let us know! Any other thoughts you want to share with us about Lexcela – good or bad – are always welcome.