Fauri Law advises the founders in accelerators, incubators, university entrepreneurship programs and venture studios, from incorporation through the first financing, and gives the program one point of contact for its cohort: a legal-foundations session, office hours and a defined intake route, at no cost to the program.
The same work the firm does for any founder, timed to the cohort.
An Ontario or federal corporation with a share structure that can take investment later: founder shares, by-laws, resolutions and the minute book, organized and delivered within the program’s timeline rather than after demo day.
View Start a CompanyThe equity split, roles, decisions and a founder’s departure; vesting; and the assignment to the company of what each founder has built, including work done before the program, so that the first investor finds it in place.
View Founders AgreementThe instrument, the valuation cap and the discount, the securities exemption relied on and the filings, the approvals and a pro forma capitalization table, for the angel or program round that follows the cohort.
View Venture FinancingShare classes, restricted shares and an option pool sized to the hiring planned, with dilution modelled so that the founders know where the first round leaves them.
View Ownership & EquityFor research-based ventures: the licence from the institution, inventors still employed by it, invention assignment from everyone who contributed, and grant and collaboration terms, reviewed before they meet an investor.
View IP & TechnologyExport controls and controlled goods, government procurement, and the national-security review that accompanies certain investors, identified early and structured around, for ventures that sell into regulated sectors.
View Regulated IndustriesOne point of contact for the cohort, at no cost to the program, alongside whatever the program already offers.
A session prepared for the cohort’s stage: incorporation and founder shares, the founders’ agreement and vesting, the assignment of intellectual property, SAFEs and notes and their effect on the capitalization table, and first hires. Information, not advice, and no solicitation of the attendees.
Twenty minutes per founder, on a schedule set by the program, to identify each founder’s next legal step: a matter to take up now, or nothing at present. Most founders leave with the second answer and a date to return.
Program staff direct founders to one vetted point of contact rather than a list of names. The intake confirms fit, and scope and fees are stated in writing before any work begins. A one-page summary of the pathway tells the cohort what to expect.
Founder-funded by default, at the fee published on the kit page or scoped in writing; program-funded where the program’s model includes legal support for its cohort; a configured arrangement across several cohorts through Enterprise support. The founder’s company is always the client.
No program agreement, nothing exclusive and nothing mandatory for any founder. One cohort receives the intake route, the session and office hours; at day ninety, a written report in aggregate, identifying no founder, with a recommendation to continue or conclude.
The pathway sits alongside any firm the program already works with, and founders with their own counsel retain them. No referral fees are paid or accepted, and no program is named by the firm without its written permission.
For the founders in a cohort, a straightforward incorporation, a first founders’ package, restricted shares and vesting, the first hires’ agreements, a first option plan and the grants under it, or a single SAFE or note is offered at a fixed fee through Launch, the Startup Kit, the Equity Structuring Kit, the Build a Team Kit, the ESOP Plan Setup Kit and the Funding Kit, on the same terms as for any founder. Anything beyond the standard is advisory work, scoped after a consultation. Fees are published on each kit page.
The program arrangement is separate from any founder’s engagement. A founder engages the firm directly, on written terms, whether or not the program contributes to the cost.
A short request describing the program, its cohorts and its objectives for its founders, followed by a conversation to identify a pilot cohort and shape the pathway around the program’s operation: the session, the office-hours cadence, the intake route and how billing is settled. Nothing is signed for a pilot; a wider configuration is confirmed in writing.
Request a Strategy SessionEducational sessions, office hours and circulated materials are information, not legal advice. A lawyer-client relationship arises only after conflict review, scope confirmation and written engagement terms, and only with the founder’s company. The firm does not pay or accept referral fees, and does not name any program without its permission.
Nothing, at any stage. The session, the office hours, the intake route and the materials cost the program and the institution nothing. Founders who engage the firm do so directly, on scope and fees stated in writing first. A program that wishes to fund legal work for its cohort may do so; that changes who pays, not who the client is. The one arrangement priced to an institution is a configured layer it requests, through Enterprise, Portfolio & Custom Support.
Nothing is signed for a pilot: one cohort, ninety days, a written report at the end. Nothing is exclusive; the pathway sits alongside any firm the program already works with, founders with their own counsel retain them, and the pilot measures whether founders use it. A wider configuration across programs, if a program later wishes one, is confirmed in its own written engagement terms.
Ninety minutes, prepared for the stage the cohort has reached: how incorporation and founder shares operate; the effect of a founders’ agreement and vesting when a co-founder leaves; the assignment of intellectual property to the company, including IP that belongs to a university; the effect of a SAFE or a note on the capitalization table; and what a first investor will ask to see. Questions are answered as information. Nothing is sold from the front of the room.
On a schedule set by the program, typically monthly, founders book twenty minutes. The purpose is to identify the founder’s next legal step, or to confirm that none is needed yet; most leave with the second answer and a date to return. The conversation is information, not advice; where a founder wishes the firm to act, a conflict check and written terms come first.
Yes, where the program’s model provides for it. Some programs fund incorporation or a founders’ agreement for every company in a cohort, some fund nothing, and some decide case by case. How billing is settled is agreed at the strategy session and recorded in writing. What does not change is the identity of the client: the firm acts for the founder’s company, takes instructions from it, and keeps its confidences from everyone else, including a program that pays.
Mainly in timing. A spinout may have a licence from the institution, inventors still employed by it, grant terms with conditions, and a first customer in a regulated sector before it has a founders’ agreement. The licence and the assignments are reviewed early, the export-control and procurement questions are identified before the customer contract, and additional counsel is coordinated where a licence or clearance requires it. See Institutions and regulated industries.
Ninety days, no cost to the program, nothing exclusive, and a written report at the end. Once the cohort is identified, the pathway can usually be in place within a few weeks.