Founders Agreements

Many projects or business ventures are started by friends, associates, colleagues, or family members banding together to take a product or service to market. These ventures are often funded informally by friends and family, and the management and control is often somewhat collaborative in nature. As a result, these ventures often dispense with the formal documentation of the ownership, management and control of the venture — that is until a problem or challenge surfaces. However, once the problem or challenge surfaces, it’s too late to accurately and completely memorialize in writing the original agreement as the relationship has often become adversarial or contentious. As a result, it cannot be over-emphasized how critical a founders’ agreement is to the success of a product or business venture. The ability to calmly and methodically outline each founding members’ understanding and expectations, and then reducing those understandings to an agreement is often the difference between a business that survives and thrives, and one that implodes due to founder infighting.