Startup Law
Venture startups have the ability to make a huge impact on society and the economy by becoming the basis of innovation. By utilizing business models and products & services that have never been seen before, such companies face a number of unknown legal risks in areas that may not even have a legal or administrative regime. On one hand, this provides opportunity for innovation; but, on the other hand, the uncertainty creates risks for both the company and investors.
ZeLo has advised over 100 venture startups in various areas and has provided legal advice during each phase of the company’s development beginning from the idea phase. Each phase of development has different legal issues to deal with and we work closely with the business side and provide expedient communication so that the business can grow at the speed it desires.
We also provide advice on one of the most important aspects of venture startups - financing and issuance of stock options from the seed to later stages of a company’s growth.
Services
- Legal feasibility research for new business
- Incorporation
- General business law (e.g. general corporate, employment, IP, contracts, immigration)
- Venture finance (investment instruments, etc)
- Issuance of stock options, IPOs
Accomplishments
- We have issued numerous legal opinions of new types of business and legal models regarding their legal feasibility
- We have advised numerous startups in Japan (including J-Startups) with their legal needs prior to the phase where a company can hire an in-house lawyer. We have assisted in all legal aspects regarding the company’s development, including being the emergency point of contact.
- We have succeeded in assisting with financing rounds of more than a dozen domestic startups. The financing round has ranged from tens of thousands of dollars (for a seed round by angel investors) to tens of millions of dollars (for mid-later stage startups). The type of equity used for financing rounds has ranged from preferred stock, J-KISS (convertible equity) and convertible notes
- We have structured and issued numerous types of stock option models for startup companies.
