Legal checklist before a Series A financing
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A Series A round is not simply the event of signing an investment agreement and receiving funds. It is the moment when the business plan, the cap table and the shareholder base are all examined at once, because investors are looking for a foundation that can support the company's next stage of growth, not only its current trajectory.
Look at the cap table beyond this round
Founders should be able to see founder and existing-investor ownership, the option pool, the shares to be issued this round, and expected dilution after the next round, all on one page. A common mistake is optimizing only for how much can be raised at the current valuation, without checking whether founder and key-employee incentives will still be meaningful after future rounds. Terms carried over from earlier agreements, such as veto rights or pre-emptive rights, can also constrain how a new investor's terms are negotiated.
Investment and shareholder agreements set the limits on management freedom
What matters is not whether each clause favors the company in isolation, but how freely the company can actually run itself after closing. If the list of matters requiring prior investor approval is too broad, ordinary decisions such as hiring or a new business investment can end up needing investor sign-off. Founder dedication, non-compete and share buy-back terms can look acceptable at signing but surface as real constraints only at the next round, a pivot, or an M&A discussion.
IP and contractor agreements are hard to fix later
Where early engineers, designers or contractors were involved, confirm that ownership of their work actually transferred to the company. "We always understood it as the company's" rarely satisfies an investor's diligence. Reviewing contractor agreements, NDAs and assignment clauses, and obtaining supplemental agreements where needed, is far easier before a contractor becomes unreachable or starts renegotiating.
Keep terms of service and shareholder records aligned with reality
Around Series A, user numbers, counterparties and the data being handled can grow quickly, leaving early-stage terms of service or a privacy policy out of step with what the service actually does. Shareholder registers, resolutions and option grants should also be internally consistent and, more importantly, explainable: investors want to know not just that a document exists, but why a given allocation was made on a given date.