What are the best legal templates for startups?

Essential startup legal templates: founder agreement, equity vesting (4-year/1-year cliff), C-Corp incorporation docs, employee stock option plan (ESOP), SAFE/convertible notes, mutual NDA, employment offer letter with IP assignment, and customer terms of service. iContract and Cooley GO offer free versions.

Startups need a specific stack of legal documents. The essentials:

  • Certificate of Incorporation (C-Corp in Delaware standard).
  • Bylaws.
  • Founders Agreement — equity split, vesting, IP assignment.
  • Equity Vesting Agreements — 4-year vest, 1-year cliff is standard.
  • 83(b) Election — file within 30 days of stock grant.
  • SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) — Y Combinator's standard.
  • Convertible Note — alternative to SAFE.
  • Term Sheet — for priced rounds.
  • Stock Purchase Agreement — for priced rounds.
  • Investor Rights Agreement.
  • Voting Agreement.
  • Employment Offer Letter — at-will, with IP assignment.
  • Independent Contractor Agreement — for early contractors.
  • Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) — typical 10-20% pool.
  • Stock Option Agreement — individual grants.
  • Confidentiality and Invention Assignment Agreement (CIIAA) — protects company IP.
  • Mutual NDA — for partner discussions.
  • One-way NDA — for contractor/vendor sharing.
  • Terms of Service — required for any web/mobile product.
  • Privacy Policy — GDPR/CCPA compliant.
  • EULA — for software products.
  • Customer Master Agreement (MSA) — for B2B SaaS.
  • Data Processing Agreement (DPA) — required under GDPR.
  • Vendor MSA.
  • SaaS Subscription Agreement.
  • Cooley GO (free) — Cooley LLP's startup template library.
  • Y Combinator SAFE docs (free).
  • Stripe Atlas (with incorporation) — generates founder/employee/IP docs.
  • Clerky ($799-2,000) — startup-specific incorporation + docs.
  • iContract (free) — NDAs, employment, contractor, MSA, SOW, Privacy Policy, ToS.
  • LegalZoom / Rocket Lawyer — basic templates.

When to hire a startup lawyer: priced rounds (Series Seed onward), acquihires, M&A, IP litigation. For everything else, templates + AI tools are sufficient.

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