I am going to test out a new approach to blogging. In the past I wanted to make sure what I had to say was really insightful, well I am going to switch to posting whenever I think what I am going to write *might* be insightful... so here we go.
In the course of starting a new venture co-founders are faced with innumerable decisions in areas they really don't have expertise. The vast majority of these decisions land in the legal arena where the "legaleze" is astonishing - making the decisions harder. I am fortunate in the fact that I have founded a company in the past, so I am able to read through the documents pretty efficiently and comprehend the material well. But I have found that the most important question to ask yourself and your legal counsel when faced with "legaleze" is the following: Is this standard or is this necessary?
Agreeing to terms simply because they are standard is something that I am not a fan of. It results in a situation where you don't really understand what you are agreeing to and why it is important (b/c your lawyer will constantly say "that is standard" and you will just nod and move on, rather than really understanding what is going on). So probe when you are reading through legaleze and understand what is going on and only accept a term if it is necessary, not because it is standard.
