Start-up consulting – legal services for start-ups
Your start-up lawyers for starting a business in Germany
You would like to start a company in Germany and are looking for a first-class start-up lawyer? Then you've come to the right place! At ab&d Rechtsanwälte, we are specialized in providing legal services for start-ups and have advised hundreds of founders and investors over our 10 years of practical experience. Our start-up consulting is always clear, smart and personal, with a special focus on your individual business model - from company formation to market entry and exit.
As specialized lawyers for start-ups we advise you on the right type of company (in particular GbR, OHG, PartG, KG, GmbH, UG (haftungsbeschränkt), AG and GmbH & Co. KG) and draft balanced and clear contracts for you, such as articles of association and shareholders' agreements, service contracts for managing directors, employee stock option plans (VESOP) and GTC and B2B contracts that meet your individual needs. For investment rounds, we negotiate the conditions of the investor participation (venture capital) and if you want to sell your shares, we will negotiate and organize your exit.
As our law firm is also active in intellectual property law and competition law , we will of course also be happy to support you and your start-up with brand protection and the legal requirements for your public image as well as with questions regarding the effectiveness of post-contractual non-compete clauses.
Are you interested in our specialized start-up consulting ? Our experienced start-up lawyers will be happy to advise you on all your legal questions before and after starting your business - in Berlin, throughout Germany and across Europe. We offer you a brief initial assessment of your legal concerns by telephone free of charge as a special service. Simply give us a call on +49 30 36 41 41 90, send us an e-mail to kontakt@abd-partner.de or use our contact form
Your lawyers for company formations:
Legal advice in the start-up stage
Starting a company is like getting married, running a company is like a marriage. Even before the company is formed you should carefully consider about which partners you want to work with and distribute the essential tasks clearly and unambiguously. In most cases, it is a question of who brings how much money, who provides what know-how and who contributes their labor and how.
Once the founding team is in place and the tasks are clear, it's time to get down to business: What legal form should the company take? How do we regulate our mutual rights and obligations? Who will be the managing director? Do we need a managing director employment contract? And who will earn how much and from when? How do we vote - unanimously? With a simple or ¾ majority? What happens in the event of a stalemate? How do I get out of the company? And can I perhaps get rid of a co-founder who is not "performing" as expected and hoped?
All of these issues should definitely be regulated in shareholders' agreements (SHA) and the articles of association as well as in the rules of procedure for the management, which we will be happy to draft for you with a focus on legally secure conflict avoidance.
Start-up consulting on market entry, proof of concept
Suddenly you realize that not only the internal organization, but also the actual business, the business operations, have to be set up and developed. Where are we going to get an employment contract for the first employee? And how do we do it with the freelancers? Who is allowed to see our trade and business secrets? Do we prefer to produce it ourselves, or does a contract manufacturer do it for us? Have we already secured the trademark? And do we urgently need general terms and conditions? We've now completed our first major order and the customer has turned a deaf ear since we sent the invoice...
As experienced lawyers in start-up consulting, we support you in your first business "steps" by examining your external appearance, registering your first trademarks, drafting individual general terms and conditions and important initial contracts or developing a concept for your data and business secret protection with you. We always think outside the box and recommend experts with the relevant specialization if we are unable to handle a matter in-house.
Start-up consulting on growth, investment rounds and exits
Once the proof of concept has been successful, growth is needed for scalable business models. This costs money, which, as we all know, does not grow on trees. Many startups are therefore dependent on outside capital to achieve their corporate goals. A common way to obtain such money is through investment rounds, which are usually structured as capital increases (cf. § 55 GmbHG). The investors acquire newly created shares in the company (which dilutes the shareholdings of the existing shareholders) and undertake to contribute additional money or other services to the company based on a previously negotiated valuation. During such financing rounds , the cards are reshuffled once again and questions arise such as: Is this now Seed or Series A? Who can actually be considered as an investor? What valuation is realistic? Should we involve our employees from the very beginning? How does it work with the VESOP? The potential investor sounds potent and interested, but 50 pages of participation agreement?Liquidation preference? And why vesting, we already have a functioning business. Should we do crowdfunding instead?
As part of our start-up consulting services, we negotiate the terms of investment rounds for you and support you from the initial contact with potential investors to the completion of the capital increase. We first develop a strategy tailored to your company and then negotiate and draft the new investment agreements. During your exit, we will ensure that your interests are not compromised between those of the investors and the buyers. You can rely on our expertise as professional start-up lawyers and emerge stronger from a financing round so that you can concentrate fully on your business again!
Your spezialized lawyer for start-up companies
We have been specialized in consulting start-ups for over 10 years. Our main areas of advice are characterized by in-depth expertise in various fields of law, which enables us to cover all legally relevant issues that affect young start-up companies. Distinctive expertise in commercial and corporate law, and competition law as well as in the field of intellectual property law enable our highly qualified lawyers to provide all-round startup consulting to get your company off to a successful start, enable growth, keep it running internally and keep the shareholders / investors happy.
We always have our heads up to think out of the box and see ourselves as startup lawyers with special legal expertise. We don't tell you what can't be done, but how it can be done. And if your requirements are diverse but your budget is limited, we can help you with flexible payment plans and reduced hourly rates - just get in touch!
