A lot of clients ask, "What does using both the platform and my lawyer to create legal documents look like?" While it's different for everyone and we are flexible enough to accommodate a client's preferred working style with their lawyer, here's a model case of what works well. I've laid out how a lawyer and entrepreneur might interact with the platform in a sample scenario where a company wants to grant shares to their employees.
Meet Bob
Bob is an entrepreneur. Bob is hiring Jack and Jane to work at his startup. He is promising them shares in their offer letter, which he has generated on the platform, and the next step is actually granting these promised shares to them. Bob starts by running the "Grant Shares or Options" workflow. Either he or his lawyer can run the "Grant Shares or Options" workflow, but Bob is an experienced entrepreneur, so he prefers to run it in this case.
Bob Runs "Grant Shares" Workflow, Creates ISO
Bob will choose the vesting period (he chooses 4-year vesting), the vesting frequency (he chooses monthly), along with the vesting commencement date (he chooses the date the employee starts working), and other key terms (acceleration, etc.). The platform automatically takes this information and generates a board consent and two ISO grants, one for each employee. Bob can review the board consent and two ISO grants and can make changes before he sends it to his lawyer for review.
Lawyer Reviews, Makes Changes
The lawyer gets an email letting him know that Bob would like him to log in and review some documents. The lawyer logs in and sees the documents. In addition to being able to read the documents in full and make edits, the lawyer can also see if he/she has ever encountered this template before with another client or with this client. This makes it easier for the lawyer to review efficiently. If the lawyer makes no edits, then the documents go out for signature immediately. If the lawyer makes edits, then the edits go back to the entrepreneur to approve and incorporate.
Bob Accepts Changes, Sends it out for Signature
Assuming that the lawyer had some small changes, the entrepreneur would review what the lawyer suggested and either make the changes or ignore them. Bob wisely incorporates the changes his lawyer suggested. Bob clicks "continue" to allow the workflow to move forward. The next step is the board logging in and signing the board consent.
Board Signs
The Board receives an email asking them to click a link, log in to the platform and sign the board consent electronically in their account. The board members can do this on their computer or on their mobile phones, if they're on the go. Once the board signs the board consent, it's time for the ISO grants to be signed.
President Signs
The President of Bob's company will log in and sign the ISO grants in the signature block reserved for the company's signature. After the president does this, the platform will automatically ask the new employees, Jack and Jane, to sign their ISOs and accept them.
Employees Sign
Jack and Jane each receive emails in their inbox asking them to log in to the platform (and create an account if they don't yet have one) and sign and accept their ISO agreements. Once they do this, they'll each be able to see their ISO and vesting schedule chart anytime in their account. They'll also be able to click the "Exercise Now" button and exercise shares if their vesting allows.
Automatically Updating Account to Make Bob's Company Investor-Ready
The platform will automatically put Jack and Jane's grants on the cap table, without any manual work from Bob. It will also put the grants and board consent in the appropriate folders in the data room, making sure that the data room is up to date and ready for a potential investor to conduct a due diligence.
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