For Lawyers: How Shoobx Makes Working With Clients More Transparent And Collaborative

“How can I use Shoobx most effectively?”
“Why should I use Shoobx and encourage clients to use the platform?”

Lawyers frequently ask us these questions, so we wanted to provide you with a few tips and tricks that will help you master the Shoobx platform. There will be a learning curve when you first start, just like with any technology. An entrepreneur’s first time using the system is no different—he or she will have to figure out how the workflows work, read through the documents, understand how to input data, and how new documents fit in with existing documents. However, as you and your client become more familiar with the platform, you will be able to work faster and more efficiently over time. Here’s how that plays out:

Let’s say a lawyer named Ron has drafted a Stock Incentive Plan for Founder Richard. Up to this point, every time he's wanted to grant someone options, Ron has been carefully hand-crafting ISO/NQO option grants. But now that Founder Richard is on Shoobx, either Ron or Richard can simply click the "Grant Shares or Options" button in Shoobx to run that workflow, and have Shoobx create new option grants.

Let’s compare Scenario A (Founder Richard works with his lawyer on Shoobx) and Scenario B (Founder Richard works with his lawyer without Shoobx) to see the differences.

Scenario A: Founder Richard works with Lawyer Ron WITH Shoobx.

On Shoobx, Lawyer Ron will be able to see all of the recent corporate activity that has occurred in Founder Richard’s company. Lawyer Ron will have a bird’s-eye view into all corporate actions. This gives Lawyer Ron strategic insight into all company actions and an easy way to oversee Founder Richard’s plans.

After a batch of hires, Founder Richard runs through the “Grant Shares or Options” workflow (Lawyer Ron can also take this action if Richard prefers they work together in that way). Shoobx automatically creates the Board Consent as well as the Option Grants, and Founder Richard sends these to Lawyer Ron for review.

Lawyer Ron sees the documents and the templates from which they were generated, reviews them, and makes edits if needed. If Lawyer Ron makes changes to the documents, he’ll route them back to Founder Richard so that Richard can see what’s changed and then send the documents out for signature. If Lawyer Ron thinks the documents are in good shape, he’ll simply indicate that they’re ready to be circulated for signature.

Subsequently, Shoobx captures all the required signatures—from the board, the company officer and the grant recipients. Shoobx will also automatically update the company's Cap Table, and files the fully executed documents in the appropriate folder in the Data Room.

Scenario B: Founder Richard works with lawyer Ron WITHOUT Shoobx

When Founder Richard asks his lawyer, Ron, to create grants via email or phone call, Lawyer Ron asks for all of the relevant information to put into the documents. Then, Lawyer Ron must confirm that there are enough shares left in Founder Richard’s plan and that the vesting schedule is the company’s standard schedule. Lawyer Ron drafts the Board Consent and option grants with this information and sends the documents to Richard for him to review and circulate for signature.

Next, Founder Richard sends the Board Consent to the board, and the grants to the grantees (after he's signed them on behalf of the company), and collects the necessary signatures. Finally, Founder Richard sends Lawyer Ron all the signed documents to be compiled and stored with the company's other documents.

Conclusion

Working on Shoobx allows lawyers to handle things—like granting shares—quickly, efficiently, and easily so that lawyers can focus on assisting their clients with strategic company planning. Following the initial investment of time and effort, both the entrepreneur their legal team will save a significant amount of time and effort working on Shoobx, especially as the company grows.

Tips and Tricks

Shoobx can help you provide guidance to your clients efficiently and effectively, and following these principles will allow any lawyer on our platform to shine:

1. Respect the templates. The documents on our platform are generated from standard templates built by our legal team (largely made up of Goodwin Procter alumni), or by respected startup organizations (e.g. the Y Combinator SAFE). They are designed to reflect today's standard terms and be easily utilized by the companies using our platform, in collaboration with their lawyers. The less time you spend editing the nitty-gritty wording of our documents, the more time you will have to focus on providing substantive guidance to that company.
2. Keep things simple. We cannot emphasize enough how widely accepted these documents are. It helps to keep in mind that more often than not, the documents reflect terms commonly used by entrepreneurs, and using such standard documents provides efficiency and value to the startup and sets them up for a smooth due diligence process down the road.
3. Shoobx is your friend! If you aren’t sure whether a document or template exists for a certain process, or if you have any questions about how Shoobx operates, do not hesitate to reach out! Our client services team will be happy to provide any training that you'd find useful or answer any questions you may have.