Founder Pack

Almost every founder dispute I have seen could have been prevented by a properly drafted shareholders' agreement and matching articles, agreed upon when everybody was still friends. The expensive part is not the documents. The expensive part is the conversation: what happens if one of us wants to leave, what counts as cause, what is the price, who decides, how do we break a deadlock?

Why do these two documents belong together?

The Founder Pack brings together the two most important legal documents for any new company with co-founders or early investors: a shareholders' agreement and bespoke articles of association. Drafting them together as a package ensures both documents are fully consistent with each other. And inconsistencies between them are one of the most common sources of corporate disputes.

Founders avoid the conversation about exits and disagreements because it feels pessimistic, and then, two or three years in, they discover that the absence of an answer is a terrible position to be in. The pack is a structured way to have that conversation now, with a senior solicitor on board to draft the outcome.

The bundled price saves you money compared to purchasing each service individually, but the real reason to buy them as a pack is consistency. Documents drafted in the same exercise, by the same hand, against the same set of decisions, do not contradict each other in the ways that templated documents routinely do.

Example: a typical scope and fixed fee

For a new company with up to four co-founders or early investors holding a single class of ordinary shares, the typical scope looks like this.

What's included

• A consultation to understand the company structure, founder roles, and commercial arrangements
• Bespoke articles of association covering share classes, decision-making, transfer restrictions, and director powers
• Shareholders' agreement covering reserved matters, leaver provisions, share transfer restrictions, non-compete, and deadlock
• Both documents drafted to be fully consistent with each other
• One round of revisions to each document based on your feedback
• Final versions ready for adoption and execution

What's outside this scope

• Companies with five or more shareholders or multiple share classes (I can quote separately)
• Investor-led rounds with complex anti-dilution or preference provisions
• Companies House filings
• Tax advice

Fixed fee: £1,450, no VAT.

How I will approach your matter

Once you have instructed me, I will arrange an initial consultation to work through the founders' situation: the cap table, the commercial roles, the funding picture, and the specific points the founders care most about. The drafting follows from that conversation rather than from a template.

I will deliver both documents together so you can see how they fit. The revision round covers both documents, and I will check for consistency between them before final delivery. The Founder Pack is the single most cost-effective piece of legal work that most early-stage companies can do.

Common questions

Why buy the pack instead of the individual services?

Drafting the shareholders' agreement and articles together ensures they are consistent from the outset. Inconsistencies between these two documents are one of the most common sources of corporate disputes. The pack also saves you money compared to buying each service separately.