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Wilson Sonsini Term Sheet Generator

53 points by juliang 17y ago

This is a pretty amazing new development on the road towards open source law.

jamiequint 17y ago
now if I could only find the Sequoia one...
- frisco 17y ago
  Sequoia uses WSGR for counsel.
  - jamiequint 17y ago
    it was a joke
fnazeeri 17y ago
In 1999 I worked at Petstore.com (a competitor to the sock puppet firm) and we used to joke that we were going to create a website "termsheet.com" which would generate a term sheet we could then use in negotiation with VCs. WSGR built it! Now every entrepreneur will be able to say to a VC, "we have a term sheet...and need to know whether you are in or out..." I wrote a review of the WSGR term sheet generator here: http://www.altgate.com/blog/2009/04/law-firm-wilson-sonsini-now-preparing-term-sheets-for-free.html http://www.altgate.com/blog/2009/04/law-firm-wilson-sonsini-...
- ajju 17y ago
  > Now every entrepreneur will be able to say to a VC, "we have a term sheet...and need to know whether you are in or out..." Maybe if there is another boom and certainly not in this economy ;)
BRadmin 17y ago
Yokum is good people, constantly helping the entrepreneurial community understand the legalities and intricacies of funding and organizing start-ups. Check his website: http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/ http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/
- fnazeeri 17y ago
  Totally agree.
  - yokumtaku 17y ago
    Thank you for the kind words.
nialllarkin 17y ago
Do YC provide companies work with a standard term sheet? Has anyone checked to see what WSGR comes up and compared it to the standard YC term sheet?
ajju 17y ago
Good stuff. WSGR continues to shine in helping entrepreneurs! WSGR is literally a 'textbook' example of what a good law firm is. In my graduate entrepreneurial finance class, we studied a case where an entrepreneur had to choose between giving Rosati a non-trivial amount of equity in return for legal services or going to another law firm. Not knowing how important good lawyers are, when the professor suggested going with Rosati was the best course of action, I strongly argued against it. Since then, every time I have encountered a story about WSGR (often about Yokum and often on HN), I have been reminded of how wrong I was.
- yokumtaku 17y ago
  Thank you for the comment. And I'm pretty sure that you are not someone from our marketing department. :)
  - ajju 17y ago
    No I am not. Actually the idea of giving equity in exchange for a service still bothers me (like the ad on HN the other day for an apartment for rent in exchange for equity) but I have learnt the credibility that one earns from having a great lawyer can make all the difference, especially early on.

53 points by juliang 17y ago

This is a pretty amazing new development on the road towards open source law.

jamiequint 17y ago

now if I could only find the Sequoia one...

frisco 17y ago
Sequoia uses WSGR for counsel.
- jamiequint 17y ago
  it was a joke

fnazeeri 17y ago

In 1999 I worked at Petstore.com (a competitor to the sock puppet firm) and we used to joke that we were going to create a website "termsheet.com" which would generate a term sheet we could then use in negotiation with VCs. WSGR built it! Now every entrepreneur will be able to say to a VC, "we have a term sheet...and need to know whether you are in or out..." I wrote a review of the WSGR term sheet generator here: http://www.altgate.com/blog/2009/04/law-firm-wilson-sonsini-now-preparing-term-sheets-for-free.html http://www.altgate.com/blog/2009/04/law-firm-wilson-sonsini-...

ajju 17y ago
> Now every entrepreneur will be able to say to a VC, "we have a term sheet...and need to know whether you are in or out..." Maybe if there is another boom and certainly not in this economy ;)

BRadmin 17y ago

Yokum is good people, constantly helping the entrepreneurial community understand the legalities and intricacies of funding and organizing start-ups. Check his website: http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/ http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/

fnazeeri 17y ago
Totally agree.
- yokumtaku 17y ago
  Thank you for the kind words.

nialllarkin 17y ago

Do YC provide companies work with a standard term sheet? Has anyone checked to see what WSGR comes up and compared it to the standard YC term sheet?

ajju 17y ago

Good stuff. WSGR continues to shine in helping entrepreneurs! WSGR is literally a 'textbook' example of what a good law firm is. In my graduate entrepreneurial finance class, we studied a case where an entrepreneur had to choose between giving Rosati a non-trivial amount of equity in return for legal services or going to another law firm. Not knowing how important good lawyers are, when the professor suggested going with Rosati was the best course of action, I strongly argued against it. Since then, every time I have encountered a story about WSGR (often about Yokum and often on HN), I have been reminded of how wrong I was.

yokumtaku 17y ago
Thank you for the comment. And I'm pretty sure that you are not someone from our marketing department. :)
- ajju 17y ago
  No I am not. Actually the idea of giving equity in exchange for a service still bothers me (like the ad on HN the other day for an apartment for rent in exchange for equity) but I have learnt the credibility that one earns from having a great lawyer can make all the difference, especially early on.