What to do when your startup's legal records are a mess
The short answer
Most early-stage companies have gaps, not disasters. Equity given out before the board approved it. An 83(b) form nobody filed. A cap table that does not match the paperwork. A contractor who never signed over their work.
Founders Form AI's legal health check reads everything you have signed and reports what is missing, what is exposed and what is coming due, then generates the records that close each gap. The check is free.
What it actually takes, in order
- 1
Equity given out without the board formally approving it
- 2
Options granted after your 409A valuation expired — which makes the price your employees paid hard to defend
- 3
A founder or early contractor who never signed the document handing their work to the company
- 4
Side letters promising an investor something extra — better terms later, or the right to keep their percentage — that nobody wrote down
- 5
A cap table that disagrees with the paperwork behind it
Why now rather than later
All of it is cheap to fix while the company is small. It is expensive to fix during a raise, because then it is urgent and billed by the hour. That is the most expensive legal work a startup ever buys.
What you get
You upload what you have — old folders, half-finished sets, the contract an LLM wrote.
You get back what is solid, what is exposed and what is overdue, as a list rather than a memo.
Then the gaps close in the right order, because most of them depend on each other. The plan before the grant. The board approval before the equity.
What it costs
Traditional startup firm
Billed hourly
Diagnosis and cleanup both billed, and most expensive when it happens under a closing deadline.
Founders Form AI
Free to find
The health check costs nothing and stays free. Fixes are $500 per workflow with attorney review, or unlimited on the $625 plan.
Fee comparison from published startup legal fee guides accessed 2026-08-20.
Applying to YC or another accelerator
Accelerators ask a version of the diligence question early: is this company cleanly formed, is the cap table real, does it own its IP, and is the equity that has been promised actually documented. A program will rarely reject you over paperwork. It will make fixing it a condition — and that lands in the same weeks as the interview and the build.
The four things that come up most: founder stock issued without vesting, an 83(b) nobody filed, a co-founder or contractor who never assigned IP, and a cap table that does not tie to the signed documents.
Worth knowing
Every one of these is cheaper to fix before you apply than during the programme, and far cheaper than during the round at the end of it. The free check finds all four.
Common questions
What happens if I missed my 83(b) deadline?
The 30-day window from the date of transfer is statutory and generally cannot be cured once missed. What can be done is limited and depends on the facts, which is exactly the kind of question worth asking early rather than at diligence. The free Founders Form AI legal health check reports whether yours was filed.
Can equity issued without a board consent be fixed?
Usually, by ratification — the board approves the issuance after the fact, with the record reflecting what actually happened and when. It is a routine correction while the company is small and an awkward one when an investor's counsel finds it first.
How much does startup legal cleanup cost?
It depends on what turns up, which is why the diagnosis is free. Founders Form AI's legal health check reads everything you have signed and reports the gaps at no cost; fixes are priced per workflow at $500 with attorney review, or unlimited on the $625 monthly plan. Cleanup done during a raise is the most expensive version, because it is hourly and it is urgent.
What usually comes next
Find out what is actually wrong, before someone else does
Upload what you have — old folders, half-finished sets, the contract an LLM wrote. Founders Form AI reads all of it and returns what is solid, what is exposed and what is overdue. Accelerators and investors run a version of this check; this is the same one, run early enough to be cheap.
- Every grant missing a board consent, and every 83(b) that was never filed
- Whether your cap table reconciles against the documents behind it
- Who holds equity or built product without an IP assignment on file
- What an accelerator or an investor's counsel would flag first
Free, and it is the whole diagnosis rather than a sample. Fixes are $500 per workflow with attorney review, or unlimited on the $625 plan.