In the world of startups, efficiency and agility are vital for success. As a founder, you're constantly on the lookout for tools that can simplify operations and save time and money. In this post, we explore a few tech tools that can help manage some of your day-to-day legal needs, helping you save your attention for growing your business and your legal budget for the issues that matter most.
Ownr: Simplifying Incorporation
Ownr is a platform that streamlines the process of incorporating a business in Canada. It offers a user-friendly and cost-effective interface where founders can register and organize a corporate entity for their business. Compared to incorporating on your own, using Ownr can help ensure your corporation is properly organized, including the several post-incorporation steps that often get missed when founders incorporate by themselves.
Of course, Ownr is a tech tool and not a legal service. If you have questions about how your corporation should be structured to set you up for long term success, it's best you talk to a lawyer before incorporating (even if you then proceed to use a tool like Ownr).
Carta: Equity Management Made Easy
Carta is a platform focused on helping companies manage their cap table. A well-organized cap table is essential when raising capital or looking to sell your business, and the easiest way to stay on top of it is to keep it up to date as you grow. Carta takes the complexity out of equity management by providing a centralized platform for tracking the ownership of your company. The platform's reporting features also make financial audits and due diligence exercises easier as you can quickly generate the necessary documents your auditors and investors request.
Mantle: An alternative to Carta
As an alternative to Carta, Mantle is the next generation of cap table management that is powered by AI. Mantle allows you to track, issue, and manage ownership. It was built by a team of serial entrepreneurs who know the importance of simple, automated workflows that help founders manage everything under one seamless platform.
Deel: International Hiring Without the Hassle
In today's global market, talent can come from anywhere. Deel empowers startups to hire employees and contractors from across the world with ease by acting as an employer of record. It helps take care of compliance with local labor laws, tax forms, and payment methods, and can automate contracts, tax forms, and payments in over 150 currencies. For startups looking to build a diverse and global team, Deel can be an indispensable tool.
While Deel does help simplify the process of hiring workers internationally, there are limitations involved with using employers of record that should be discussed with your legal counsel.
409ai: Getting Smart with Stock Option Compliance
Stock options are a common incentive used by startups, but they come with their own set of compliance challenges. 409ai is an AI-powered platform that simplifies the valuation of stock options for private companies in accordance with section 409A of the United States Internal Revenue Code. A 409A valuation helps reduce potential compliance and tax issues for startups when offering stock options. While 409As are a US concept, they are commonly used by Canadian startups to support the valuation used when issuing stock options.
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Each tool—Ownr, Carta, Mantle, Deel, and 409ai—addresses a specific set of needs that are important to startups across their stages of growth. From incorporation to global expansion, these platforms offer a blend of simplicity and automation that can help founders efficiently work through simple tasks related to their legal world. Nevertheless, even with the support of these tools, there are a lot of decisions founders must still make about how to structure and grow their business, and the best place to reach out to for support on those decisions is a law firm dedicated to startups.
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