The Articles, what they are and when you should adopt new ones.
Articles of Association are essentially the documents that dictate the way your company is governed - your constitution if you like.
When you incorporated your company, it is likely that you adopted what's known as "model Articles". It is certainly true these are not ideal for companies raising growth capital.
As a result we often lots of founders coming to us asking for us to update their Articles of Association in advance of a funding round - to put in place the right vesting schedules and governance procedures to "get investment ready"
In reality, this is a totally over the top and unnecessary step that some law firms instruct startups to do before a funding round, especially as you'll probably adopt new Articles at the conclusion of your round, when investors decide to renegotiate certain aspects of them.
That's why we at SeedLegals encourage all founders to have the right founders, advisors and consultancy agreements (with appropriate vesting schedules for equity) as well as IP Assignments, which covers you in terms of getting investment ready - rather than creating new Articles.
The good news is you can create all of these as part of the SeedLegals Standard membership and Plus plans.
And when you actually come to closing your round, we will of course create to you bespoke Articles, made exactly in line with the rest of your funding round - rather than you paying up front for something you'll need to change anyway.