Expertise
The whole legal maze, covered.
Co-founder alignment
We help co-founders and shareholders align on key issues to avoid conflicts and ensure business success. Better an awkward conversation now than a deadlock that freezes the company later.
Co-founding a company is a lot like a marriage. You'll spend more time with your co-founder than with your partner, and if it goes sour it can take the whole company down. So get aligned on the hard questions early, while everyone still likes each other. Date before you marry, and once you marry, get it in writing.
Because it's better to be safe than sorry. Plenty of start-ups fall apart over things the founders could have caught early, if they'd taken the time to date. Those talks aren't always easy. But strong alignment does more than keep the peace: it boosts confidence and credibility, and warms even the most cold-blooded investor. Because at the end of the day, everybody loves a good love story.
We practise what we preach. That’s why we host expert sessions (zoom or face-to-face) on co-founder alignment, where we deep-dive into your business and personal relationship with your co-founder(s) and evaluate your marriage. Something along the lines of "I'll show you mine if you show me yours," but from a legal perspective.
Fundraising
We guide you through the capital raising process and help you pick the right funding options to fuel growth while minimising risks.
Raising capital is one of the biggest calls a founder makes. But not all money is equal. Angels, VCs, convertible loans, subsidies or a bank loan: each has its own price. The right round speeds up your growth. The wrong one can haunt you for years. So before you sign, you want to know exactly what you're giving up, and what you're getting in return.
Growth takes capital. But as exciting as raising capital can be, outside money isn't the only way to get it. Sometimes financing it yourself keeps more of the company in your hands. But when you do bring investors in, that's where we come in too: making sure you know what you're giving up, and that you get the strong end of the deal.
Do your homework! Preparation decides everything: how smoothly the process runs and how much leverage an investor can ask for. We take you through the whole thing, from the homework to the signature, and because the devil is in the details, you can trust we've done our homework too. We strive to be the Robin to your Batman.
Stock options
We build option plans that get people to say yes, and let them share in the company’s success they helped build.
Stock options give your people the right to buy into the company at a fixed price, within a set window. The payoff comes when the company's worth more than that price by the time they can act on it. It's how you reward the people who help build the thing in the first place!
Generally, stock options are issued to recruit the best and the brightest and to encourage key personnel to build the company and share in its growth and success. After all, you are offering them a piece of the pie. And who doesn’t like pie!? Stock options come in all shapes and sizes. For example, the company may decide to make these stock options contingent on performance-based criteria or limit them over time. The stock options then vest only once these conditions are met. In legal jargon, this is called “vesting.”
First, the founders must determine how much of the company they are willing to share with key personnel. Second, they must agree on vesting conditions (you want to avoid personnel just resting and vesting). Then it gets formalised, which traditionally means a mountain of paperwork. We take that off your plate and design the plan with you. When it's time to slice the cake, we make sure you keep the icing and the cherry.
Exit (M&A)
We plan and run the deal, from first approach to signature, whether you're selling the company you built or buying another to grow faster.
M&A cuts both ways: selling the company you built, or buying another to start or grow faster. Some founders build to hold. Others build to sell, with an exit in mind from day one. They have what is called an “exit strategy”. This strategy can consist of either selling the ownership of the company, going public, or simply merge with another company.
Founders sell for all kinds of reasons. Some built to sell from day one and want to reward their investors for the risk they took along the way. Others have spent a lifetime building their company and are ready to hand over the keys, to enjoy their retirement or to start something new. Whatever the reason, an exit is not to be taken lightly. What does the timeline look like? Who gets paid what, and in which order? Who can trigger an exit? That is why an entrance strategy is as important as an exit strategy.
As always, preparation is key. As with investment rounds, an exit or acquisition requires a lot of (legal) work. After all, you are selling or buying the ownership of a company and that is a big deal. Of course, you want your company to be as “sexy” as possible to attract interested parties or avoid paying too much. MACE prepares you and defends your interests during the process. Typically, these deals are built on legal terms that quietly favour one side or the other. We make sure you leave the table satisfied.
Legal counsel
Day to day legal counsel for founders: commercial contracting, IP, GDPR and corporate structuring, from spin-offs to steward ownership. So your business stays secure and scalable.
Commercial contracting
Every deal you make with a client or partner lives or dies by what's on paper. We draft and review the contracts that carry your revenue, so the terms protect you instead of surprising you later.
IP
For most founders, the company IS the idea. We make sure it's actually yours: the code, the brand, the product, properly assigned and protected, especially when freelancers or early hires were involved. The worst time to find out you don't own your IP is during due diligence.
GDPR
Handling personal data comes with obligations, and the fines are real. We get you compliant without turning it into a six-month project, so you can build on your data instead of worrying about it.
Corporate structuring
How your company is structured decides how easily you can raise money or bring in new owners later. We set it up to fit where you're going, including the less common routes: spin-offs when part of the business becomes its own thing, and steward ownership when you want the mission protected from whoever holds the shares.
“Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team.”
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