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A founder's legal resource library
Guides
Notes on the questions founders and small organisations ask most often, written in plain language and grounded in Indian law as it stands. They are educational material, not legal advice, and they are free to read, quote and share.
A Legal Checklist for Indian Startups
What to put in place at incorporation, before the first customer, before the first hire and before the first round — and, just as usefully, what can wait.
Why Every Startup Should Have a Founders' Agreement
Vesting, roles, deadlock and exit — and why an agreement that is not reflected in the articles of association is weaker than founders assume.
When Should a Startup Use an NDA?
When an NDA is worth insisting on, when asking for one costs more than it protects, and which clauses actually survive contact with an Indian court.
When Should You File Your First Trade Mark?
How priority works in India, how to choose classes, what examination and opposition involve, and why the search matters more than the filing.
Consultant or Employee? A Distinction Every Startup Should Understand
Why the label on the contract does not decide the question, what actually distinguishes the two, and what follows for tax, statutory benefits and who owns the work.
What Founders Should Know About the DPDP Act
Who the Act applies to, what notice and consent actually require, the obligations that catch small teams out, and a sensible order in which to do the work.
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Also useful
The startup legal health check works through the same ground as these guides in the form of eighteen questions, and returns a prioritised list of what to look at first. It runs entirely in your browser.
Why these are here
Most of what a founder needs to know early is not complicated, but it is scattered, and much of what is written about it online is either aimed at another jurisdiction or is a sales page in disguise. These guides are an attempt at the opposite: a straight account of what the law requires, what it does not require, and where the genuinely difficult questions lie.
New guides are published as questions recur in practice. You can follow them by RSS.