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Insights / Legal and company basics

Legal and company basics desk

The company, equity, IP and privacy basics to ask your counsel about. Not legal advice.

The documents a company signs in its first year include the entity filing, the equity split, the assignment of code and the legal pages on the product. The articles on this desk describe what each one is for and what the public sources say about it, so that a founder can bring specific questions to their own lawyer.

The eight articles run from the company outward. They cover choosing an entity, founder equity and vesting, the 83(b) election and its deadline, founder IP assignment and confidentiality, open-source licenses, privacy law, the terms of service and privacy policy, and trademark name clearance.

Two limits apply throughout. World Enterprise is not a law firm, and nothing on this desk is legal or tax advice. Each article carries a dated general-information line, reads primary sources such as statutes and agency pages, and ends with what it cannot tell you.

Legal and company basics among the insights desks Legal and company basics holds 8 articles of 134. Each cluster is a desk; each star is one article.
Legal and company basics among the insights desks A dark sky crossed by one spiral arm with 14 star clusters on it, numbered 1 to 14. 1, Dream: 7 stars; 2, Build: 11 stars; 3, Grow: 6 stars; 4, Fundable: 8 stars; 5, Starting out: 14 stars; 6, Funding and capital: 13 stars; 7, Legal and company basics: 8 stars; 8, Team and hiring: 9 stars; 9, AI-native building: 9 stars; 10, Go-to-market: 10 stars; 11, Pathways: 12 stars; 12, Business models: 8 stars; 13, Sectors: 8 stars; 14, Operations and wellbeing: 11 stars. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
  1. Dream 7 articles
  2. Build 11 articles
  3. Grow 6 articles
  4. Fundable 8 articles
  5. Starting out 14 articles
  6. Funding and capital 13 articles
  7. Legal and company basics 8 articles
  8. Team and hiring 9 articles
  9. AI-native building 9 articles
  10. Go-to-market 10 articles
  11. Pathways 12 articles
  12. Business models 8 articles
  13. Sectors 8 articles
  14. Operations and wellbeing 11 articles
Show the figures as a table
Published articles by desk
DeskArticles
Dream7
Build11
Grow6
Fundable8
Starting out14
Funding and capital13
Legal and company basics8
Team and hiring9
AI-native building9
Go-to-market10
Pathways12
Business models8
Sectors8
Operations and wellbeing11

Illustration: World Enterprise Group Incorporated, drawn at build time from the articles published on this site.

Reading time on the Legal and company basics desk One dot per article, in whole minutes; the amber mark is the median.
Legal and company basics 8 · median 6 min
0 min3 min5 min8 min10 min

Each dot is one article; the amber mark is the desk’s median.

Show the figures as a table
Reading time on the Legal and company basics desk
GroupArticleReading time
Legal and company basicsChoosing an entity: LLC or C corporation6 min
Legal and company basicsFounder equity splits and vesting6 min
Legal and company basicsFounder IP assignment and confidentiality agreements7 min
Legal and company basicsOpen-source licenses inside a commercial product8 min
Legal and company basicsPrivacy law basics for a small product7 min
Legal and company basicsTerms of service and privacy policy: what each document is for7 min
Legal and company basicsThe 83(b) election and its deadline6 min
Legal and company basicsTrademark name clearance before you commit6 min

Chart: World Enterprise Group Incorporated, counted at build time from the articles on this desk.

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