The early mistakes: a five-minute self-diagnostic
The specific items founders tell us they wish they'd handled earlier. Ordinary omissions, not negligence. Most have a cheap version now and an expensive one later.
This page is general information for operators, current as of the date shown. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Specific facts change the answer.
Card 1
The 83(b) election
You get thirty days from stock issuance. There are no extensions and no exceptions.
- Surfaces
- At vesting or at exit, as a tax bill.
- Now
- A one-page filing.
- Later
- There is no later.
Card 2
Founder vesting
Founders with no vesting schedule at all, or with a handshake understanding of one.
- Surfaces
- The day a founder leaves, holding a quarter of the company, forever.
- Now
- Standard documents at issuance.
- Later
- A negotiation with someone who has no reason to agree.
Card 3
The unassigned code
Anyone who touched the product before or outside employment: contractors, collaborators, whoever built the pre-incorporation prototype.
- Surfaces
- In diligence, when someone else's counsel starts reading line by line.
- Now
- A signature.
- Later
- A chase, a payment, or a hole in the deal.
Card 4
Contractor labels
The early team on 1099s because it was simpler.
- Surfaces
- Years later, when an agency or a plaintiff applies the legal test instead of your label.
- Now
- Draw the lines.
- Later
- Back wages, taxes, penalties, and in some states personal exposure.
Card 5
Equity promises in email
"We'll sort out your points later."
- Surfaces
- At the round, as a negotiation you run against your own email.
- Now
- Record it.
- Later
- Reconstruct it, with witnesses.
Card 6
The unrecorded grants
Options promised in offer letters, never approved by the board.
- Surfaces
- In diligence, as a validity question about everyone's equity.
- Now
- A consent.
- Later
- A ratification project inside your financing timeline.
Card 7
The untracked SAFEs
Instruments sitting in a folder, side letters sitting in inboxes.
- Surfaces
- Conversion day, all at once.
- Now
- One ledger.
- Later
- A dilution surprise with your name on it.
Card 8
The copied privacy policy
Someone else's promises, describing someone else's product.
- Surfaces
- A customer's security review, a regulator's letter, or an incident.
- Now
- Make it true.
- Later
- Explain the gap to someone adversarial.
Card 9
The insurance application from memory
Answered optimistically, read by no lawyer.
- Surfaces
- At the claim.
- Now
- An hour of review.
- Later
- A denial letter.
What's actually reversible
Almost everything on this list is repairable at a price. Ratifications, repapering, and late fixes exist for nearly all of it, with the 83(b) election and lost time as the exceptions. None of this is meant to alarm you; it's about sequencing. Every item here is cheapest today, and not one of them gets cheaper by sitting.
Want this run properly, against your actual documents rather than from memory? That's what the assessment is for. The Charter Point Assessment →