Everything you need to know before you start.
Who does what, what to expect, and how the Equity Governance Framework keeps your equity, compliance and governance from becoming three separate fire drills.
The hurdles every founder hits, and how we manage them.
A 50/50 default split, agreed verbally in the first excited week, is the single most common source of later co-founder disputes - it never accounts for who actually keeps showing up.
How we manage it: we structure the split around documented contribution, commitment and risk, with vesting and reverse-vesting clauses that protect the pool if someone leaves early.
Incorporating as an LLP or proprietorship because it's cheaper up front, then needing an expensive conversion the moment an investor shows interest.
How we manage it: we walk through your funding, equity incentive and liability plans before recommending a structure - most founders planning to raise start as Private Limited from day one.
Code, brand or product built before incorporation legally belongs to whoever built it - not automatically to the company, which becomes a real problem in diligence.
How we manage it: we draft a pre-incorporation IP transfer agreement alongside your incorporation, so ownership is clean from day one.
Compliance is genuinely light in year one, but the deadlines are strict - DIN KYC, annual filings, TDS returns don't wait for you to have bandwidth.
How we manage it: a compliance calendar is set up on incorporation day and every filing is tracked and actioned by us, not left for you to remember.
Early hires promised equity verbally or through informal letters, without a proper scheme - this surfaces as a governance gap at exactly the wrong moment, during diligence.
How we manage it: we design a compliant equity incentive scheme early and administer grants, vesting and exercise on a proper digital cap table from the start.
Registers, resolutions and cap table entries scattered across emails and spreadsheets, discovered to be incomplete right when a term sheet is on the table.
How we manage it: because one team has held your record since incorporation, diligence becomes a data-room export, not a scramble.
One team, one record, every stage.
Documented rationale, vesting terms and deadlock clauses.
The right structure, PAN/TAN, and first-year statutory registrations.
Founding IP transferred formally to the company.
Designed for hiring, maintained digitally as you grow.
Every filing deadline tracked, nothing missed.
SPA/SHA negotiation, valuation coordination, exit structuring.
You talk to one advisor. Four specialists work behind them.
Drafts and negotiates founders' agreements, SHAs, SPAs, employment contracts, and handles IP assignment and dispute clauses.
Handles ROC filings, statutory registers, board and shareholder resolutions, and secretarial compliance year-round.
Manages tax structuring, GST/income tax filings, valuation coordination, and financial due diligence for a raise.
Runs day-to-day bookkeeping, payroll, and cap table platform administration (Qapita/EquityList).
You never have to figure out which one to call - your advisor routes the work internally and keeps everything on one record.
Fewer things than you fear, strict on timing.
SPICe+ incorporation, PAN/TAN, DIN KYC, first board resolutions, Shop & Establishment.
AOC-4, MGT-7, income tax return, statutory register updates, DIN KYC renewal.
PF/ESI once headcount thresholds are crossed, GST once turnover crosses the threshold.
FC-GPR/FLA if foreign investors, MGT-14 for share allotment resolutions, updated cap table.
Why founders don't have to manage this themselves.
Everything above - the agreements, the filings, the cap table, the eventual fundraise - runs through four connected layers: Entry (incorporation and founding documents), EquityOps (equity and cap table administration), ComplianceStack (governance and statutory filings), and ValueReady (fundraising and exit). One team owns all four, so nothing built in Entry has to be rebuilt when you reach ValueReady.
See how the four layers connect →Every question, answered in full.
We structure the split around documented contribution, time commitment, capital invested and risk taken - not a default 50/50 - with a written rationale attached so it holds up if questioned later. Vesting is layered on top so the split reflects who actually stays.
It depends on whether you plan to raise equity funding, issue equity incentives, or need limited personal liability. Most founders planning to raise capital or hire aggressively choose Private Limited; LLPs suit smaller, funding-independent businesses. We assess this against your specific plans before recommending a structure.
If vesting is in place, unvested equity is forfeited back to the company or pool, protecting remaining founders from carrying a departed co-founder's full stake. We design standard 4-year vesting with a 1-year cliff, or milestone-based vesting where that fits better.
By default, whoever personally built it owns it - not the company. A pre-incorporation IP transfer agreement is required to formally assign that work to the company, which we draft alongside your incorporation filing.
Fewer obligations than most founders expect - DIN KYC, PAN/TAN, initial statutory registers, and your first annual filing - but the deadlines are strict. A compliance calendar set up on incorporation day tracks every date so nothing is missed.
You don't need to know the distinction - a lawyer drafts and negotiates agreements, a CS handles ROC filings and registers, a CA manages tax and valuation, and an accounting team runs bookkeeping and payroll. One advisory team routes your work to the right specialist internally.
Not necessarily before the first hire, but before promising equity to anyone - informal equity promises without a compliant scheme are one of the most common gaps found during later diligence.
It's the system connecting Entry (incorporation and founding documents), EquityOps (equity and cap table), ComplianceStack (governance and filings), and ValueReady (fundraising and exit) under one team and one record - so nothing built early has to be rebuilt when you scale or raise.
If your registers, resolutions and cap table have been maintained on one record since incorporation, diligence becomes a data-room export rather than a scramble to reconstruct history.
Three conversations, not three months of research.
Pre-incorporation or already running - a short call scopes exactly what you need.
You get a clear package and timeline - no per-document billing surprises.
Documents, filings and your compliance calendar are live within days.