Audience

The word startup means different things to different people. For the purposes of this handbook, we use the term to refer to companies that plan to raise (or have raised) money from an accelerator or venture capital firm (commonly referred to as VCs). Some companies may not fit within this definition, but still want to model themselves (from a legal perspective) after startups in order to leverage the legal ecosystem around startups. This handbook should be useful for such companies as well.

This handbook is written for startup founders, with a focus on topics relevant to early-stage startups. The term early-stage startup also means different things to different people. For some, it might mean a company that has raised a Series A or even a Series B. For the purposes of this handbook, we use the term to refer to startups that have not yet raised a Series A financing - this means startups anywhere from pre-formation to having raised a seed financing.

Finally, the content in this handbook is only relevant for Delaware C corporations, as startups (as the term is used here) are typically Delaware C corporations.¹