COBALT supports start-ups and contributes to a free legal document platform

In order to help Lithuanian startups at the onset of their business, Startup Lithuania, Unicorns LT, and LT VCA cooperated with COBALT and other Lithuanian lawyers to develop a free publicly available platform offering a package of legal documents relevant to startups and the entire startup ecosystem. Startup founders will be able to easily download the necessary legal document template from this platform.

The importance of legal issues

According to Roberta Rudokienė, Head of Startup Lithuania, the startup ecosystem development unit of Public Institution Enterprise Lithuania, when communicating with innovative Lithuanian businesses and consulting potential startup founders or new startups, they often received inquiries of legal issues that are natural to the beginners of own business.

“During consultations, we always emphasize the importance of legal issues and encourage innovators to play it safe from the very start of founding a business, when signing the key documents, e.g. the shareholder agreement. Startups also have a lot of questions concerning employee incentives in the form of options, raising investment, and investment contracts. We are therefore very glad that the most prominent Lithuanian law firms have cooperated to prepare the templates of the key agreements and legal documents for startups, which are likely to be supplemented in the future.

We believe that this initiative will accelerate the development of the entire Lithuanian startup ecosystem by facilitating the startup founding process, giving knowledge and actual tools to startups which will help manage their processes from the legal perspective and provide maximum protection to their businesses,” commented Ms. Rudokienė.

All legal documents available on the platform have been created in cooperation with COBALT and other Lithuanian law firms. COBALT team consisted of Partner and Co-Head of Banking and Finance Practice group Akvilė Bosaitė, Managing Associate Julija Beldeninovienė and Associate Ignas Motiejūnas. COBALT team  supported start-ups by providing pro bono legal services.

The platform is an example of a growing ecosystem

According to Inga Langaitė, CEO of the Unicorns LT startup association, model documents prepared by the best Lithuanian lawyers will contribute to the growth of the Lithuanian startup ecosystem and encourage new business ideas with minimum to zero legal costs.

“What is typical of startups is that the onset of their business is often very speedy and you have to make fast decisions. During the first months, the focus is usually shifted to product development and the search for the optimum business model, whereas documents and formalities are postponed for a later time.

It is risky since high-quality legal documents at the very start of business might help avoid costly mistakes in the future. On the other hand, legal advice has its price, and not every startup can afford it at the initial stage when they are not yet certain as to whether the idea will work. The model documents serve this purpose and may become a starting point at the early stage of business,” adds Ms. Langaitė.

“The development of this platform is also a sign that the startup community is becoming increasingly open and more mature,” Gerda Sakalauskaitė, Head of Lithuanian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, is certain. It is also a perfect example of growing the ecosystem and cooperation.

“The legal aspects of business often become a challenge to the beginner startups, since it is often their first business idea and the lack of experience in this field might actually be a huge obstacle. Startups also lack enough funds to buy quality legal advice. Thus, this free opportunity to use the knowledge and expertise of the most advanced law firms is a particularly useful and, what is a most important, very practical way of support to the development of new ideas and businesses,” comments Ms. Sakalauskaitė.

Further information is available on the new platform of legal documents at https://www.startuplithuania.com/legal-documents