The LEXR Standard Legal Guide for Swiss Startups
We have worked with 1'000+ tech companies. We know what works, and what doesn't.
With this guide, we show you how successful startups solve legal, and the deadly legal mistakes to avoid.
This guide is 100% free so you can do legal right from the start without breaking the bank. You get:
- 📜 Templates: Get best practice legal documents for free, and easily customize them to your needs with our LEXR Bridge document generator.
- ✔ Checklist: The biggest risks are the ones you are not aware of. Make sure you haven't missed anything with our LEXR Standard Master Checklist.
- 💡 Frameworks: Simplify your legal life with frameworks that make it as easy as possible for non-lawyers to navigate the law.
There are nuggets of wisdom for anyone who works for or invests in tech companies. Find out more in our Guidance for... section.
- 😎 Founders, entrepreneurs and startup employees can use this guide to understand the legal basics of their role and ensure they are following best practices.
- 🤑 Investors, be they angel investors, VCs or crowdinvestors, can use this guide and especially the checklists to know what to look for in a legal due diligence.
- 👔 Board members can use this guide to ensure that their companies have checked all the legal boxes and to mitigate personal liability risks.
There are a few important concepts and frameworks you need to understand to make effective use of this guide:
- The LEXR Standard: This is like an ISO-certification for legal. Check all the LEXR Standard boxes to follow best practices, and get certified to show the world (and especially investors) that you have your legal structure under control.
- The C-RICH framework: We created a simple framework to categorize legal topics. All legal content is structured around C-RICH, which stands for the following five legal areas you need to cover:
- Corporate - the money and power structure
- Regulatory - the limits imposed by the government
- Intellectual property (IP) - your ideas, code, content, designs, brand, and inventions
- Contracts - your relationship with customers, partners, and suppliers
- HR - your people
- The legal solution framework: Legal problems are mostly risk management problems. Understand how to solve legal problems effectively with our legal solution framework.
- The legal ops & tech stack: Technology is your friend to efficiently tackle legal operations. Know how to structure your legal operations and which technology we recommend to keep your legal house in order.
Besides these frameworks, please note:
- Every startup is different. This guide probably covers 80% of legal topics for 80% of startups, and there is always the exception. This guide cannot replace expert legal counsel. Use common sense and book a free call with one of our legal experts when unsure.
- We have spent endless hours to create this guide. Use it and enjoy it for your own business, but don't re-sell it or re-distribute it without our consent!
- Feedback: We love FEEDBACK! Comment on a section, on the LEXR Standard Master Checklist, or write us at [email protected] to let us know what you think!
LEXR is the common brand of a network of law firms in Switzerland and Germany as well as a financial services company (LEXR Finance). We specialize in the legal needs of tech companies. Our 30+ lawyers are top legal talent who have chosen not to pursue a career in Big Law in order to make a difference. And they understand startups and technology. Our legal experts cover all the legal areas a tech company needs to cover, from incorporation to exit. Check out all of our services at https://www.lexr.com/en-ch/services/
We believe that humanity’s greatest challenges can and will be solved through innovation. Our mission is to accelerate innovation by removing legal barriers for the entrepreneurs and innovators out there tackling problems big and small.
Our vision is that building the legal infrastructure for a global tech company will be as easy as building the IT infrastructure for an app: A set of legal standards that works globally, customizable to your needs with the click of a button, with standard protocols for business-to-business interaction, contracting, and dispute resolution. All backed by a global network of experts who are passionate about innovation and helping entrepreneurs overcome legal challenges.
Every day is a step toward this vision. Check out the promises to our customers that we have defined as guiding principles to get us there: https://www.lexr.com/en-ch/about-us/