Key Legal Documents for Your Startup Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso — your daily shot of startup funding and investing. There are several key legal documents every startup will use. Here’s a list of those documents: Business Entity filing — this establishes the legal entity of the business, such as a Delaware C Corp, an LLC, or other. Non-compete documents — employees sign these to prevent competition with the company. Non-disclosure agreements — the employees sign these to prevent them from sharing confidential information with others. Intellectual property assignment — the employees turn over rights to all IP discovered while working with the company. Employment agreements – set forth the rules for working with the company as an employee. Patents/trademarks — startups use these to protect their intellectual property. Contracts — startups use these to set the rules of engagement with clients, suppliers, and partners. Terms of service — this establishes the rules relating to the use of the firm’s products and services. Capitalization table — lists the owners of the entity with their number of shares and percent of ownership. Make sure you have these documents in order in your startup. Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding. Let’s go startup something today. _______________________________________________________ For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/ For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/ For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/ For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/ For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/ For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group Please follow, share, and leave a review. Music courtesy of Bensound.

Copyright (c) 2026, Hall Martin and investorconnect.org. All rights reserved.

Disclaimer:
Hall T Martin is the director of Investor Connect, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to the education of investors for early-stage funding. All opinions expressed by Hall and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Investor Connect. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for the basis of investment decisions.