Startup Financing Lawyer for Founders, Startups and Investors

A financing round should bring capital in without creating problems you’ll regret in the next round. Braverman Law helps startups, founders and growth companies structure and close financing transactions with the cap table, founder control, and future diligence in mind.

We work on SAFEs, convertible notes, priced equity rounds, venture debt, and strategic investments. Based in New York, the firm works with clients nationally, including Delaware-organized companies raising or accepting investment.

Legal Counsel for Startup Financing and Fundraising

Financing documents affect more than who owns what today. They set ownership, control, board composition, protective provisions, information rights, transfer restrictions, and future dilution. They also determine what you’ll need to explain in the next round’s diligence process.

We help clients prepare for the round, respond to investor diligence, negotiate terms, and close the transaction. The goal is to protect your legal and economic position without stalling the deal.

Startup Financing Legal Services

Braverman Law assists with financing transactions and related legal work, including:

SAFE agreements, convertible notes and other early-stage financing documents
Priced equity rounds, including Series Seed, Series A, Series B and later stage financings
Venture debt and other debt-based financing arrangements
Strategic investments by corporate investors or industry partners
Corporate and securities-law issues that arise before, during, and after a financing

Who We Represent

Founders, Startups and Growth Companies

We represent founders and startups raising seed capital, negotiating SAFEs or convertible notes, preparing for institutional investment, or moving into a priced equity round. Clients range from early-stage companies raising their first outside money to later-stage startups in institutional rounds.

Not every financing is a Silicon Valley venture round. We also work with growing companies raising strategic capital, growth equity, or debt financing. How you structure the financing affects investor rights, governance, securities compliance, and future exit flexibility.

How We Help Before and During a Financing

1

Prepare for Investor Diligence

A financing round surfaces problems that were easy to ignore before investors showed up. Incomplete corporate records, undocumented founder equity, missing IP assignments, stale cap tables, inconsistent approvals, prior investor rights that conflict with the current deal. We help find and fix those issues before they slow things down.

2

Review and Negotiate Financing Terms

We help clients evaluate proposed terms — economics, control, investor rights, future financing flexibility, closing risk. That includes term sheets, SAFEs, notes, preferred stock documents, venture debt terms, and strategic investment structures.

3

Document and Close the Transaction

Once the path is set, we prepare, review, negotiate, and coordinate the legal documents needed to close. That includes financing instruments, board and stockholder approvals, investor questionnaires, disclosure schedules, closing certificates, securities filings, and updated corporate records.

SAFEs, Convertible Notes, Priced Rounds and Venture Debt

SAFEs dominate early-stage financings because they’re faster and cheaper than a priced equity round. For a deeper explanation of how SAFEs work and what founders should understand before signing, see our article What is a SAFE? A Founder’s Guide to Simple Agreements for Future Equity.

Later rounds typically involve preferred stock, investor rights agreements, governance changes, and more formal diligence. A priced round is a more complex transaction. The company issues equity at a negotiated valuation, creates or expands classes of preferred stock, and agrees to investor rights that affect control, future financing, and exit.

Venture debt can help companies extend runway or finance growth without immediately selling more equity. It brings debt-financing issues into the startup context, including financial covenants, repayment obligations, and security interests, together with warrants or other equity-linked features.

Representative Financing Matters

Representative matters include:

Represented a nationally known consumer products company in a $100 million strategic investment with a major media organization.
Represented a well-known entertainment venue in multiple capital raises totaling more than $20 million, supporting expansion across the United States.
Represented numerous startups in seed-financing transactions using convertible promissory notes and SAFE agreements, including clients that later joined Techstars and other incubators.
Represented the developer of an electronic trading platform in strategic venture capital investments by a consortium of banks and derivatives dealers totaling more than $20 million.
Represented an electronic leveraged loan platform in a strategic investment by investment banks.
Represented an electronic hardware manufacturing company in a $16 million Series C round.
Represented a software company in a $10 million Series B round.

What Our Clients Say

5.0 47 Google Reviews

I would not do another financing without them.

Founder of an automotive industry imaging software company

Adam has been instrumental in helping me start and operate my business.

E. Heller

What Working With Braverman Law Looks Like

The work depends on where you are in the financing. Some clients come in before they have documents. Others already have a term sheet, investor diligence requests, or a closing timeline. We start by identifying the transaction stage, the documents involved, the corporate cleanup needed, and the legal issues that could affect closing or the next round.

If the firm is a fit, the work is scoped around the financing itself: preparing or reviewing documents, negotiating terms, coordinating approvals, responding to diligence, addressing securities compliance, and keeping a clean record after closing.

Frequently Asked Questions

When in the fundraising process should I hire a startup financing lawyer?

Before you take outside money and before you sign a term sheet. Counsel can help you choose the right structure, clean up the cap table and corporate records, and spot document terms that could create legal, economic, or control problems in later rounds.

Which financing structure is right for our company?

The right choice depends on the company’s stage, the investors involved, the timing of the next round, and how much governance change the founders are willing to accept. SAFEs and convertible notes defer the valuation question. Priced rounds set it and bring preferred stock and investor rights. We help clients work through the tradeoffs and find the structure that fits both the current raise and the next one. For background on how SAFEs work, see What is a SAFE? A Founder’s Guide to Simple Agreements for Future Equity.

Can I raise money from friends and family who are not accredited investors?

This is a sensitive securities-law issue. Some exemptions allow sales to non-accredited investors, but they often require disclosures and investor protections that early-stage companies aren’t prepared to provide. A poorly structured friends-and-family round can create rescission risk, diligence problems, and potential founder liability. It can also jeopardize future financings if investors get skittish about securities-law violations. Get transaction-specific advice before including non-accredited investors.

How will this round affect our cap table?

Each financing structure dilutes existing equity differently, and the impact isn’t always visible at signing. SAFEs and notes convert later on terms set today — that’s when the ownership impact shows up. Priced rounds dilute at closing based on the agreed valuation. We can help founders model the ownership impact before signing so they understand what they’re giving up at conversion, not just at signing.

What will investors ask for during diligence?

Typical requests include formation documents, board and stockholder consents, the cap table and supporting documents, founder equity and vesting documentation, IP assignments, prior financing documents and side letters, option plans and grants, key commercial contracts, and any prior or pending claims. Investors at later stages send more structured request lists. We help clients prepare a data room, find gaps before investors do, and respond to requests without creating new problems in writing.

Do we need to convert our LLC to a Delaware C-corp before raising?

Many institutional investors won’t invest in an LLC, and SAFEs and convertible notes are typically written for corporations. If the company is an LLC, conversion to a Delaware C-corporation is often part of the pre-financing work. The conversion has tax, equity, and timing consequences that should be evaluated before the round gets serious, not in the middle of investor diligence.

What legal issues most often slow or damage a financing?

Common issues include:

Incomplete corporate records or missing approvals
Cap tables that do not match the underlying documents
Founder equity or vesting arrangements that were never properly documented
Intellectual property that was not assigned to the company
Federal or state securities compliance problems

How can I keep legal costs under control during a financing?

The best ways to control cost are to involve counsel before documents start circulating, keep corporate records and cap table organized, and use a clear scope for the work. For common startup financing matters, scoped or staged fee arrangements may be available depending on the transaction.

Does Braverman Law work with companies outside New York?

Yes. Braverman Law is based in New York and works with startup, private-company, founder, and investor clients nationally, including financing transactions involving Delaware-organized companies.

Contact Braverman Law to book your free assessment.