Agree equity, vesting, roles, IP, decision making and what happens if a founder leaves – before you incorporate or as soon as you start.
Starting a business
Founders’ Agreement
About this document
A binding agreement between the founders of a new venture, signed before or shortly after the company is formed. It records who owns what, how founder shares vest, what each founder will do, that the business owns the IP, how decisions are made and what happens when a founder leaves.
The document is laid out in the sections below. Each one comes with a plain-English guidance note explaining what it does and what to change.
Our templates are professionally structured starting points for UK businesses, not legal advice. For anything complex, unusual or high-value, have your final version checked by a solicitor.
Included in the pack
Starting a business
for every document in this category
Editable Microsoft Word files
Guidance notes in every document
Written for UK businesses
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