Legal support when a founder exits your startup

It is commonly useful when a founder is leaving before product launch, during pilot stage, ahead of a raise, or around the time early hires are joining. At those points, unanswered questions about shares, IP ownership, confidentiality and decision-making can become more visible to investors and the remaining team. This service is suited to startups that want the departure documented properly rather than handled informally over email or chat messages. It is particularly helpful where the departing founder helped build the product, holds shares, or has access to sensitive information.

The main issues are usually ownership and control. That can include whether the founder keeps or transfers shares, whether any vesting or buy-back terms apply, whether they need to resign as a director, and whether all IP created for the startup has been assigned to the company. Confidential information, ongoing restrictions, and how the exit is described to investors or staff can also matter. If these points are left vague, the startup can run into problems later during due diligence, fundraising, or a disagreement between founders.

The service can include a founder exit deed or agreement, documents dealing with share transfer or cancellation, and IP assignment or confidentiality documents if the situation calls for them. We also look at how the documents fit together so the exit position is internally consistent. For example, if the founder is both a shareholder and a director, the paperwork may need to address more than one role. The exact mix depends on your startup's structure and the terms already in place between the founders, but the aim is broader offboarding support rather than a single standalone document.

That usually means the exit needs to deal with more than just a resignation. A shareholder position may raise questions about transfer rights, buy-back mechanics, vesting, valuation approach or existing shareholder restrictions. A director role may also need formal resignation steps and updates to company records. We can help prepare the legal documents that reflect those changes and explain how they fit together. If the matter turns into a live dispute or requires ongoing negotiation beyond the stated work, that would usually sit outside this fixed-fee service and be scoped separately.

Yes, although the work may involve more judgement if the founders never signed a detailed agreement at the start. In that situation, the legal documents often need to deal carefully with shares, contributions already made, ownership of code or other IP, and confidentiality going forward. Informal arrangements can be especially risky where one founder built part of the product or introduced key customers or investors. We can help put the exit terms into writing based on your instructions and the documents available, but the service is not a substitute for ongoing representation if the facts are contested.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Founder Offboarding Pack service, pricing starts from $1,200.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.