D DEED
DEED FOR STARTUP FOUNDERS

DILIGENCE, ALREADY DONE.

Every founder, contractor and asset assigned to the company, so the IP question in due diligence takes an hour instead of a month.

THE SITUATION

Every startup builds its early product with a mix of cofounders, friends, contractors and prototypes made before the company existed. The company is legally supposed to own all of it. It rarely does.

The gap is invisible until a term sheet arrives. Then the diligence checklist asks for every IP assignment ever signed, and the founders discover that the most important asset in the deck is only partially theirs.

THE RISKS

WHAT BREAKS.

01
PRE INCORPORATION CODE
The MVP written before the company existed, never assigned to it.
02
COFOUNDER LEAVES
A cofounder walks with a laptop full of code that was never contractually the company's.
03
CONTRACTOR GAP
External developers or designers whose contracts had no IP assignment clause.
04
NDA WITHOUT ASSIGNMENT
NDAs that protect secrets but assign nothing.
05
AI IN THE STACK
Product built with AI tools whose training data raises questions an acquirer will ask.
HOW DEED HELPS

FOUR STEPS.

01DROP

Upload every contract, offer letter and contractor agreement you can find.

02EXAMINE

Deed reads the stack and shows you what is properly assigned and what is not.

03EXECUTE

Send retroactive assignment requests, updated agreements and cofounder IP transfers as signable links.

04DEFEND

A single record you can hand to diligence lawyers, with every signature in place.

QUESTIONS
+What is technology assignment and why does diligence care?
It is the paper that says the company, not a founder or contractor, owns the code and the brand. Investors care because without it, the company might not own what it is selling.
+How do I fix a missing assignment now?
Deed drafts a retroactive assignment and sends it to the person to sign. Once signed, it is added to the record with a timestamp.
+Do we need to track AI tools in our stack?
Yes. Acquirers are starting to ask. Deed keeps a record of which tools produced which artefacts and under what terms.

START A DEED.

DROP ANYTHING ↓
ALSO ON DEED
DEED FOR
DEVELOPERS
Contractor and open source contributions on record, so your code is yours or your company's, without ambiguity.
OPEN →
DEED FOR
AGENCIES
Client contracts, contractor assignments and clearances all on one record, so the shop and the client both know what they own.
OPEN →
DEED FOR
FREELANCERS
Signed scope, a payment gate and a clean handover, so freelance work does not turn into unpaid work with borrowed IP.
OPEN →
SEE ALL 20 CRAFTS →