standardized seed financing docs for canucks

Some of my loyal readers may recall one of my posts earlier this year about the development of standardized seed financing docs in the US, where there were, at the time, about four different sets of docs which had been developed. It pointed to a more detailed article by Brad Feld. In any event, I had asked the question whether anyone was aware of a similar initiative in Canada but didn’t hear from anyone. Was actually going to try doing it myself, but free work that you give away sometimes goes quickly to the back burner (or rather off the stove altogether) when things get busy. Least that’s my excuse.

In any event, I was very happy to hear that someone in Canada has in fact undertaken this initiative. The folks at MaRS here in Toronto, and in particular Mark Zimmerman, have apparently developed a nice set of Canadianized templates, including a term sheet (.doc) a subscription agreement (.doc), articles of amendment (.doc) and a shareholders’ agreement (.doc), with a founder’s agreement and employment agreement in the work. They already have a template independent contractor agreement (.doc).

I haven’t had a chance to look at them, but if you happen to need a set of seed round docs, and you’re here in the great white north, I’d encourage you to check them out. The folks at MaRS deserve a pat on the back for taking the initiative.

Tip o’ the fedora to Jonathan Polak for bringing this to my attention.

standardized seed financing docs

Great article by Brad Feld on attempts to draw up standardized seed round funding documents. According to Brad there have now been four different sets of template documents developed in the US for use in seed round financings, each of which is a little bit different. He is now attempting to reach out to some US law firms in an attempt to come up with one single set for the US. Why? To reduce the inevitable haggling and negotiation over terms and reduce legal fees.

If you’re looking for first round financing, worth taking a look at just to get a sense of what sort of terms have achieved some measure of acceptance as being “market” (or at least that some VCs and entrepreneurs can agree on). That being said, if you’re in Canada, some of the things won’t quite work due to differences in the law.

Seems like a great idea. Anyone aware of an initiative like this in Canada?