Case studies

Three matters, start to finish.

What it looks like to work with us on the things founders and investors come to us for most. Names and figures are changed to keep clients confidential; the shape of each matter is as it happened.

Founders · Seed round

A £750k seed round closed in nineteen days, without the founders learning what a drag-along is the hard way.

Who

Two-founder B2B software company, London, eight staff, first institutional money.

The problem

The lead investor sent a term sheet on a Friday with a ten-day exclusivity window. The founders had a cap table in a spreadsheet, option promises in Slack messages and no shareholders' agreement.

The result

Signed on day nineteen. The founders kept board control until the Series A, and the option pool was sized so the first three senior hires were covered without another dilution round.

What we did

Rebuilt the cap table on the platform, including the verbal option promises, so the pre-money was argued from one agreed table.
Marked up the term sheet the same weekend: the liquidation preference went from 1x participating to 1x non-participating, and the founder vesting restart was cut to a partial reset.
Ran the investor's due diligence list from the fundraise readiness checklist, with every gap closed by a filled-in document rather than a bespoke draft.
Drafted the subscription and shareholders' agreement and the EMI option scheme, and handled the Companies House filings on completion.

Seed round pack · Fundraise readiness

International founders · UK company

A Dubai-based founder trading in the UK within three weeks, with a bank account, a registered office and the paperwork investors expect.

Who

Solo founder of a consumer brand, resident in the UAE, selling to UK customers through a marketplace.

The problem

Sales were going through a personal account. A UK retailer wanted a UK entity to contract with, and a UK investor would only look at a UK company with a clean cap table.

The result

The retailer contract was signed in week four. The investor's first question, "is it a UK company with one class of share?", had a one-word answer.

What we did

Incorporated a private limited company with a London registered office and the founder as sole director and shareholder, on the £499 fixed-fee package.
Completed the director identity verification and the persons-with-significant-control register that Companies House now checks.
Put in place consumer terms of sale, a privacy policy and the marketplace-compliant returns terms from the template library.
Set the share structure so a later ASA or SAFE could be signed without a restructure.

UK company package · Consumer terms template

Grants and programmes · Innovate UK

A £240k grant application that was written once, properly, instead of three times in a hurry.

Who

Deep-tech company, Manchester, four founders from a university lab, pre-revenue.

The problem

Two earlier applications had been rejected with the comment that the commercial plan and the IP position were unclear. The deadline for the next round was five weeks away.

The result

Funded on the third attempt, with the assessor's feedback noting the IP position as a strength. The collaboration agreement was signed inside the offer window.

What we did

Started with the funding finder to confirm the programme fit and the documents the competition brief actually asks for.
Sorted the IP first: the university spin-out agreement, the assignments from the four founders and a licence back, so the application could state who owned what in one paragraph.
Wrote the legal and governance sections of the application and reviewed the commercial sections against the assessors' scoring criteria.
Prepared the collaboration agreement with the university partner so it was ready for the grant offer conditions.

Funding finder · Grant and programme applications

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