Formation

The standard for startup formation.
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Avoid Problems with Legal Paperwork
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EIN Application for Non-US Founders
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Collaborate with Co-Founders and Attorneys
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Apply for Corporate Bank Account
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Get a Legal Dashboard for Fundraising and Hiring
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Perks & Discounts

Avoid Problems with Legal Paperwork

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Most startups have problems with their legal paperwork. Clerky helps you avoid that, providing you with the best chance of getting your legal paperwork done correctly online. We started Clerky specifically to help founders avoid problems from using other online services or low-quality lawyers.

100% Complete

Clerky is the only online service that helps founders do formation paperwork the same way top Silicon Valley law firms do. Other online services only offer part of the full set of formation paperwork, or do them in a non-standard way.

Founded by Startup Attorneys

Clerky is led by two startup attorneys who are obsessive about helping startups avoid costly problems with legal paperwork. They saw how other online services created problems for their clients, and founded Clerky to stop that from happening to anyone else.

Collaborate Easily

Co-Founders

We know that company formation is often a collaborative process, especially for startups with multiple founders. We've built features that let you easily assign tasks to co-founders and work on everything together.

Your Attorney

Many startups use Clerky on their own, but many also use Clerky with their attorneys. Our software is designed to facilitate collaboration, with features that allow startup attorneys to easily look over and customize documents.

Get a Legal Dashboard for Fundraising and Hiring

Forming a startup on Clerky enables access to a legal dashboard that makes it easy to do additional legal paperwork. Issue safes or convertible notes. Hire employees, consultants, and advisors, and issue stock or stock options as equity compensation.

View our Fundraising and Hiring product lines.

Pre-fill IRS forms with information from your legal paperwork. We'll fax them to the IRS and wait for the IRS to fax your EIN back. We do all the work 100% in-house instead of outsourcing, to minimize delays and make sure your information is secure.

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We make it easy to apply for a corporate bank account with the most popular startup banks. Pre-fill information from your legal paperwork to save time and hassle.

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Perks & Discounts

Access deals from best-in-class services.

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All Formation Products

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Post-Incorporation Setup

Elect directors, appoint officers, adopt bylaws, issue stock with customizable vesting, and protect the company's intellectual property.

Includes:

  • Action of Incorporator
  • Bylaws
  • Initial Board Consent
  • Restricted Stock Purchase Agreements
  • Notices of Stock Issuance
  • Pre-filled 83(b) Election and Filing Instructions
    • Automated Reminders 📅
  • Confidential Information and Invention Assignment Agreements
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Fundraising

Over $5 billion raised from over 1,000 top seed investors.
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Financing Checklist
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Fully Customizable
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Signature Escrow
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Attorney Compatible

Financing Checklist

Our financing checklist makes it easy to keep track of which investors still need to sign or wire funds, so you never have to worry about not fully closing an investor. It also helps ensure your startup does a board consent before issuing any safes or convertible notes, so that your financing is legally effective.

Signature Escrow

Just like how a law firm would do it. Collect and hold onto electronic signatures from your investors until you see the funds hit your company's bank account. This helps you avoid a situation where you issue a safe or convertible note to someone, but they don't send you the money (more common than you might think).

Fully Customizable

Investor insists on changing a term? No problem. Safes and convertible notes are fully customizable on Clerky, at a per-investor level. And if you end up making a customization that you want to use for the rest of your round, we can create a custom template for you for an additional fee.

Attorney Compatible

Keep your attorney in the loop as you add new investors. Automatically set your startup attorney as a reviewer for each safe or convertible note you issue. Or if you prefer, automatically set them as an observer so they'll receive the finalized documents each time you close an investor.

All Fundraising Products

Supported Financing Types

Safes

Convertible Notes

Major Variants
Valuation Cap
Discount
Valuation Cap & Discount

Hiring

Comprehensive legal paperwork for employees, consultants, and advisors.
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Managed Forms
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Attorney Compatible
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Equity Compensation

Managed Forms

Don't wait until a financing or acquisition to find out you've been using outdated forms.

We proactively monitor regulations, case law, and industry best practices to make sure you're always using state-of-the-art forms. If something changes, we'll ask you if you want to upgrade to the new forms.

Equity Compensation

Issue restricted stock or stock options to employees, consultants, and advisors. We support early-exercise stock options, as well as customizable post-termination exercise periods. Our software will even send 83(b) election reminders.

Attorney Compatible

Add your startup attorney or paralegal as a team collaborator, and they can automatically receive a copy of the final documents whenever you hire someone or issue equity compensation.

All Hiring Products

New Hire Paperwork

State of the art templates for hiring employees, consultants, and advisors, and for protecting your company's intellectual property.

Includes:

  • Offer Letters
  • Consulting Agreements
  • Advisor Agreements
  • Confidential Information and Invention Assignment Agreements

Equity Compensation

Everything you need to issue equity compensation to employees, consultants, and advisors out of your company's stock plan.

Includes:

  • Board Consents
  • Restricted Stock Issuance
  • Regular Stock Option Issuance
  • Early Exercisable Stock Option Issuance
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Commercial

Protect your company when doing business with other companies.
Non-Disclosure Agreements
  • One-Way
  • Mutual

Maintenance

When you need to tweak how your company is set up, we've got you covered.
Charter Amendments
  • Name Change
  • Increase Authorized Shares
Board Consents
  • Add or Remove Directors
  • Add or Remove Officers
Incorporate your startup today!
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