Expert legal advice and guidance
We understand the challenges of starting up and growing a new business. Arguably, the birth of a new company is the time when specialist legal support is most urgently required. Unfortunately, this also happens to be the time when financial resources are at their most scarce.
Our specialist Early Stage Advisory Team is dedicated to providing common sense, commercial and value added advice and support to entrepreneurs, start ups and early stage businesses, including university "spin-outs".
Unlike many professional advisers, we recognise the importance of using senior, more experienced lawyers, to support the development of our early stage clients.
Our 15-lawyer team comprises 8 partners and 7 other senior qualified solicitors who advise early stage clients on a broad range of matters, including venture capital and angel investment, IP protection and commercialisation and general legal compliance.
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High growth potential technology companies
Most of our early stage clients are technology ventures, operating across a broad spectrum of sectors including:
- Micro-electronics
- Media and web-based technology
- Telecoms
- Environmental and "clean" technology
- Biotechnology and medical devices
- Advanced engineering technology
Helping you understand potential challenges
We have worked with hundreds of early stage companies. Many of our clients have gone on to become very successful international businesses.
Although no two businesses are the same, many will face similar challenges. We work closely with entrepreneurs to help them understand the often complex legal issues that they are likely to face when starting and growing a new business.
We typically hold initial, free of charge, review meetings with our clients at which these challenges are identified. We then work with the entrepreneurs to find cost-effective ways to deal with those challenges.
This approach is designed to help entrepreneurs avoid potentially expensive or even business-terminal pitfalls that they might otherwise unknowingly fall into.
If you would like to take advantage of our initial free consultation, please contact Nathan Guest or David Scott.
Cost effective advice and support
We have created a range of bespoke template documents and checklists that can be provided to our early stage clients for free or at low fixed fees.
We have also developed guidance notes on many of the key legal issues affecting early stage companies, including corporate structuring and IP protection, which are provided either at no cost or at heavily discounted rates.
For details of our fees and how we add value to your business, please contact Nathan Guest or David Scott.
Help where and when you need it
Entrepreneurs are under significant time pressure as they focus on getting a new business off the ground in a challenging commercial environment. We recognise that entrepreneurs often need commercial and pragmatic advice to be provided without delay.
Using our considerable experience of working with entrepreneurs and early stage businesses, our team of experienced lawyers is on hand to respond quickly with appropriate advice and guidance to support you through this challenging phase.
Our commitment to the early stage sector
As a commercial business ourselves, we recognise the importance of making a valuable contribution to UK enterprise.
As part of our commitment to the early stage sector, we operate a weekly "Lawyer-in-Residence" service at SETsquared Bristol - the University of Bristol's high growth business acceleration centre. Under this free scheme, one of the Partners or other senior members of the Early Stage Advisory team provides a weekly three hour "drop in" service for SETsquared members and their founders.
We also support a number of other start up and entrepreneurship programmes, including the University of Bristol’s “Basecamp” which encourages and supports student enterprise.
Nathan Guest, Head of Early Stage Advisory, is a member of the Bristol & Bath Enterprise Network’s Advisory Group
Using our networks
They say that succeeding in business is often as much about who you know as what you know. We make every effort to "connect" our clients to other contacts who may be able to add value to the venture.
We work closely with a number of Universities as well as other groups who operate in the early stage sector, including SETsquared Bristol, Bath Ventures, UWE Ventures, the National Microelectronics Institute and Science City Bristol/BEN.
We also have a significant number of contacts from among the venture capital and angel investor community.
What clients say
Don’t just take our word for it that we are the appropriate lawyers for your early stage business – see What our clients say.
Full service
VwV is a full service law firm. By engaging us, you have access to comprehensive commercial legal services delivered by teams of specialist lawyers, which means we can advise you on any legal issue that you face as a business, including venture capital and angel fundraising, legal structures and governance, tax planning, share and other inventive schemes and tax compliance, IP protection, exploitation and commercialisation, niche technology and information systems, commercial contracts, HR & employment, property leases and other real estate matters.
