The Journal
Plain-English legal writing for founders building in Asia.
Field notes on fundraising, contracts and compliance from the desk of a fractional general counsel. No billable-hour jargon, just the calls we would make if it were our company.
Latest writing
Showing 1 to 6 of 19 articles.
- Fundraising
The founder's guide to SAFEs in Singapore
A SAFE is four pages that decide who owns your company. Here is how the valuation cap, the discount and the pro-rata line actually behave when the round converts, and the two edits worth making before you sign.
Daniel Kung
9 min read
- Contracts
Intellectual property protection for startups: how to safeguard your brand, software and innovation as you grow
IP problems rarely announce themselves early. They surface during fundraising, acquisitions or founder disputes, exactly when they are hardest to fix. Here is how to make sure the company actually owns what it has built.
Daniel Kung
6 min read
- Contracts
Contracts and commercial agreements for startups: how to draft, negotiate and manage agreements as you scale
Contracts rarely cause problems when they are signed. They become painful once the startup has grown around them. Here is how to draft agreements that scale with the business instead of quietly working against it.
Daniel Kung
5 min read
- Compliance
Data privacy and data protection compliance for startups: how to comply with GDPR, PDPA, CCPA and other privacy laws while scaling
Data privacy laws apply earlier than most founders expect, and they are triggered by what you process, not how big you are. A practical, risk-based approach to privacy compliance as you scale across borders.
Daniel Kung
5 min read
- Contracts
Don't get burned: five contract mistakes startups make (and how to avoid them)
Startups often overlook contracts until it is too late, leading to IP disputes, compliance issues and messy exits. Five common legal mistakes, and how founders fix them before they cost time, money or trust.
Daniel Kung
4 min read
- Company setup
Entity structuring and jurisdiction strategy for startups: how to choose the right setup from day one
The jurisdiction and structure you pick in week one shapes every fundraise, hire and exit that follows. Restructuring later means tax analysis, share swaps and investor consent, so it pays to get this right from day one.
Daniel Kung
5 min read
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