Get two or three names by referral from founders who have just closed a round, your investors or your incubator, then hire for the specific job: ask how many deals like yours (a seed round, an ESOP plan, a flip to Delaware) they have done recently, who will actually do the work, how they bill, and get the fee in writing before work starts. For patents, trademarks and designs, a DPIIT-recognised startup can use a Startup India facilitator whose fee the government pays, leaving only the statutory fee. Routine incorporation and filings can go to a CA or company secretary; bring in a lawyer when the work is not standard: an unusual founder split, a shareholders' agreement or term sheet, IP from a previous job, or a cross-border structure. Read Startup India's sample shareholders' agreement first, so the first meeting is about your deal.
A US-written but portable guide to finding a startup lawyer: referrals from lawyers and founders you trust, events and directories, and the questions to ask on experience, industry and fee structure before you hire.
The official explainer of the concrete money DPIIT-recognised startups get on IP, an 80% patent-fee rebate, 50% trademark-fee rebate, and government-paid facilitators. This is the single best reason to get DPIIT recognition early if you'll file anything, and it comes straight from the source, not a paid-service blog.
The India-specific counterpart to the Delaware question, from Razorpay's own founder-incorporation arm. It confirms a Pvt Ltd is fully filable yourself on the MCA portal without a CA, that platforms bundle drafting plus government liaison for less than a traditional CA's fee, and then names the exact cases where you actually need a professional: foreign directors, funding-grade financial projections, and multi-state or international GST and tax compliance.
This is the government's own sample SHA, published on the official Startup India (DPIIT) templates page alongside term sheets and founder agreements, so it is a durable, no-cost drafting starting point that already reflects Indian company-law structure. Its drag-along clause, for instance, spells out the 30-day notice mechanics you would otherwise pay a lawyer to draft from scratch. Draft from this, then pay a lawyer once to make it real for your cap table.
From
Startup Indiaby Startup India (Invest India, DPIIT)13-page template
A free, government-published SHA sample you can open, edit, and take to a lawyer instead of paying to draft from a blank page
Includes the load-bearing exit clauses (drag-along with a 30-day notice period, tag-along, transfer restrictions) that a plain paper founders agreement omits
Sits on the official Startup India tools page with matching term-sheet and founder-agreement templates, so the whole early-stage document set comes from one trusted source
This is the government's own checklist, so it settles the entity question straight: Pvt Ltd if you plan to raise (investors cannot hold shares in an LLP), LLP or OPC if you are bootstrapping services. It walks the same first-weeks moves the answer names (MCA incorporation, DPIIT recognition to unlock tax and IP benefits, GST once you cross the threshold, sector licenses) from the source that defines them, not a reseller's blog.
Jose Ancer is a working startup lawyer, and this is his clear line between what a filing tool handles and what needs actual counsel. He endorses Clerky and Stripe Atlas for standard formation, then draws the hard boundary: do not use a tool (or AI) to negotiate your term sheet, key-employee, or investor relationships, and run a lawyer in the loop so no contextual nuance quietly busts the standardized terms.
