Real-World Scenarios & Access

Do I need employment contracts and IP assignment from my co-founders and first employees, or is a handshake fine?

A starting point

A handshake means your co-founder can legally walk with a chunk of the IP and equity, so never operate on trust alone here. Every founder and employee needs a written agreement assigning all work product to the company plus vesting on founder equity, signed before serious building starts. This is the single most common gap that kills Indian startups at diligence, so close it early and cheaply.

Go deeper

Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time.

2 resources 2 link-checked Read Use

Read

📄 Article
✓ Link checked India Free Beginner

Why we picked it The single clearest explanation of the two documents Indian founders confuse: the founders' agreement (equity, vesting, roles, IP, departure, signed at or before incorporation) versus the shareholders' agreement (investor voting rights, drag/tag, reserved matters, signed at your raise). It nails the timing rule that trips people up: sign before shares are issued, because you cannot bolt vesting onto already-issued shares without every founder consenting. It is blunt that IP a founder built before incorporation belongs to that founder personally until a formal IP Assignment moves it to the company, which is exactly what breaks a diligence during your first term sheet.

Founders' Agreement: Definition, Key Clauses, and Template for Indian Startups

From EquityList by EquityList 15 min read

  • Founders' agreement governs the co-founder relationship; the shareholders' agreement layers in investor protections later, they are not the same document
  • Sign at or before incorporation and always before shares are issued, or vesting cannot be applied retroactively
  • Pre-incorporation IP stays with the individual founder until a formal IP Assignment Agreement transfers it to the company
Open equitylist.co →

Use

📋 Template
✓ Link checked India Free Beginner

Why we picked it This is a ready-to-fill IP assignment and confidentiality agreement hosted on the government's own Startup India portal, so it is drafted for Indian law and free to use. It gives a non-lawyer the actual assignment and confidentiality language to adapt for a developer and get signed. Treat it as a starting point: it is written employer to employee, so swap the party labels for a contractor engagement and, ideally, have a lawyer glance at the final version.

Confidentiality and Intellectual Property Assignment Agreement Template (India)

From Startup India (startupindia.gov.in) by Startup India (Invest India) 6-page fillable template

  • A complete, fillable IP assignment plus confidentiality template with blanks for the parties, drafted for the Indian context.
  • Comes from the official Startup India (Invest India) portal, so it is a credible free base rather than a random web template.
  • Framed employee to employer, so adapt the party terms for a freelancer and, when the code really matters, run the final draft past a lawyer.
Open startupindia.gov.in →

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