I'm doing a paid pilot with a big company and they sent a 20-page contract. What clauses actually matter?
The short answer
The clauses that will hurt you are IP ownership (do not let them own what you build for other clients), liability caps (never accept unlimited liability), payment terms and late fees, and exclusivity or non-compete language that could lock you out of their whole industry. Read those four first and push back in writing, because enterprise contracts are drafted to protect them, not you. If the deal is meaningful, spend on one hour of a lawyer's time to redline it: it is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy.
Go deeper, your way
3 hand-picked resources, 3 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
📄 Article
✓ Link checkedFreeBeginner
Why we picked it
Written by a founder-side sales veteran, this walks the exact traps in a big-company paper: net 90-120 payment terms you should push down, IP ownership of derivative work so you can still build the same feature for the next client, disguised termination-for-convenience, most-favored-customer pricing clauses, and capping indemnity and liability (which he flags as the most contentious). It is the plain-English map of what to read first before a lawyer even opens the file.
Why we picked it
A startup lawyer's clause-by-clause breakdown from the vendor side: it explains that a liability cap does not erase risk, it prices it, and that the carve-outs (data breach, IP indemnity, gross negligence) are where startups get silently exposed even when the headline cap looks safe. It also nails the IP trap you asked about: vague ownership language that bleeds into templates, connectors, and background tech you need for your other customers.
Why we picked it
Our advice about protecting yourself with clean renewal and termination terms only works if the paper is right, and Indian enterprise paper carries traps a global guide misses: net-90 approval chains that strand your runway, GST inclusive-versus-exclusive fights, and TDS handling. This checklist, anchored to the Indian Contract Act and DPDP Act, tells an Anywhere Founder exactly which clauses to fix before signing the logo's own MSA.
Split the deal into an MSA (legal terms) plus an order form (plan, price, term, billing, renewal) so your commercials, including any uplift, live where you can defend them
Nail GST treatment (inclusive vs exclusive) and TDS upfront, and never accept net-90 or buyer-side approval language without checking it against your runway
Do not sign the enterprise's own MSA fast just because the logo matters: renewal, price-increase, and termination wording are where founders quietly give away protection
