[Platinum] Investment contracts as told by a lawyer specializing in startups.

[Startup, Grab My Hand #4] What a Startup Specialist Lawyer Says About Investment Contracts

Following the publication of an article on January 26th regarding term sheets necessary for investment contracts, Yoon Pil-gu, CEO of Bigbay Son Capital, expressed his opinion through a Facebook page comment: “It's good information, but the trap is that it’s difficult to accurately understand the meaning of these terms without experiencing them through actual contracts.”

I agreed. Startups unfamiliar with contracts would find it difficult to truly experience a contract, even if they hear explanations of basic formats. So, I sought out a startup specialist lawyer working in the field.

Choi Seong-ho, lawyer at Law firm Veat, was once an engineering student who dreamed of being a venture entrepreneur. He leverages his understanding and expertise in the IT industry to primarily handle startups. He currently serves as legal counsel for companies like PartyGames, Hyper Connect, and Dunamu. I heard from Lawyer Choi about what startups should be aware of when entering investment contracts.

Please introduce yourself.

I am a working lawyer who once dreamed of being a venture entrepreneur. I enrolled in the Seoul National University Computer Science Department in 2000 with the dream of being a venture entrepreneur. It was due to the venture boom that swept the nation in the late 1990s. However, once I enrolled, the boom disappeared as if by magic. In a situation where the flow had been significantly reversed, the era shifted towards medical and law schools, so I decided to pursue that path. It was a time of much deliberation between what I wanted to do and the flow of the times.

I began studying law because I thought lawyers were weak in the IT field. To this day, fewer than 10 people from my department have become lawyers. It was a unique case, and even my classmates were amazed.

I’ve always been interested in startups, so I ended up handling startup cases. There aren't many lawyers specializing in this area either. Having studied IT, I thought I could also provide feedback and, if a network was needed, I could serve as a bridge.

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Thank you.

Law firm Veat