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The most common question about by Truemors post (besides “How could you be so dumb as to think this could be a real business?”), was about what I got for $4,824.13 in legal fees. The fees covered the following:

  • Trademarking Truemors

  • Drafting a Terms of Use

  • Discussion of copyright, liability, infringement, IP, and insurance issues

  • Organizational resolutions and bylaws

  • Stock purchase agreements

You could do less legal work and do it cheaper, but if you ever want to raise venture capital much less go public or get acquired for more than scrap value, this is not the place to save a few thousand bucks. If you’re negotiating an investment or a liquidity event, you want someone who worked at Brobeck, Baker & McKenzie, and Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati—as opposed to your uncle the divorce lawyer from Penny, Wise, & Pound Foolish or myinstantincorporation4less.com—not only for her expertise but to show opposing counsel that you’re not clueless.

If you don’t use a law firm that’s “in the know” at the very start, you will probably have to undo or redo a lot of things. However, this time, you’ll be using $500/hour lawyers, so the couple of thousand bucks that you saved in the beginning is going to look mighty expensive. Lawyers are like oil filters: You can pay now or you can pay later.


By the way, you will enjoy this is a comment on the Truemors site regarding how I over-spent on the design of Truemors:

Yup, I am a webdesigner! I got a computer for my birthday and it has Frontpage and everything. I can design any page you need! Just leave me your mail and I will write you!