In early August 2019, Vircon Legal was at Özyeğin University for TÜBİTAK BİGG program trainings. The sessions focused most heavily on investment, personal data protection (KVKK), incorporating in the United States and the mandatory post-incorporation steps that follow.
Grant money and foreign structures pull in opposite directions
A TÜBİTAK BiGG grant is awarded to a Turkish company for a defined project, and the resulting intellectual property and reporting obligations attach to that company. A US entity set up later for investors sits above it. Founders who plan a flip-up without checking the grant’s conditions first can find that the asset investors are buying is not where they assumed it was.
Post-incorporation is the other half, and it is where most of the avoidable cost sits. A newly formed company has to actually issue its shares, put founder vesting in place, keep a cap table that matches its own records, and — once it processes personal data at scale — assess whether VERBİS registration is required. A 409A valuation becomes relevant only once US options are granted. See the US flip-up checklist and the VERBİS registration checklist.
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If this is on your desk
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