As part of the Girişim Fabrikası BİGG Acceleration Program, on 17 November 2018 the core legal topics on the path from idea to exit were shared with founders by Vircon Legal co-founder Erdem Mümtaz Hacıpaşaoğlu and team member Seren Deniz. See our Startup Law practice.
What founders sign when they join a program
Acceleration and incubation programs are the first counterparties most startups negotiate with, and the terms are easy to accept without reading. Three points deserve attention: whether the program takes equity and on what instrument, whether any output produced during the program belongs to the company, and what the program may say publicly about the venture. Programs that take a small stake often do so through a convertible instrument, so the conversion terms — including whether the notes are uncapped — determine the real cost years later.
The environment matters too. Shared workspaces, mentors who advise several cohort members and a demo day that is a public disclosure all create confidentiality questions the program agreement usually does not resolve. Founders who have already signed a co-founder agreement and put vesting in place enter a pre-accelerator in a much stronger position. See the Startup Law in Türkiye guide.
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