I’ll be highlighting a few documents a startup should have, and why they need those documents. These documents are what we lawyers would say are sine qua non to your existence as a startup, which is simply lawyer speak for ‘essential, an absolute requirement, important, vital, crucial, etc’.
What is vesting? Vesting is the manner in which founders (or employees) of a company ‘earn’ beneficial, real, actual, substantive ownership of their shares in a company through periodic installments. So on Day 1 of the Company’s incorporation Tina and Tom would, on paper, own 50% of the Company’s shares at the CAC
A well drafted Founder’s Agreement would contain some basic clauses which include capitalization, Decision Making, IP Assignment, Vesting, Confidentiality, Non-Circumvention, Roles & Responsibilities, Distributions, Exit and Dispute Resolution. Other clauses specific to each founders’ relationship should also be included.
CAMA is the law which strikes erring business entities or enables law abiding ones in Nigeria. CAMA (which refers to the Companies and Allied Matters Act, Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) is how Nigerian lawyers commonly refer to the law which regulates almost all business entities in Nigeria.