Corporate law as part of the EXIST support program
The event took place on 29.06.2021 with 25 participants with the aim to familiarize current and former EXIST funded teams with the topic of corporate law. The lecture was organized as part of the accompanying program for teams funded by EXIST. It was organized by ENI and the Startup Center of the HdM, supported by TTI GmbH.
As part of the EXIST funding program, the event was about giving startups an overview on the topic of corporate law. In connection with this, Dr. Stefan Reuter & Stefan Gugel were invited as legal experts from BRP Renaud und Partner mbB. After a short introduction, the interesting lecture started. The focus was on raising awareness of different corporate forms. Basically the differences between the corporate forms partnership and corporation as well as their advantages and disadvantages were explained. In liability matters they differ very clearly. It also became clear that legal framework conditions are important for all business actions and that persons can already form a legally valid company form without consciously doing so. In order to be able to give the participants first helpful tips, the necessities and "best practices" in connection with articles of association were discussed in more detail. In a further round of discussion, these questions were clarified in more detail. One important piece of advice given in this context saves startups time and money: "It is ideal if the founders/shareholders brainstorm about the most important points in advance and record them. If it goes further into detail & the conversion of obligations into legal texts, an important building block should be available to the lawyers & make it possible to transfer these faster into a legally binding formulation.
Finally, the central message was to inform oneself fundamentally about the legal forms and to create an awareness of one's actions. Accordingly, it would be possible to deal with consequences and to assess them better. Suitably in addition a quotation of Stefan Gugel: "Company contracts are central points of negotiation with interest of an investor. This can also be adapted accordingly afterwards."