Term Sheet Review

Founders tend to focus on the valuation and the cheque size, which are the least negotiable and least dangerous parts. The terms that quietly decide your future sit elsewhere: the liquidation preference and whether it is participating, the anti-dilution protection and whether it is full ratchet or broad-based weighted average, the board composition and who controls it, the protective provisions and reserved matters that hand the investor a veto, the founder vesting and the lock-in on your own shares, and the drag-along, tag-along, and exit rights. Our team explains each of these in plain terms and shows you how it plays out in the scenarios that actually occur.

What distinguishes Law Mahaguru is that we read the term sheet as a founder’s protector, not as a deal cheerleader. We flag the clauses that are market-standard and the ones that are unusually aggressive, we tell you which battles are worth fighting and which are not, and we help you counter on the points that genuinely matter for your control, your dilution, and your eventual exit. A founder who understands the term sheet negotiates from confidence rather than from fear of losing the round.

We also catch the traps hidden in the binding portions, the exclusivity and no-shop clauses that lock you out of other investors, and the confidentiality and cost provisions that can bind you even if the deal collapses. These are the parts founders most often sign without reading, and exactly where we focus first.

We work with first-time founders facing their earliest term sheet, experienced founders weighing a competitive round, and startups comparing offers from multiple investors. Each receives a clear, clause-by-clause read and a practical view of what to accept, push back on, or walk away from.

The term sheet is the moment to negotiate, because everything afterward simply implements it. Law Mahaguru makes sure you negotiate it with your eyes open. Send us the term sheet on your desk, and we will tell you what it really says before you sign your future to it.