Most startups don't die from bad products. They die from legal time bombs they set in the first 6 months.

After tracking hundreds of startup legal disputes, here are the three that show up over and over:

1. Handshake equity splits

You and your co-founder agreed to 50/50 over beers. No vesting schedule, no cliff, no written agreement. Six months later, one of you wants out — and they own half your company free and clear. A proper founders' agreement with 4-year vesting and a 1-year cliff costs less than a single month of runway.

2. Using a template Delaware C-Corp filing and calling it done

Delaware is usually the right call. But the incorporation is step one of twenty. Your bylaws, board consent, IP assignment agreements, and 83(b) elections all need to happen within specific windows. Miss your 83(b) filing by even a day and you could owe six figures in taxes on stock that's worth nothing yet.

3. Shipping without Terms of Service

Every user who touches your product without a TOS and Privacy Policy is a liability you can't unwind retroactively. This isn't just about GDPR fines — it's about whether your user data is actually yours, whether you can enforce arbitration, and whether one angry customer can drag you into a class action.

The pattern is always the same: founders treat legal as a "later" problem until it becomes a "now" emergency — and emergencies cost 10x what prevention does.

At Verdict Daily, I break down exactly these kinds of issues every single day — court rulings, regulatory changes, and compliance strategies translated for founders who'd rather build than read case law.