{"id":1583,"date":"2020-01-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/blog\/solosuit-launch-case-study\/"},"modified":"2021-03-05T06:56:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T06:56:53","slug":"solosuit-launch-case-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/blog\/solosuit-launch-case-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Early-stage company advice from a serial entrepreneur"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Running a business isn\u2019t for the faint of heart. According to a survey by Fundera<\/a>, small business owners tend to work a lot harder and earn a lot less than the average worker, with 81% working nights and 89% working weekends.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The only thing crazier than running a business: doing it while you\u2019re in school.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Enter George Simons, an MBA candidate at Brigham Young University, law school fellow, professional writer, and co-founder of multiple companies. One of the companies he\u2019s running is SoloSuit<\/a>, which helps people respond to their collection lawsuit. The software used by SoloSuit was developed in 2017 by LawX<\/a>, the legal design lab George participated in at BYU law school.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

While running a company, working several jobs, and going to school at the same time might seem crazy, George is using his position to inform his entrepreneurial inclinations. As he\u2019s studied and worked with a bunch of companies, he\u2019s seen his fair share of mistakes and is continually using what he\u2019s seen to inform how he runs SoloSuit.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Here\u2019s what George says companies should think about in their early stages.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Have a clear problem you\u2019re trying to fix<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

First things first: make sure your product or service solves a common problem. This is the best way to ensure your idea has legs and people will use it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In SoloSuit\u2019s case, George\u2019s LawX design lab noticed that \u201cevery year, 54,000 people in Utah are sued for debt. That makes up over half of all the cases in the state. In pretty much all of the cases, the defendant would lose the case simply because they didn\u2019t respond to the lawsuit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

When the class saw that, they immediately knew they could help a lot of people by creating a tool that would help these people respond to their lawsuits. To date, SoloSuit has already helped 1,100 people, saving them over $2.1 million.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Pick the right law firm<\/h2>\r\n

As a law student, George knows first-hand how important it is to find the right law firm for your business<\/a>. After all, they are the people that\u2019ll help you form your company, walk you through the fundraising<\/a> process, and more.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The problem: there are a ton of different options out there. From self-serve platforms like Clerky<\/a> to full-fledged firms, it can be difficult to choose.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In order to overcome choice paralysis, George recommends really thinking about what your preferences are and what your business needs. For example, he knew he wanted a tech-enabled law firm<\/a> that would help him streamline processes. He explains, \u201csince I\u2019m doing a JD\/MBA, I spend quite a bit of time thinking about the inefficiency of most legal processes, and I\u2019m very aware of how the quality of lawyer work can vary.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This led him to Savvi Legal<\/a> (where he worked previously), which \u201cis a combo of a law firm and a tech platform,\u201d explains Samantha Scott, a General Counsel there. \u201cOur tech platform automates a lot of the standardized legal documents like entity formations and equity grants.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Even better, the price was right for a small company like SoloSuit. \u201cWe have lawyers that can provide customized services, but a lot of it is standardized to keep the cost down for startups,\u201d Samantha notes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

To learn more about how SoloSuit works with Savvi, download our case study:<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

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Download the Case Study<\/h3>\r\n


[marketo-form form_id=”6806″]<\/p>\r\n\r\n


Think carefully about who you want on your cap table<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Your company\u2019s cap table<\/a> matters. It\u2019s who you\u2019re (hopefully) making wealthy and powerful in the world<\/a>. As such, it\u2019s important to think about who you want to own part of your company, whether they\u2019re investors, cofounders, or employees.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

When George was looking for a new cofounder, he knew he wanted to find someone who was as invested in SoloSuit as he was. \u201cI wanted somebody who would really think strategically with me\u2014a whole partner in the business.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

George knew that owners tend to be more invested in their work<\/a>, so he also wanted to find someone who\u2019d take ownership in the company seriously. While he talked to multiple people who had the technical skills, he kept searching until he found the right fit. \u201cThe guy I ended up bringing on was more deliberate and thoughtful about ownership in the company and what that means.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

While George\u2019s search took some time, now he can rest easy knowing his cofounder is invested in SoloSuit\u2019s success.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Figure out what type of business you want to be<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

One of the most important (and first) decisions you\u2019ll have to make is what corporate structure your business should have.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It\u2019s easy to get trapped only thinking about your current situation, but don\u2019t forget to think about how these decisions will affect your company in the future. \u201cOne of the issues that comes up the most is when companies form as an LLC and then when things become real, they realize that they actually need to be a Delaware C-Corp in order to take on investments,\u201d warns George. \u201cAt that point it costs a lot more money than if they\u2019d just done it right from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In other words, while an LLC might be cheaper upfront, it could cost a lot of time and money if you decide you want to incorporate later. Before deciding, George recommends thinking about how big you want to scale your business and whether it\u2019s worth forming a C-corp early on so you don\u2019t have to spend a bunch of time and money converting later.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Stay organized<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

George is hyper-focused on getting things right from the very beginning, knowing things will only get harder as SoloSuit gets bigger.

Case in point: even though SoloSuit\u2019s cap table is about as simple as cap tables can be, George knew how important it is to start off on the right foot. \u201cI believe that it\u2019s important to get the cap table right from the get-go because it only gets more difficult to get it right the longer you wait. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve seen with other companies that I\u2019ve worked with before. It\u2019s important that the governance is right and that the cap table is right.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

That\u2019s why George had Savvi onboard SoloSuit onto Carta Launch<\/a>\u2014Carta\u2019s free cap table management software for early-stage companies available through law firms. \u201cEven if you\u2019re a one-person company, it\u2019s worth getting on Carta Launch. The longer you wait to get properly organized, the harder it becomes.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Learn more about how Carta was able to help SoloSuit by downloading the case study<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

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DISCLOSURE: This communication is on behalf of eShares Inc., d\/b\/a Carta, Inc. (“Carta”). This communication is not to be construed as legal, financial or tax advice and is for informational purposes only. This communication is not intended as a recommendation, offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security. Carta does not assume any liability for reliance on the information provided herein.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As George Simons has studied and worked with a bunch of companies, he\u2019s seen his fair share of mistakes and is continually using what he\u2019s seen to inform how he runs his company, SoloSuit. Here\u2019s what he says companies should think about in their early stages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":1785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[37],"tags":[22,178,116,166,179,119],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}