State corporate law governs how companies are organized, governed, and dissolved, including share issuance, board composition, fiduciary duties, and stockholder rights. A founders’ agreement fills the gap between co-founders by defining equity allocation, vesting, roles, decision-making authority, time commitments, pro-rata rights, deadlock mechanisms, and what happens when a founder leaves. It can also set the governing law, confidentiality obligations, non-compete terms, and dispute-resolution process, while distinguishing between good and bad leavers.

Under U.S. copyright law, IP vests in the individual creator by default. A founders’ agreement should include an express IP assignment covering both pre- and post-incorporation work, with pre-incorporation IP documented explicitly. It should also define departure and equity consequences, and be executed in writing and signed by all parties. The agreement can be amended with the required consent and does not need to be notarized or filed with a state authority. Addressing these matters at formation can help avoid costly structural gaps during a financing round.

Bessemer Venture Partners announced $5.75 billion across two new funds - $1.75 billion for seed and early-stage investing and $4 billion for growth startups. The two funds were raised in a single close.

Since 2022, Bessemer has invested in more than 260 AI-native companies and says it has invested $3 billion in AI-related startups, including those focused on compute, infrastructure, foundation models, dev tools, app-layer startups, and agentic tech.

Bessemer Partner Byron Deeter said AI-native companies are scaling faster than any category of technology the firm has backed before. He also said companies staying private longer has become “a permanent structural shift.”

Source: TechCrunch