No In-House Legal Expert? Here's How Startups Find One
Legal matters carry extremely high risk when things go wrong.
So you absolutely need expert advice.
That said, startups that have just launched mostly don’t have those kinds of connections. Below are some specific ways to find people to consult.
There’s a job called an agent, someone who provides information on standards and handles the actual application work on your behalf.
Some do this as a large-scale organization, others act as intermediaries in a freelance-like capacity. A quick search online will turn up several of them, and it’s worth reaching out.
One thing I’ll add: to get more reliable information, work with multiple agents.
Legal information is a living thing and changes constantly.
Some people stay on top of it accurately, and some don’t.
By dealing with several companies or individuals, you can identify who has sharper sensitivity to this, and proceed to make requests only after that assessment, which increases your certainty.
<When you’ve just launched and have no money at all>
Hiring an agent costs money.
Even if it’s only a few hundred thousand yen, there are naturally times when you can’t afford to spend it.
Even then, you don’t have to give up on getting information that’s as reliable as possible.
For one thing, you can turn to your stakeholders.
This means asking shareholders, partner companies, or advisors, and drawing on their knowledge and experience.
If your shareholder is a large company, you can quite reasonably borrow the strength of one of their departments.
Even individuals, if they have a wide range of experience (especially business executives), should be able to offer their own advice on the key points of releasing a product.
I’ve suggested using stakeholders elsewhere too, but this means you need to have already chosen shareholders and contacts who are actually useful in situations like this.
It’s not enough to just gratefully accept money from whoever hands you a lot of it.
From another angle, it’s also worth asking a friend who works on products in the same category, especially at a large company.
Information related to standards is public information, not confidential, so there’s no problem discussing general knowledge about it.
However, if that friend is involved in drafting a standard that isn’t yet public, that information may be subject to a confidentiality obligation, so caution is needed.
Keep the conversation to general knowledge only.
Also, if you do get information from a friend or similar contact, understand that its accuracy and validity are in no way guaranteed.
Where no compensation changes hands, there’s no responsibility, and wherever there’s responsibility, there’s always compensation. This is a basic principle of business.
The content of this post is an excerpt (original text) from the following book. If you’re interested, please consider purchasing the book.
The Shape of a Happy IoT Startup
The Shape of a Happy IoT Startup
Originally published in Japanese at https://clazytech.com/2022/08/1113/. Translated with LLM assistance and reviewed before publication.