Startup Summer School 2025 | Startup Legal Essentials

What will we cover in this session? 

We will cover:

- Formation and Governance

- Business Agreements

- Capital Raise

- Intellectual Property

About the host: 

David Pierce is a corporate attorney with an unyielding passion for client success. He specializes in helping high-growth SaaS companies navigate business lifecycle challenges from building out foundational governance, facilitating commercial transactions, raising capital, and consummating exits.

David approaches technology transactions with insights that are unique in the legal world. Before joining Founders Legal, David worked in the communication technology arena for nearly a decade as a sales consultant. It is in this capacity where David first gained industry experience in IT Security and Data Privacy, and where David first encountered the bureaucratic pitfalls that can cause deals to fall out. A problem-solver by nature, and a skilled negotiator, David leverages his years of technology contract experience to enable clients to achieve their sales objectives. In this vein, David helps growing companies refine their sales documentation to reduce friction and speed up sales cycles, and to build out partner programs to leverage referrals, sponsorships, resales, and technology relationships.

In addition to the various intellectual property licensing strategies David implements for his software clients, he assists a wide range of product-based businesses to build trademark portfolios. David obtained experience in managing and monetizing intellectual property at AT&T and Aptean. As a former president of Georgia State University Intellectual Property Law Society, and former executive board member of the Georgia Intellectual Property Alliance, David has been long entrenched in the knowledge economy and continues to serve the Atlanta IP community through client enablement.

David’s interest in property extends beyond intellectual property and into real property, and David works with real estate investment groups to form real estate funds and manage properties.

While David’s practice extends all borders, much of it is rooted in the thriving Atlanta startup scene. To participate in, and give back to this community, David regularly lectures at various startup incubators and accelerators, including two of Atlanta’s most prominent diversity, equity, and inclusion accelerators: Atlanta Tech Village’s It Takes a Village and Georgia Statue University’s Main Street Entrepreneurs Seed Fund.

In his free time, David enjoys time in the great outdoors with his wife, Emily, and his sons, Brody and Ryder.

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About the series: 

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Have an idea? Do you crave to build something? . Even if you have an established startup, gain refreshers to the basics and small group time with the best of ATL's ecosystem! Join us this summer for a semester of Startup Summer School.

Learn from the best in the industry about what it looks like to start your own company and how to do it well.

13 workshops taught by experts in the field:

Tuesday, June 10, 9:00 AM-10:30AM

• How to Build a Billion Dollar Business, Kathryn O'Day, Atlanta Ventures

Tuesday, June 10, 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM

• Building Your MVP: Focus to Validate, Scale to Win Rich Bailey, Amazon

Tuesday, June 17, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

• Entrepreneurship at the Dawn of AI, Nick Hasty, GIPHY

Tuesday, June 24, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

• Build your MVP in days (using vibe coding) , Karthik Puvvada "KP", Paddle

Tuesday, July 1, 2025, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

• Sales 101: Everything You Need To Start Selling As A Founder, Margaret Weniger, Rising Tide

Tuesday, July 8, 2025, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

• Accounting Toolkit for Startups, Jeff Johnson

Tuesday, July 15, 2025, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

• Startup Legal Essentials, David Pierce, Founders Legal

Tuesday, July 22, 2025 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

• AI Strategy as Culture Strategy, Alex de Aranzeta, Accessity

Tuesday, July 29, 2025 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM

• The Customer Discovery Playbook, Kyle Painting, EZ Innovation

Tuesday, August 5, 2025 1:30 PM - 3:000 PM

• Pitching the best YOU, Jacey Cadet, Atlanta Ventures

Tuesday, August 12, 2025 10:00 AM -11:30AM

• Fundraising 101, Scott Lopano, TechSquare Ventures

Tuesday, August 19, 2025 10:00 AM -11:30AM

Growth Marketing 101, Landon Howell, Startup Advisor: Techstars, ATV

Tuesday, August 26, 2025 10:00 AM- 11:30AM

• The Failure Flip, Ted Tagalakis, SparkyAI