By Mitch Duncombe, Founder and startup lawyer · Financing ·
Vector has counseled clients on ~$500m in financings and M&A deals since its launch in February, 2026.
If you work with a legacy “big law” firm, many Series A financings will take four to six weeks from signed term sheet to wire and cost $80,000 - $200,000.
These timelines aren’t always driven by legal complexity - they often come down to coordination challenges and a lack of urgency.
I’m here to tell you that you can and should be pushy.
Costs and delays from transactions can hurt your company (deals can die when banks collapse, a war breaks out, or the market drops).
So what can a founder do to make things faster?
Here’s a game plan for founders determined to close their Series A in 10 days. What needs to be ready, what usually breaks, and how to keep everyone moving at startup speed.
Start the Clock Before the Term Sheet
Your Series A sprint only works if your corporate records, cap table, IP chain, and negotiating positions are ready at the time the term sheet is signed.
Before you sign the term sheet, you should be able to ask your data room these questions and get a clean “YES” to every one (ideally using software, though escalating to a lawyer is worth the spend if you have questions):
- Is the cap table reconciled to signed documents and promised grants?
- Does every person who touched the product have a signed IP assignment (in a CIIAA or consulting/advisor agreement)?
- Were departed co-founders offboarded cleanly?
- Are all SAFEs, notes, warrants, and side letters collected?
- Do I have a plan for any approvals, consents, or contractual rights that could delay the round?
- Do I have proof of timely 83(b) filings for everyone who purchased restricted stock?
Note that these are separate from the option-pool, SAFE-conversion, and leverage points - those points affect economics.
This readiness check determines whether the deal can close on time.
Draft your Disclosure Schedule Early
In a Series A, the company makes 10 to 15 pages of “representations” about the state of the business (for example, no pending or threatened litigation, good standing in Delaware, and clean IP).
To save time and money, Founders (not their lawyers) should take the first pass at drafting the disclosure schedule. It saves money and cuts days off the timeline.
You only need two things: a complete data room and the first draft of the stock purchase agreement (Section 2 has the company reps). The moment your lawyer sends the first draft of the purchase agreement, you can start working on the disclosure schedule.
Pre-populate it from the data room, flag anything “on the fence”, and review the whole draft live with your lawyer in one working session.
This also makes diligence faster because the company tells one consistent story. The cap table, data room, disclosure schedule, and financing documents should not describe four slightly different companies.
Manage the Investors in Founder Mode
In Founder Mode, Paul Graham warns against delegating too much and assuming the organization will run itself. A financing won't run itself, either. The lead investor partner may want to close fast, but fund counsel, finance, compliance, and wire teams move on their own clocks.
At TS signing, send the lead investor a proposed 10-day calendar and get written confirmation that their legal and finance teams can hit it. If the fund’s lawyers say they can’t, ask why or ask the partner to put counsel on the deal with bandwidth. Put one person at the company and one person at the fund in charge of chasing every dependency.
Then impose a few rules:
- One list. Maintain a single shared closing list with an owner and deadline for every open item. No side lists buried in email threads.
- One decision call. After the first markup lands, get the founder, lead investor, and both legal teams on a live call. Separate real business points from drafting points and settle the business points live.
- Escalate missed deadlines immediately. If investor counsel misses a deadline, call the lead partner that same day. Do not let a half-day delay turn into a three-day delay.
Example of a 10-Day Closing Calendar (to be tailored for each transaction)
Days 0-1
- Founder / Company: Sign the term sheet, share the 10-day calendar, and open the data room.
- Company Counsel: Deliver the reconciled pro forma cap table and kick off NVCA drafting.
- Investor / Investor Counsel: Send the diligence list and start review of data room.
Day 2
- Company Counsel: Circulate the five NVCA drafts (Charter, SPA, IRA, ROFR, Voting) and approval consents.
- Founder / Company: Draft the initial disclosure schedule and collect investor entity names and allocations.
Day 3
- Founder / Company: Review “on the fence” disclosures with company counsel.
- Company Counsel: Circulate the draft Disclosure Schedule and resolve early diligence questions.
- Investor / Investor Counsel: Confirm entity names, addresses, signatories, KYC, anything else that could delay closing.
Day 4
- Investor / Investor Counsel: Return one consolidated markup of the NVCA documents and any follow-up diligence requests.
- Founder / Company: Answer any remaining factual diligence questions.
- Company Counsel: Flag the true business issues vs. legal drafting points for the founder ahead of Day 5.
Days 5-6
- Founder / Company + Investor / Investor Counsel + Company Counsel: Hold the principal decision call to settle open business terms (optional, but strongly recommended for a 10-day close).
- Company Counsel: Finalize docs after the call and send substantially final versions to other investors and SAFE holders with four days' notice before the closing.
Days 7-8
- Investor / Investor Counsel: Confirm final sign-off on the definitive documents, Disclosure Schedule, and pro forma.
- Company Counsel: Circulate signature packets in escrow and pre-clear the Charter with Delaware.
Day 9
- Company Counsel: Distribute final docs to all SAFE holders and investors, assemble the closing set, and verify all closing conditions and voting thresholds.
- Founder / Company: Complete phone-callback wire verification with investor back offices.
- Investor / Investor Counsel: Confirm all investor signature pages are in escrow and wires are queued for Day 10 release.
Day 10
- Company Counsel: File the Amended and Restated Charter via Delaware same-day expedite and circulate the stamped filing.
- Investor / Investor Counsel: Release signature pages from escrow and initiate wires.
- Founder / Company: Confirm wires hit the company bank account and celebrate.
Speed is one of a startup's main advantages. A Series A is a bad time to give it up. Prepare before the term sheet, make every dependency visible, and force decisions into the open. That is how a four-to-six-week legal process becomes a 10-day close.