IANAL, but in my opinion "open source" documents are great for providing a "guide" to getting your documents in order. They are not meant to be an end to lawyer

IANAL, but in my opinion "open source" documents are great for providing a "guide" to getting your documents in order. They are not meant to be an end to lawyer or accountant involvement. When Fred talks about standardized documents he is not talking about "do-it-yourself" documents, he simply means to eliminate the many different forms and wording that different companies/lawyers use when creating these documents. In this sense each company would essentially be created the same and it would make future financing, etc.. easier on the company and investors. With that said, there is nothing stopping you from doing this on your own. However, when you start taking outside investment, even in the form of convertible notes, you open another realm of laws/regulations. For example, investors must be accredited, there are tax laws that apply for shares of stock and capital gains on them, etc... These all need to be addressed. Additionally, each state has regulations on the private sale of securities. Even though a convertible note is a "loan" at the time, it does potentially convert into shares of a company at a later date. All these things need to be addressed and failure to comply could be costly. Lastly, if you do it yourself, you are risking missing something somewhere along the line. It could be more costly to correct mistakes in the future. The cost of an attorney up-front is much cheaper than years of headache and costly legal fees in the future. If you are at a point where people want to invest money in you, then do them the courtesy of at least ensuring that all the documents are in legal order and that your accounting is handled properly. It can be a lot harder to tell grandma that you just wasted her life savings because you forgot to dot to sign or file a paper.