Swiss startup lawyer · From incorporation to exit
Build valuable companies. Protect your outcome.
We help ambitious Swiss founders build the legal foundations behind their companies, ownership and control stakes.
Every material legal recommendation is assessed based on what it means for your ownership, control, cash and remaining risk, not only whether it is legally advisable.
"Every legal decision affects your business, and every business decision has legal consequences. I help you focus on the ones that matter."
Build your company on legal foundations designed for where you want to go.
Legally correct documents are not enough. They must protect your ownership, keep your company investable and support the decisions you need to make next.
We connect your founder setup, IP ownership, employee participation, financing and exit preparation, so each decision builds on what came before.
Our role is not to resolve every legal issue. It is to help you make the right business decisions when it matters most.
Ecosystem Partners
Client Testimonials
Founders I have worked with share what the collaboration was like, in their own words.
Jean Buff
Co-Founder, Npercent Capital AG
Tomer Moldovan
Co-Founder, BeeHelpful AG
Mona Ghazi
Founder, Neuropreneur GmbH
What We Do
Your legal needs change as your company grows. The underlying questions remain the same: What do you own? Who controls your company? Is your IP protected? And what will your next decision mean economically?
- 01Incorporate
- 02Align the founders
- 03Secure your IP
- 04Incentivise your team
- 05Model your ownership and outcomes
- 06Finance your company
- 07Prepare your exit
Incorporate
Build your company on legal foundations that support your financing, governance and growth plans.
Align the founders
Define your ownership, vesting, leaver consequences, roles and decision-making before misalignment becomes expensive.
Secure your IP
Make sure your company owns the technology, brand, data and work product on which its value depends.
Incentivise your team
Design employee participation that works legally, economically and operationally for your company.
Model your ownership and outcomes
Understand how financing terms, option pools and liquidation preferences affect your ownership, control and potential payout before you commit.
Finance your company
Structure and execute convertible loans, SAFEs and equity rounds based on economics you understand and documentation investors can rely on.
Prepare your exit
Resolve ownership, governance and documentation issues before your buyer or investor depends on them.
Our Approach
Understand what each option means
We do not stop at telling you what is legally possible.
We show you what the available options mean for your ownership, control, cash and transaction outcome.
- Dilution and ownership percentages
- Cap-table outcomes
- Liquidation waterfalls
- Control and investor acceptance
- Cost of acting versus waiting
Do not start from zero every time
Your legal and business decisions are interconnected.
We keep the material facts, documents and decisions connected, so each new matter builds on what came before.
- Important decisions remain traceable
- New documents are reviewed in context
- Earlier risks are less likely to be forgotten
- You do not have to reconstruct your company's legal history for every mandate
Connecting your numbers and context for better legal decisions.
What Problems We Solve
Dead equity
A founder leaves but keeps a material stake because your vesting or leaver mechanics were never implemented properly.
IP ownership gaps
Your technology or work product remains with a founder, employee, contractor, university or former employer.
Participation-plan errors
Your employee incentives create unexpected tax, governance or cap-table consequences.
Financing mechanics nobody modelled
Your convertibles, option pool and investment terms combine to produce unexpected dilution or control outcomes.
Exit issues discovered during due diligence
Historical ownership, governance or documentation problems reduce your leverage precisely when you should be maximising your company's value.
The cheapest time to resolve these issues is before they arise.
Illustrative Scenarios from Real Cases
A founder leaves after two years without effective vesting
Context
You incorporate with two co-founders and equal shares. Vesting is discussed but never implemented. No reverse vesting, no leaver terms.
Hidden issue
Every share is fully owned from day one; nothing ties ownership in your company to continued contribution.
Legal and economic consequence
A co-founder leaves after two years and keeps their full stake. You and your remaining team carry the company, while your cap table shows a large passive shareholder that complicates every future round.
Approach
I help you implement vesting and good- and bad-leaver mechanics at incorporation or repair them at the next financeable moment, while everyone still agrees.
Illustrative outcome
Modelled early, the departure resolves on pre-negotiated terms. Modelled late, it becomes a negotiation with weak leverage and real dilution for you and your active co-founders. In other words, a real startup killer.
Insight
Vesting is not a sign of distrust. It is what keeps ownership aligned with building your company.
Personal Note
A Note From Marco
I founded Fehr Legal because ambitious founders deserve legal advice that is practical, commercially grounded and clear enough to act on.
Legal decisions rarely affect only your business. They can also shape your personal life and relationships. My role is to help you identify the decisions that matter, understand their consequences and act before avoidable problems cost you time, money or peace of mind.
At Fehr Legal we use technology, structured data and financial modelling to make our work faster, more precise and more transparent. But the judgment, responsibility and advice remain personal.
Marco Fehr
Founder & Managing Partner
Common Ways To Work Together
Founders and incorporation
Set up your company, founder ownership, vesting and governance correctly from the start.
Employee participation
Design and implement an employee participation plan that works legally, economically and operationally.
Financing and cap-table economics
Structure and execute convertible and priced financing rounds while understanding their effect on your ownership and control.
Exit and transaction preparation
Prepare your ownership, documentation and governance for investor or buyer due diligence.