What legal tools/services does everyone use? Building my stack.

I publish illustrative scenarios prepared by my practice. All participants and conversations are fictional. The fictional posts are not posts by real users, accounts of client experiences, or reports of actual results.

Illustrative scenario prepared by my practice.

For informational purposes only. Not legal advice.

Hypothetical question

Honestly, building my startup toolkit. What does everyone use for: contract signing, cap table, legal docs, trademark search, etc.? Looking for the go-to stack honestly.

Illustrative response

Budget version (bootstrapped):

E-signatures: PandaDoc free tier or just DocuSign monthly when needed

Cap table: Spreadsheet until you raise (then Pulley, cheaper than Carta)

Contract templates: YC's open-source docs, Shake, or here

Trademark search: USPTO TESS (free)

Legal counsel: LegalZoom for filings, local attorney for real questions

Illustrative response

New AI tools worth trying:

Contract review: Spellbook, Lawgeex — can catch issues in vendor contracts

Research: CaseText CoCounsel, Harvey — for quick legal research

Drafting: Claude/GPT-4 — surprisingly good for first drafts of standard agreements

Still need a real lawyer for anything consequential, but AI is great for first passes and understanding what you're looking at.

What legal tools/services does everyone use? Building my stack.

Related Resources