08/18/2026
Most growth-stage companies start with legal help that only shows up when something forces it: incorporation, the first big contract, maybe a template pulled off the internet for the rest. It works fine, right up until the day it doesn't, and by then you're usually explaining a decision after it's already been made rather than shaping it beforehand.
That's the real tell, more than any single contract getting messier. It's when you catch yourself saying "we probably should have looped someone in on this" about something that already happened. Once legal starts operating in the rearview mirror instead of the windshield, the ad hoc setup you built early on has quietly stopped fitting the business you actually run now.
Nothing about that means anything's gone wrong. It just means you've outgrown the setup, and that's a good problem to have.
Where's your legal support living right now, in the windshield or the rearview mirror?
