Founder Blind Spots: Hard Legal Lessons From the Edge | Sheila Lynch [EP. 320]

Sheila Lynch has been in the room for three of the biggest financial shocks of the last five years — COVID at CQS, the Russian invasion of Ukraine at BlackRock with live Eastern European assets in the funds, and the SVB collapse. When systems go under stress, what's actually there gets revealed. Culture, training, processes — either they hold or they don't.

This episode is about what founders consistently get wrong before those moments arrive. Treasury after a raise, legal as a checkbox, wind-down plans that sit on a shelf and are never tested, equity structures that aren't optimised until it's too late. Sheila shares the story of a GC who called a law firm partner the day after closing a $50 million round to ask where to put the money. The room went silent. It's that kind of episode.

Sheila Lynch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheila-lynch-27264726/
Partners for Growth: https://www.pfgrowth.com/

Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd

Chapters

00:00 Cold open

00:21 Intro

01:02 Three systemic shocks, one pattern

04:13 The $50 million question

07:26 Legal as a checkbox, and what it actually costs

09:45 Building the right governance from day one

12:51 What every founder should know before signing a term sheet

13:37 Where to find Sheila

MoneyNeverSleeps. Sharp riffs, big ideas, and real insights from smart people. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend.

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