Start-ups and emerging businesses
Taking your start-up from acorn to oak tree
At McCullough Robertson, we have a history of helping start-up companies to grow, and supporting innovative sectors such as information technology, telecommunications, biotechnology, medTech, medical devices, AgTech and FinTech.
Our philosophy is to support and work with clients to develop from start-up stage, to investment and through to successful commercialisation.
We have our finger on the pulse when it comes to emerging legal issues and trends, and we have some of the leading experts in Australia on issues such as intellectual property, commercial contracts, IT, privacy laws, structuring and capital raising on our team.
In order to establish and protect your business, there are several primary elements that the majority of start-ups will need to address initially. These are:
- Entity formation and structuring
- Shareholders’ agreements
- Employment and contractor agreements
- Commercial contracts
- Data protection/privacy
- Capital/equity raising, and
- Intellectual property.
The difference with our start-up team is that we stay with you for the long-term. Our aim is to take you from what we call “acorn to oak tree”. Our expertise in small to mid-cap IPOs and M&A, particularly in the technology sector, means that we can be with you as you take your start-up to scale-up and the next level.
We are entrenched in the start-up community, our knowledge is drawn from experience as both advisers and investors. We regularly run free workshops with a number of incubators across Australia and have developed tailored offerings to help entrepreneurs de-mystify the regulatory process supporting them to get their businesses up and running. We have a deep network of non-legal advisors and can introduce you to the right providers for your business.
We know not all businesses are the same or at the same stage of the start-up life cycle. We offer flexible and tailored pricing options to fit your individual business needs and budget.
Experience
Creative Enterprise Australia
Our team has worked closely with and supported CEA for a number of years. We have prepared various seed and venture capital investment documents for CEA, including the Collider term sheet which was made publically available in 2018.
We also advised CEA in relation to structuring and establishing the Creative Tech Ventures Fund – an eligible Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnership.
River City Labs
River City Labs (RCL) is a premier coworking community for tech start-ups. As a founding sponsor, McCullough Robertson assisted RCL on its partnership with Muru-D for its accelerator program and we continue to provide RCL with ongoing general support.
We also acted for founder and high profile ‘Shark Tank’ investor, Steve Baxter, in the sale of River City Labs to the ICT professional association, Australian Computer Society.
Arc Hardware Incubator
The Arc Hardware Incubator is a hub focused on commercialising innovative hardware products. We regularly advise start-ups through the Arc Hardware Incubator across a number of industries. We see this focus on hardware as a critical contribution to the start-up ecosystem.
As a founding sponsor, McCullough Robertson continues to provide support to the Arc Hardware Incubator’s key programs and initiatives that are geared toward hardware innovation for global startups.
Aussie Founders Network
Aussie Founders Network (AFN) is a member-driven community of Australian founders, investors and industry advisors. We are a proud partner of Aussie Founders network and, like AFN, we are passionate about helping start-up companies to grow and reach their potential. In partnership with AFN, we provide assistance and guidance for founders within their community to grow their skills and businesses.
Crowd funding
We have worked on a number of crowd funding campaigns including for Food Connect, Mungalli Dairy Creek, and GiggedIn.
We also work with a number of crowd funding platforms, including PledgeMe and AgCrowd.
DoseMe
Advised on its Series A fundraising of $2.6 million in August 2016. DoseMe is a simple personalised medicine tool that can be used by clinicians and healthcare practitioners to improve patient care.
Une Piece
Our Digital & Intellectual Property team have advised Une Piece, a highly popular Australian Swimwear label, since its formation, managing its trade mark and design portfolio world-wide and advising on strategic brand protection. We continue to partner with and advise Une Piece on brand and IP protection strategies as they expand their product offering both locally and internationally.
SurePact
Since 2017 we have provided, and continue to provide, extensive legal support for SurePact, a national award winning supplier of an innovative and practical cloud-based software solution supporting government agencies across Australia, with contract and procurement analytics and risk identification. We have also advised on intellectual property, trade mark and commercial and contract issues.
Working with a variety of start-ups
3eep; Anti Ordinary; Beezbutt; Bidhive; Carisma; Cake; Compono; Cohort Go; GiggedIn; GO1; Gojii; Inova Medical; OneConfig; Pacific Mining Parts; Puntaa; Skrilla; See-Out; Sortal; Standard Media Index; SurePact; Travello; Travelshoot; Wantu; and Zero Blink