The Book · Print Edition

Before You Sign

A legal and operational handbook for founders and small-business owners: contracts, cap tables, and compliance, in the order they show up.

By Blake Turley · Kingside Media · First edition, 2026

Before You Sign by Blake Turley, front cover

Who It Is For

People building something

Before You Sign started as the firm’s own reference files: the memo Attorney Turley kept rebuilding from memory every time a founder walked in with the same question. Most of what is in it is what he tells his own clients.

It is built around the mistakes that keep repeating: the wrong entity for the business, founder equity issued without vesting, intellectual property sitting in a personal account, contracts signed without reading the limitation of liability, employees classified as contractors because it was cheaper, a cap table that does not survive diligence, and a first term sheet accepted as written.

The chapters follow the order these decisions arrive in a company’s life, not the order a treatise files them. The foundation chapters apply whether you are raising a round or running a services business on your own revenue. Every chapter ends with a checklist.

“The mistakes are almost always the same ones.”From the Preface

It is not legal advice, and it does not replace a lawyer when you need one. It will help you see when you do, and what to ask.

What’s Inside

Five parts, sixteen chapters

Part I — Foundation

The entity, the equity, and the intellectual property. Start here before you form the company or in its first ninety days.

  1. Choosing an Entity & Incorporating
  2. Founders’ Equity & Vesting
  3. IP Assignment & Confidentiality

Part II — Raising Capital

What you can sell, to whom, and what the paper says. The securities chapter still governs a friends-and-family round.

  1. Securities Law Primer
  2. Pre-Seed Instruments: SAFEs and Convertible Notes
  3. Priced Rounds: Term Sheets & Definitive Documents
  4. The Pitch

Part III — Operating the Business

The paperwork of running the company. The dollar amounts scale with the company; the structures do not.

  1. Vendor & Supplier Agreements
  2. Payment Terms & Working Capital
  3. Employment & Contractors
  4. Customer Agreements & Revenue Contracts

Part IV — Governance

The board and its duties, a cap table that stays ready for diligence, and the filings that keep the company in good standing.

  1. The Board & Fiduciary Duties
  2. Cap Table Management
  3. Reporting, Tax & Compliance Calendar

Part V — Skills & Judgment

Negotiation, which shows up in every deal you sign, and the working rhythm that keeps a company going for years.

  1. Negotiation
  2. Founder Psychology & Management Rhythm

The Edition

Print, $299.95

  • TitleBefore You Sign: A Legal and Operational Handbook for Founders
  • AuthorBlake Turley
  • PublisherKingside Media LLC
  • FormatPaperback, first edition
  • ISBN979-8-951859-01-3
  • Price$299.95

Checkout, printing, and shipping are handled by Lulu. The button opens Lulu’s site in a new tab.

Before You Sign is published by Kingside Media LLC. The book is general information, not legal advice, and buying or reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with Blake Turley or Turley Law PLLC. Turley Law PLLC · 63 Wall Street, Suite 1B, Madison, CT 06443 · 295 Madison Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, NY. Licensed in Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts. Juris No. 444346. Attorney advertising.

Your company, specifically

The book is general on purpose. For a question about your company, the consultation is $125 for 30 minutes, credited toward your engagement.