I once saw a sketch comedy bit about three guys on a scooter. They just kept adding people and stuff to this scooter. The green screen work was terrible. The acting was ridiculous. It was really dumb. But it had my whole family in stitches.

I think of that skit a lot when I talk to entrepreneurs. Let’s face it. That’s what starting a business feels like sometimes. 3 guys on a scooter held together by bailing wire and chewing gum. But it’s lean, and it’s built for a singular purpose: getting to a minimum viable product. When it’s just three founders in a garage, a handshake and a shared Slack channel may be all the “governance” you need. You move fast, you break things, and you just hope that scooter gets you where you need to go before the cash runs out.

But then, the “scale-up” begins. Suddenly, you are adding employees and trying to accelerate at the same time. If you’re lucky, you find yourself in a whole new reality, handling the private data of real customers, and staring down a financing term sheet that could change your business forever. And that is where the wheels can come off.

Hopefully, you’re not all still piled onto that scooter.

Look, I get it. Nobody likes lawyers. I don’t even like lawyers. (I should probably talk to someone about that.) To make matters worse, many founders don’t even know where to start, and suddenly they’re across the table from some attorney who wants them to cough up a bunch of money for a bunch of work they don’t understand the value of. That’s where the Sentient JD comes in. This blog is the result of over 2 decades of conversations with clients and coworkers who were looking for an attorney who would be straight with them–who would move past the dry, defensive posturing of traditional law and toward a pragmatic, commercial framework.

So if that is what you are looking for, you’ve come to the right place. In these pages I’ll share with you the surprisingly simple legal roadmap…a legal operating system, if you will…that will give new founders the confidence to navigate the new world of compliance in a timely and pragmatic way.

But this site isn’t just for new founders or the uninitiated. The compliance landscape for technology companies is going through a period of rapid change. It has never been more important–or more difficult–to stay on top of those changes. These pages will help you to not only stay current, but to build future looking legal operating system that will keep your company running at top speed. Because compliance isn’t a tax on your speed, it’s the very thing that allows you to go faster. When your data mapping is automated, your enterprise sales cycle shrinks. When your equity budgeting is disciplined, your founder ownership is protected. When your board governance is professional, your personal liability is shielded.

My goal is to help you build a company that is not just successful, but defensible—a machine that can withstand the scrutiny of a Fortune 500 buyer or a top-tier VC. It’s time to stop playing startup house and start building the institution your vision deserves.