Contact — Chapter Seven
Skip the form. Talk to a partner.
You didn't start a company to fill out contact pages. Pick a time below and a senior partner will spend sixty minutes on your situation — not on qualifying you, not on a sales script. If a calendar slot isn't right, every direct line is listed beneath it.
§1 — The calendar
Pick sixty minutes. We'll do the rest.
The Founder Strategy Call is a flat-fee, sixty-minute working session with a senior partner — usually within two business days. We use it to map your immediate legal surface, flag the things that can wait, and tell you honestly whether we're the right firm for the matter. If we aren't, we'll recommend someone who is.
§2 — Before we talk
Send these four things. The call gets sharper.
We're not asking for paperwork to gatekeep you. We're asking because the most useful calls we've had started with the founder handing us the same five documents. The partner who takes your call will have read them before the first minute is up, which means the first minute is actually about your problem.
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01
Your cap table, as of today.
Carta export, a clean spreadsheet, or a single-page PDF — format doesn't matter, freshness does. We want to see the fully diluted picture, including the option pool, the SAFE stack, and any unissued option grants sitting in the bucket.
No cap table yet? Email us anyway — we'll point you at the lightest setup before the call.
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02
The term sheet, draft, or LOI in front of you.
If you're raising, share the most recent version — even a Google Doc with tracked changes from your lead. If you're in an M&A conversation, send the LOI or the term sheet from the acquirer. If there isn't one yet, tell us what you've been told verbally.
Nothing in writing? A short email recap works for the first call.
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03
Your current incorporation and org docs.
Certificate of incorporation, bylaws, board consents from the last twelve months, and any 83(b) elections you remember filing. We don't need the full minute book — a folder with the load-bearing documents is plenty.
Missing a doc? Note it on the form and we'll flag it during the call.
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04
The actual question.
One sentence, in your own words: "Here's the specific thing I need to figure out." Not the company description, not the deck, not the long version — the question. We structure the call around it.
If you have more than one question, rank them. We may only get to the top two in sixty minutes.
Send everything to [email protected] with the subject line Strategy Call — [Company Name] — [Preferred Date]. Materials received more than four hours before the call get read in full. Materials received after are skimmed — still useful, just less sharp.
§3 — By the numbers
The boring operational facts that decide whether a firm is actually responsive.
No marketing adjectives. Just the four figures a founder usually wishes they had asked about before signing an engagement letter.
19 hrs
Median contract-review turnaround
Versus a BigLaw industry standard of four to six business days for the same redlines on standard commercial documents.
0
Bar complaints, malpractice claims
In the firm's history since founding in 2018. Verified through the State Bar of California public records.
14 + 6
Attorneys and paralegals on the bench
Headcount as of Q1 2025. Every client gets direct partner mobile access — no associate hand-offs, no padding.
1,800 +
CFOs running WhimiStack
Our proprietary founder equity-modeling tool, used by cap-table admins across 280+ venture-backed client companies.
Ranked #4 Boutique Law Firm in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Business Times (2023). Recognized in the 2024 Chambers USA Spotlight Table for Emerging Companies & Venture Capital, Pacific region. Member of the NVCA Outside Counsel Referral Network since 2020.
§4 — If a strategy call isn't the right door
Three other ways in, depending on what's actually on your mind.
Not everyone who reaches out to a corporate firm needs a sixty-minute working session. If that's you, here is the cleanest path.
For in-house GCs & family offices
Vetting outside counsel.
If you're evaluating Whimislaw as a panel or overflow firm — for an upcoming financing, an employment matter, or a one-off commercial project — email our director of client engagement directly. We send a conflicts check, a sample engagement letter, and a flat-fee estimate within one business day.
For press, podcasts & conferences
Speaking, quotes, interviews.
Our partners publish The Whimislaw Brief (read by 22,000+ founders and operators) and speak regularly on SAFEs, cap-table hygiene, founder employment terms, and the Series A–C legal stack. Direct media requests to the address below; we route within twenty-four hours.
For recruiters & candidates
Joining the firm, or talking to one of us.
We hire laterally from BigLaw, in-house, and the NVCA referral network, and we read every résumé sent to the recruiting address. Lateral partner inquiries are read by the managing partner directly.
Whimislaw & Partners LLP — 535 Mission Street, 14th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105. Founded 2018 by three ex-BigLaw partners from Cooley, Wilson Sonsini, and Gunderson Dettmer. Closed an aggregate of $4.1 billion in client financing rounds since founding. Zero bar complaints on file.
If you skipped straight here from the homepage, the fastest path is still booking a Founder Strategy Call.