Legal counsel for startups.By a founder.

Strategic legal guidance for companies building in real time — from a founder-attorney who understands both sides of the table.

A legal partner built for founders and operators.

Founders don't need abstract legal advice — they need counsel that understands how legal decisions intersect with runway, growth plans, product execution, and day-to-day operational constraints.

Chelsea works with startups and growth-stage companies that are building in real time: navigating formation, raising capital, scaling operations, managing risk, and making tradeoffs where legal, financial, and business considerations collide. Her role is to help you move forward with clarity — not slow you down with theory or unnecessary complexity.

Because Chelsea has sat on the founder's side of the table, she approaches legal counsel as an integrated function of the business — offering practical guidance, founder-aware risk assessment, and solutions designed to sustain momentum while protecting long-term value.

Primary Services

Comprehensive legal services designed specifically for startups and growth-stage companies.

Business Formation & Early-Stage Structuring

Corporate Governance

Startup Financing & Fundraising

Commercial Contracts & Strategic Transactions

Intellectual Property & Tech Services

Employment & Equity Compensation

Nonprofits & Social Enterprises

Fractional General Counsel & Ongoing Business Support

About

Legal counsel from a founder's perspective.

Chelsea Snyder is a corporate and startup attorney with nearly a decade of experience advising founders, growth-stage companies, and mission-driven businesses across a range of industries and stages of development.

Before launching her own practice, she served as in-house counsel at a global technology company, where she advised on corporate governance, financing and M&A transactions, complex cross-border compliance, and commercial and contractual matters during a period of significant growth and strategic investment. Working inside a fast-scaling technology organization shaped her understanding of how legal teams support revenue, operations, and long-term enterprise value.

She has also built and operated companies as a founder and CEO, including a technology company at the intersection of real estate and blockchain as well as an educational consumer brand focused on entrepreneurship for young founders. These experiences reinforced the realities of capital constraints, execution risk, day-to-day operational decision-making, and the importance of practical, founder-aligned legal support.

Over the course of her practice, Chelsea has served as fractional general counsel and strategic advisor to startups, growth-stage companies, and social enterprises, providing guidance on formation and governance, financings, commercial contracts and negotiations, intellectual property, and operational risk. Her work is grounded in a founder's perspective and informed by firsthand experience operating businesses, not just advising them.

Education

UC Hastings College of the Law, JD
University of Southern California, B.A., Political Science

Bar Admissions

California
New York

Ready to get started?

Let's discuss how Chelsea can help you navigate the legal challenges of building and scaling your startup.