Herbert Smith Freehills has invited Australian entrepreneurs and founders to take part in its 2019 Startup School, which kicks-off in Melbourne next month.

Free programme

The Startup School is designed for established startups preparing for scale or fundraising, and  gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to network with industry-leading mentors and participate in a free education program focused on key commercial and legal issues. Running throughout May and June, the Startup School consists of a series of practical workshops, led by experienced lawyers from Herbert Smith Freehills along with some of the firm’s top startup clients and partners, including ANZ Ventures, MediPass, Ignition Lane, The Plato Project, Cannings and Greenwoods + Herbert Smith Freehills. The workshops will cover key issues faced by startups in the process of building a business, including company and tax structuring & employee share option plans (ESOPs), commercialising a product, communications and branding, enabling investment, and, effective leadership.

‘Really rewarding’

Herbert Smith Freehills partner Peter Dunne said “We’ve had the privilege of advising many of Australia’s most successful startups over the years, and it’s really rewarding to be able to share the knowledge and expertise that we have acquired with the next round of Aussie entrepreneurs to help them navigate key legal and regulatory challenges.” This will be the third year that Herbert Smith Freehills has run its Startup School in Melbourne. Roughly 40 startups have previously participated, including Sports Performance Tracking, Atticus, Last Mile Solutions, Megaphone Marketing, TopTile, ANIKA, Our Walls, Amplify Intelligence and Zinc Energy. Herbert Smith Freehills also ran a similar program in Sydney last year.