Founders Factory Customer Story
We spoke to Alex James, Corporate Development Manager, and Frank Webster, General Counsel and Head of Corporate Development at Founders Factory, to uncover how they have been using StructureFlow
Founders Factory is a multisector accelerator and incubator with a global footprint providing expert execution support to top entrepreneurs and building innovative technology businesses. Launched in 2015, Founders Factory aimed to build an ecosystem that supports authentic innovation informed by large corporates in need of modern technologies, and it has been achieving this in strides.
In January 2022 we spoke to Alex James, Corporate Development Manager, and Frank Webster, General Counsel and Head of Corporate Development at Founders Factory, to uncover how they have been using StructureFlow, what made them want to adopt the platform, and what difficulties they used to face that have now been addressed by StructureFlow.
Frank Webster, General Counsel and Head of Corporate Development
“We see huge value in StructureFlow in mapping transactions, but we can also see it becoming a full-service transaction management tool with document management and inter-linking diagrams.”
Q&A
Tell us a bit about your business and the types of transactions you work on
We are a transaction focussed business dealing with external fundraising efforts into international jurisdictions and portfolio support. We manage a portfolio of approximately 200 investments which we are going to map with StructureFlow and have already mapped out our corporate governance chart. At present, StructureFlow is used for investment transactions, helping us with negotiations and mapping joint ventures. We use it to assist our multiple global entities and the various transactions that take place in deals and investments. For example, we may have some sort of vehicle in jurisdiction A and investment funds going to that vehicle from jurisdictions B & C and they have multiple partners with shareholding, equity, and disbursement of cash.
Why is visualisation important?
We do not always have overly complex transactions. It may just be 5 entities involved but we still find it easier to visualise with a diagram both externally and internally when displaying to the finance or legal teams for example. Our team use it to illustrate the shape of the transactions we structure. We have used it with lawyers to get tax advice and to map the flow of funding. For example, when we are negotiating deals in the US, we have an LLC (Limited Liability Company) entity in the US and may need a Limited Corporation and so visualising this helps us explain all the layers within a transaction. When the accountants want to know the specifics of all the entities and flow of funds, it just brings clarity to it all. The sources of information for the charting comes from a term sheet and we can use this as a starting point to get our structure diagrams created.
What did you use before StructureFlow and how has it changed after adopting the platform?
We were not looking for a product built for diagramming and spent too much time trying to draw charts in PowerPoint. As soon as we began using StructureFlow we realised it is what we have been missing. We are super simple, but this platform lets us create swiftly and without any real tech savvy. It was obvious that this was a better tool than PowerPoint, which became very annoying when it came to drawing symbols and assets. It also does not have the same functionality of layering data and documentation. There was not a need for it until it appeared.
What are some of the benefits you have experienced, and would you recommend it?
We already recommend it to lawyers and accounts we work with who have been impressed with the output and clarity it provides. For example, setting up a venture fund within a multi-jurisdictional ecosystem is complex and fund formation lawyers would benefit massively from this type of platform.
I do not think we have even begun to scratch the surface of the power of this tool but the top benefits for us would be:
- Super simple to get up and running
- You have a live source of information
- Surface level functionality is superb and amazingly easy to use
- Time saving
- Platform is pleasurable to use and fit for purpose
What are some additional key use cases you have found with StructureFlow?
- VC shareholding and fund structures and issuance snapshots
- Used in pitch decks – it helps to highlight our vision and contain information in a better way
- Fund formation mapping – we find it to be intuitive and think lawyers structuring deals and transactions with multi-jurisdictional activity would really benefit from using it
Alex James, Corporate Development Manager
“It was obvious that this was a better tool than drawing on PowerPoint or otherwise. We have recommended it to lawyers we use, and they have been impressed by it.”
About StructureFlow
StructureFlow is the world’s first smart structuring platform that has been specifically designed for business structures, transactions, and related processes. As a graphical user interface for the modern-day deal maker, professionals can structure their projects digitally and collaboratively. Founded in 2018, StructureFlow is now used regularly by thousands of legal and finance professionals at advisory firms and in-house teams around the globe. StructureFlow – complex structuring made beautifully simple.
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