Lock Your Legal Foundations: 6 Must Have Documents Before Charging Users
Launching paid features or taking on your very first paying customer? Before you send that first invoice or hit "publish" on your pricing page, make sure your legal foundation is rock solid.
Terms of Service (ToS)
- Defines user ground rules, limits your liability for outages or bugs, and grants users a non-exclusive license to access your platform.
Privacy Policy
- Required by law and payment processors like Stripe. Outlines what personal and usage data you collect, how it’s processed, and user privacy rights.
Data Processing Addendum (DPA)
- Regulates how user data is processed, stored, and protected. Mandatory for compliance with data protection laws like GDPR and CCPA when handling customer data.
Master Services Agreement (MSA)
- Governs the overarching commercial relationship with customers covering service level terms, payment structures, liability caps, and dispute resolution.
Refund & Cancellation Policy
- Explicitly sets expectations around billing disputes, trial periods, refund eligibility, proration, and subscription cancellation conditions.
IP Assignment Agreement
- Ensures that all code, design assets, and architecture built by founders, employees, or contractors are 100% legally owned by the company.
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