Happy Friday!
The Business of Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David reportedly each kept a 15% stake in Seinfeld because NBC guaranteed the project before a studio was attached. What looked like an unimportant one-off special gave the creators unusual negotiating power. The show went on to generate roughly $5 billion for its ownership group through syndication, streaming and home video. The durable advantage is another accident: Warner Bros. owns the IP, while Sony controls distribution. Warner cannot simply keep the show for its own streaming service. Sony takes the rights to market, forcing buyers to pay real cash rather than move an asset between corporate siblings. The show’s creative structure helps, too. Characters don’t change and plots don’t require watching episodes in order, making reruns endlessly reusable. The asset keeps earning because its creators retained meaningful ownership and its distribution arrangement preserves competition among buyers. Check out the deep dive on my other newsletter. Acquired Briefing (14 minutes)
The Economics of Agents
Personal AI agents could make product quality a stronger competitive advantage. Patrick Collison argues that companies currently profit from customers who lack the time or attention to compare offers, find coupons or cancel unused subscriptions. An agent working for the buyer could do that homework continuously. Better products would become easier to discover, and reliable evidence of quality would become more valuable. That could weaken businesses built around capturing a distracted customer’s first click. Whether agents concentrate demand on a few winners or uncover more products for individual tastes remains an open question. The assumption underneath the argument matters: the agent has to serve the customer. Tyler Cowen adds another complication. Sellers will have agents too, potentially producing unstable bursts of coordinated pricing. The optimistic case is that making something better becomes more rewarding because buyers finally have help recognizing it. Marginal Revolution (4 minutes)
The Speed Talk
Moving faster can lower costs and improve quality at the same time. NFX’s James Currier argues that founders often inherit slow habits from school and large companies, then mistake those habits for necessities. His example is Stoke Space: with an overall burn of $80,000 a day, paying more for a part that arrives five days sooner can save money. Faster experiments also produce more chances to improve the product. The tactics are practical: fix a short deadline, shrink the scope to what fits, test with customers immediately and share the results across the team. Sometimes changing a button’s wording removes the need to build a whole feature. Keep a shared priority list so people can act without waiting for the founder. Currier makes an exception for processes protecting trust, safety and payments. The goal is to remove delays and unnecessary work, rather than extend everyone’s working hours. NFX (60 minutes, 31 seconds)
Founder FAQ: What If I Can’t Afford a Startup Lawyer?
If you can’t afford a lawyer yet, keep the company’s legal setup standard. Clerky and Stripe Atlas can handle a straightforward Delaware C corporation, but they won’t tell you whether your particular facts fit the template. Clerky covers more of the documents that come after formation. Atlas focuses on getting formed and banked. Use official forms such as the YC SAFE as written, filling in the appropriate blanks rather than rewriting the terms. Use AI to understand documents and prepare questions. When the stakes matter, have a lawyer draft or review what you sign. Watch the choices platforms leave to you: share counts, vesting, IP assignments and the 30-day deadline for an 83(b) election. Uneven co-founder arrangements, prior-employer IP and negotiated contracts call for advice tailored to the situation. Have a startup lawyer review the package before your first hire, major customer contract or investor. Fixing it during a financing costs far more. Westaway (5 minutes)
Startup Funding Guides
I’ve put together a series of guides to equip founders to excel at fundraising. These guides break down the deal term by term and give you negotiation tips so that you can speak to investors with confidence.
Convertible Note: Guide / Video
Extending Your Runway with General Counsel
In this economy, every startup is looking to lower burn rate and extend runway. We helped a Series A, generative AI company drastically reduce their legal spend by switching to our General Counsel service. When we first met the owners, they were working with a big law firm and felt they were overpaying for basic legal work. Nearly every month, they got a hefty bill just to cover equity grants, contract reviews and lawyer calls/emails. When they switched to General Counsel at Westaway, they: 1) Got more personal service and quicker response times. 2) Significantly reduced their legal spend. With faster deal execution and lower spend, they extended runway and improved cash flow. If you’re looking to optimize legal costs and extend runway, click here to schedule a call. Let’s discuss whether on-demand General Counsel is right for your startup.