StartUp Lab Mentors | Radhika Vaidyanathan

By Alex Kinsella

Bringing a startup to life takes grit, patience and vision. It also helps to have advice and guidance from entrepreneurs who have been where you are in your journey. StartUp Lab Laurier's mentor program brings together highly successful and dedicated alums and community members who volunteer their time to support Startup Lab's founders. In this series, we're introducing you to a few of our mentors to share their advice on entrepreneurship and startups.

Starting a new venture to solve a problem can be exhilarating for founders. You're speaking with potential customers and partners, building prototypes, and planning your go-to-market plans. While these parts of the process are essential, many first-time founders don't spend time thinking about critical business decisions like incorporating the venture, contracts, and intellectual property (IP) protections.

These are topics that Radhika Vaidyanathan helps venture founders with as a StartUp mentor. Vaidyanathan is a partner at Gowling WLG, an international law firm with 19 offices across the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, China, and Canada. She works in the business law department at the Gowlings office in Kitchener, focusing on corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and securities.

"We are so uniquely positioned in Waterloo being a tech hub. I work with many startups in various capacities, both as their legal advisor as well as in a mentoring capacity. StartUp Lab is a great example of that," Vaidyanathan said.

Pursuing legal dreams across the world

Vaidyanathan said she had dreamed of being a lawyer since she was in grade five. She earned her law degree and practiced at a law firm in Bangalore, India, before moving with her partner to Canada in 2004. After moving to Canada, she took a role at a real estate company in the legal department. At the same time, she worked to re-qualify in Canada through the National Committee on Accreditation.

"I passed the exams in 2010 and started articling with Gownlings. I then became an associate in 2011 and a partner in 2020," Vaidyanathan said.

Transferring professional credentials and certifications from one country to another can be highly challenging. Vaidyanathan said that Canada and India's shared common law framework made it a more straightforward process. In addition to sharing many of the same legal terms and precedents, Vaidyanathan said that there was another shared set of terminology and procedures between Bangalore and Waterloo.

"Bangalore is considered the Silicon Valley of India. Just like today, back then there were a lot of North American venture funds that were interested in investing in tech companies and startups in India. I was lucky enough to have been part of that shift in practice and work," Vaidyanathan said.

Bringing global experience to StartUp Lab ventures

The value our StartUp Lab mentors bring is in their diverse experiences within their fields. For Vaidyanathan, being a part of two tech hubs has given her a unique view of what legal needs founders should consider to protect themselves, their partners, and their ventures. She said founders face many shared challenges regardless of where they're building their ventures.

"I do not see a huge difference between Bangalore and Waterloo Region. They share a close knit feel because these founders are dealing with the same issues and have the same concerns. The documentation itself may be different, but the principles and the points that get negotiated in these transactions, and what is close to heart for an entrepreneur, remains the same," Vaidyanathan said.

Mentoring with StartUp Lab allows Vaidyanathan to step outside her comfort zone. She said that as a lawyer, she is more skeptical because lawyers have a low appetite for risk.

"I'm always trying to mitigate risks—that's just the way my profession is. But I'm also continually amazed at how entrepreneurs have this idea they get invested in and work to grow it. I like getting into that mindset because it's something that I don't have personally," Vaidyanathan said.

Legal issues founders should focus on 

Vaidyanathan said that while the founder mindset can be inspiring, many early-stage founders need to spend more time thinking about critical legal decisions that need to be made. She added many conversations with founders in StartUp Lab have surprised her because founders have thought of these questions ahead of time.

"I believe that is because there's lots of guidance and mentoring available and accessible in our community. I find that there's a lot of people willing to share their knowledge. We need to be really proud of that," Vaidyanathan said.

Prioritizing decisions on contracts and agreements is one area that Vaidyanathan often finds founders need help with. She said they know they need a shareholders agreement in place, but it might not be a priority compared to IP protection or other work.

"This is what you need to think about from a legal perspective to protect yourself, protect the company. But you do need to prioritize. We work with startups to identify what they need to do and also to figure out where they should be spending their time," Vaidyanathan said.

One of the topics that Vaidyanathan gets asked the most often is IP protection. Many ventures have a founding team that may need to consider how to transfer IP ownership to the company or manage ownership if one of the partners leaves the venture. She also helps founders navigate questions on employment contracts, granting stock options, and non-disclosure agreements.

"These are common threads between most startups and the concerns are often the same from venture to venture," Vaidyanathan said.

Finding inspiration in mentoring 

Vaidyanathan said mentoring provides her with opportunities to continually learn about new technologies, industries, and customer markets. She pointed out that there is much learning from conversations with founders. Vaidyanathan added that she can take that learning back to her professional work and provide deeper insights to her clients.

"The main reason why I like being a mentor is the intellectual stimulation. We are in that space—particularly in Waterloo Region—where these startups are driving our economy. Mentoring's a way to pay it forward and contribute to the community," Vaidyanathan said.

Want to get involved? Ask us how at startuplab@wlu.ca