Saving sanity setting up share option schemes

Investa’s a long-time loyal SeedLegals customer who began their startup journey with us. We caught up with co-founder Alec Beasley to hear how our share options service helped him build the dream team to power Investa’s next stage of growth while saving time, money and a whole lotta stress.

Bonus: Alec shared his top tips for founders too so read to the end 👇

Meet Investa 💡

Investa is building the UK’s first mobile investment app offering zero-commission stocks and options trading. It’s a model that’s already hugely popular in the US but has been inaccessible to most UK non-professional investors… until now.

Co-founded by former Citi equity derivatives specialist Alec Beasley and Ross Lynch, who previously co-founded a real estate startup, the company’s gone from garage startup to a 9-person team, raised £1.8M in funding (including a record-breaking £700K via a standout crowdfunding campaign) and is now gearing up for a full public launch.

Giving their team equity meant the world to Alec and Ross, but the admin of it was a drain on their resources. And their focus was already needed in a dozen other high-stakes areas.

They were on a mission to build a dream team, but in setting up the schemes they ran into the unexpected challenges every founder eventually faces:

🌀 Complexity of the EMI process
Alec found the Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) scheme more complicated than expected with a long list of to do’s from valuations to HMRC approvals, NIC elections and strict timelines.

⏳ Manual admin and time drain
The options process was extremely manual and time-consuming, especially for a first-time founder with no prior experience.

🧭 Need for expert guidance
Alec needed hands-on support to navigate legal and procedural details he hadn’t encountered before.

There are so many steps: getting the valuation, applying for EMI, filing the grant, NIC elections, the works.
And the frustrating part is that while some of it can be streamlined with automation, you still need a person who knows what they’re doing actively working on all this stuff. It’s actually a really manual process.
Alec Beasley
Co-founder & CEO,
Investa

The solution: solving stress with a SeedLegals subscription 🧘

Investa handed over the arduous option scheme admin to us and we were happy to help as always.

1. Expert guidance when it matters most

With the SeedLegals Share Options subscription, Alec got ongoing support from our in-house options team who helped every step of the way and took the initiative to make sure they moved to each new step as quickly and seamlessly as possible.

Justin was incredibly reassuring. He explained everything clearly, helped with the valuation, and was genuinely proactive. He’d check in, remind us of steps we’d missed, even flag things in our account we didn’t realise we needed to do. We could completely hand the process over and trust that an expert was handling it.
Alec Beasley
Co-founder & CEO,
Investa

2. Time-saving tools (and peace of mind)

From generating option agreements to filing EMI notifications, SeedLegals automates what can be automated while our team takes care of the manual part.

Before, we were worried we’d forget a step or do it wrong. But once Justin was on it, we didn’t have to think about it. So much mental space was freed up between that and automating documents on the platform.
Alec Beasley
Co-founder & CEO,
Investa

3. Built for growing teams and flexibility

With the SeedLegals subscription model, Investa can grant options as often as needed, with no surprise costs or admin headaches.

We knew we’d be granting options regularly as we grew, so having the flexibility to do that without additional fees just made sense.
Alec Beasley
Co-founder & CEO,
Investa

The results: faster setup, fewer headaches 😄

Using our share options subscription service has helped Investa:

✅Save substantial time and money on legal fees
✅Gain peace of mind and mental clarity through expert guidance and automation tools
✅Remain flexible to easily grant share options any time they hire
✅Give their team the attractive incentive package they deserve

Without SeedLegals, it would have been way more expensive and way more time-consuming. There’s so much more to option schemes than you’d expect and as a founder you really don’t need anything more on your plate. There’s never enough time in the day so anything that saves time and frees up headspace is a game changer.
Because we’re going to continually be granting share options as our team grows, the subscription has honestly been a no-brainer.
Alec Beasley
Co-founder & CEO,
Investa

Why Investa chooses SeedLegals for everything ✅

From day one, Alec and the team have relied on SeedLegals for just about every legal need.

We’ve used the platform for founder and advisory agreements, employment contracts, fundraising docs, share issuance, consultancy agreements, option grants – everything.
Alec Beasley
Co-founder & CEO,
Investa

And it’s not just the range of products. It’s the speed, simplicity and value:

Resources are limited. Time is limited. So if there’s a default template that’s fit for purpose and you can tweak it, that’s exactly what a startup needs. SeedLegals is plug and play.
Alec Beasley
Co-founder & CEO,
Investa

Even when deals need bespoke terms, SeedLegals still helps cut costs:

When we needed custom terms, we just passed a SeedLegals draft to our lawyer and asked them to make edits. That’s way faster and cheaper than starting from scratch.
Alec Beasley
Co-founder & CEO,
Investa

And for Alec, the SeedLegals team has been a big part of the magic:

Everyone we’ve dealt with (Liliana, Justin, even former team members like Michael) has been incredible. It’s the people that make it work.
Alec Beasley
Co-founder & CEO,
Investa

Alec’s advice for founders 🧑‍💻

Use SeedLegals. You’ve got more important things to do than worry about the fine print of employment agreements or how to file your EMI valuation. Just hand it over and get back to building your business.
Alec Beasley
Co-founder & CEO,
Investa

And when it comes to launching a startup:

Everything’s harder than you think it’ll be. But if you believe you can be the one to do it, and you keep throwing darts at the board, something will stick. Just keep going. Where there’s a will, there’s always a way.
Alec Beasley
Co-founder & CEO,
Investa