Founding General Counsel

Job description

About Starbridge Starbridge is building the modern public sector VAR. Government software vendors need a fast, technically credible way to sell through contract vehicles, and today's distribution model is slow, dated, and stuck in old process. We're building the version that works: one platform for quoting, contracting, compliance, and payment, instead of paperwork scattered across distributors and resellers. We also run a SaaS platform that surfaces government buying signals from council meetings, budget documents, RFPs, and public records, and turns them into pipeline. That business grew from $1M to more than $10M in ARR in under 12 months, the fastest pace of any product sold into SLED, and it's the customer base and distribution relationship we're now building the transaction layer on top of. About the Role You will be Starbridge's first in-house lawyer, reporting directly to the CEO. Your mandate is to build the legal, contracts, and public sector compliance function from a blank page — and help Starbridge move fast and safely as we become a public sector software distributor, first through partners' contract vehicles and over time through more direct ownership of the transaction, payment, and compliance stack. We've raised $52M from leading venture firms including Craft, and we're on pace to be the fastest-growing product ever sold into the SLED market — $1M to more than $10M in ARR in under 12 months. Beyond helping technology companies identify and win opportunities across state, local, and education markets, we're now building the transaction rails: helping vendors and OEMs use contract vehicles, quote, contract, transact, and get paid through one modern experience. This is a builder role. You will negotiate live deals, design our standard paper, create our risk and approval system, teach sales and finance how to move faster, manage a focused outside counsel bench, and work with product and engineering to turn legal logic into software. We don't expect you to arrive knowing every answer. We expect exceptional judgment: own the recurring work, identify gaps early, use specialists selectively, and retain the final business recommendation. What You'll Do - Design the legal architecture for a four-party channel — OEM, Starbridge, vehicle holder or distributor, and government buyer — including privity, payment flow, liability, reporting, and audit responsibility - Own the core paper: OEM authorization and distribution agreements, reseller and referral agreements, public sector order forms and addenda, EULA riders, DPAs and security terms, and enterprise SaaS agreements - Build the government contracts operating system for federal and SLED transactions: vehicle eligibility, flow-downs, representations and certifications, pricing and transaction reporting, renewals, records, and audit readiness - Stand up a fast, trusted deal desk — templates, clause libraries, approval thresholds, fallback positions, and service levels that sales and finance actually use - Protect Starbridge's economics across the chain: discounts, fees, markups, renewals, refunds, non-appropriation, credit, tax, insurance, and indemnity - Treat legal as product: work with engineering to encode vehicle rules, required terms, approvals, and compliance evidence into the Starbridge platform - Advise company-wide on commercial contracts, privacy and AI, cybersecurity, IP, employment, and governance, with specialists on call Qualifications - Active membership in a U.S. state bar in good standing - Roughly 7–12 years of highly relevant legal experience (exceptional candidates outside that range are welcome) - You've personally handled multi-party public sector technology transactions involving some combination of OEMs, distributors, resellers, contract vehicles, and government customers - Real depth in SLED procurement, enough grounding to understand how federal differs, and the learning speed to cover the rest quickly - You negotiate commercial SaaS, channel, data, security, and IP terms as comfortably as government clauses - You draft, redline, join the call, make the judgment, and give teams an executable path — not a memo explaining why the answer is complicated - You're intellectually honest about what you don't know, frame outside counsel questions tightly, and never pay a firm to relearn our business - You're hungry for ownership, excited by a blank page, and eager to use AI to eliminate repetitive legal work Bonus If You Have: - Experience in the public sector channel: distributor or reseller plus OEM software, or scaled OEM managing channel - Experience with pricing disclosures, transaction reporting, FAR and DFARS flow-downs, and False Claims Act controls - Exposure to high-volume distribution economics: payments, credit, collections, insurance, and channel conflict Interview Process We move fast — really fast. Getting back to someone today beats tomorrow, and our interview process reflects that mindset. Please keep us posted on your timeline so we can move quickly and speed things up where needed. All interviews are conducted via Google Meet and onsite in our NYC office. HOW WE WORK - Build Bridges to Help Customers Win - We pride ourselves on being obsessively customer-centric. - Shooting Star Speed - We move with extreme speed. We value momentum, decisiveness, and the ability to accelerate when it matters. - Fun Is a Feature - Fun is a Feature means we intentionally design Starbridge to be an energizing place to do hard work. Joy, humor, and camaraderie make great teams faster, sharper, and more resilient. - In the Arena - We believe the best ideas come from living close to the work, feeling the friction, hearing the nuance, and experiencing the details firsthand. Benefits include: - Competitive salary + early-stage equity - Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance - Company provided lunch in office everyday - Gym stipend - Pre-tax commuter benefits - Unlimited PTO - Regular offsites (NYC + global locations)