For business owners
Walk into your first call with a lawyer ready
Answer about 30 plain questions about what’s changing in your business. You get a free brief with the questions worth asking and the records to have ready. Keep it, or send it to your lawyer.
If you run a business
Your brief is free to make, and it’s yours to keep. No lawyer yet, or yours doesn’t use Tellbrief? Make it anyway and take it to any lawyer. The American Bar Association lists referral services by state (opens in a new tab).
- Free for you
- About 30 questions
- No account or card
Your draft stays in this tab, not in our database, until you download or send your brief. You read it first and decide who sees it.
If you’re a lawyer
Your first three briefs are free, then $75 a brief, never more than $199 a month per lawyer. Firms set up before April 1, 2027 pay $40 and $99 for their first year.
We set up your link with you. It goes in your booking confirmation, and nothing else at the firm changes.
Run an accelerator or startup program? It’s free for your founders.
We’re hiring our first employee, who starts next month. We offered a salary and some equity. Until now, freelancers built our app and designed our logo.
- What’s changing
- First employee, starting next month
- Records to have ready
- Any offer you’ve made or discussed, including pay and equity
- Worth asking
- Does the company own what contractors and early contributors made?You didn’t mention this
A national retailer wants our sauces in 40 stores by spring, and they sent us their vendor agreement. A contract manufacturer makes the sauces from our recipes.
- What’s changing
- First national retailer, 40 stores by spring
- Records to have ready
- Terms from retailers or distributors
- Worth asking
- How do we protect what we keep secret when others need to see it?You didn’t mention this
We’re raising our first outside money this month. An angel investor sent us a draft SAFE to sign.
- What’s changing
- First outside investment, closing this month
- Records to have ready
- Any draft agreement, term sheet or letter from the other side
- Worth asking
- What should we clean up in our ownership records and earlier SAFEs or notes before we close?You didn’t mention this
- 3free briefs to start, with no card
- 1 in 33briefs becoming a client covers the cost: at $2,500 a first matter, one client pays for 33 briefs
- $0in a month when no brief reaches you
- 0client answers sent to an AI company
For lawyers: work out your own break-even
How it works
- What’s changingAbout 29 leftWhat’s prompting this now?Preparing to launch or openSelling through retail / wholesale / a distributor✓Signing a larger B2B customer
Answer the questions
About 30 questions. Most take one tap.
Open the sample brief (PDF, opens in a new tab)Read your brief
You read the whole brief before anyone else sees it. Your lawyer gets the same brief, plus the points to raise on the call.
- Your briefReadyReady for the first callYour situationQuestionsRecordsPDFExample-Co-brief.pdf
Take it to your lawyer
Download it and bring it to the first call, or send it ahead. If a law firm gave you its Tellbrief link, it goes to them, and they check names for conflicts before reading it.
Situations it covers
Each has its own page showing the questions a brief raises and the records to have ready. If yours doesn’t fit, choose “Something else, or not sure” when you send.
Common questions
Is this legal advice?
No. Tellbrief helps you get your facts in order before your first conversation with a lawyer. It isn’t a law firm, it doesn’t draft documents, and using it doesn’t make anyone your lawyer. Legal advice comes from a licensed lawyer, once they agree to take on your matter.
What does it cost?
Your brief is free. Tellbrief’s price is for law firms that use it with their own clients. If you hire a lawyer, the scope and fee are between you and them, and Tellbrief takes no share.
How long does it take?
About 30 questions, depending on your answers. Most take one tap, and the four that ask you to type are optional.
Who reads my brief?
Whoever you give it to. You download it as a PDF, and Tellbrief doesn’t keep it. If a law firm sent you its Tellbrief link, the brief goes only to that firm. You add the names involved when you send, and the lawyer checks them for conflicts. Your brief stays locked until the lawyer clears the names, and if they can’t, it’s deleted unread.
What do you keep, and for how long?
Your draft is saved in this browser tab, not in our database. To pick follow-up questions, the site reads your answers as you go and doesn’t keep them. If you send your brief to a law firm, names and briefs are encrypted before they’re stored. Conflict-check records are deleted 45 days after the last step, and the lawyer’s copy 14 days after it reaches them. There are no ad trackers, analytics scripts or cookies, and we don’t sell your information. The privacy page lists everything Tellbrief keeps, sends and deletes.
Does Tellbrief use AI?
No. Fixed rules pick the questions and put your answers into a brief. No answers, briefs or call notes go to an AI model. A chatbot may give you general answers; Tellbrief asks the questions a lawyer would ask about your business and lists the records to bring. It doesn’t give legal advice.
Get ready for the first call
Start your free briefFree for founders. No account and no marketing email.