For many European founders, expansion into the United States begins not with a splashy product launch or a press release, but with paperwork. Quiet, dense, often intimidating paperwork. Somewhere between the excitement of new customers and the reality of unfamiliar regulations, ambition slows. Not because the idea isn’t strong — but because the system is unfamiliar.
This is where Fellow has built its practice: at the exact point where European innovation meets American legal complexity.
The American Market as a Psychological Barrier
The U.S. market exerts a particular gravitational pull on European startups. It promises scale, capital, and cultural influence that few other regions can match. Yet it also introduces a different legal language — one shaped by federalism, litigation risk, and deeply codified corporate norms.
For founders in Czechia, Slovakia, or Spain, the first serious question is rarely “Can we sell in the U.S.?” It’s “How do we set ourselves up without making a mistake we’ll regret in three years?”
The demand for US legal support for European startups is rooted in that uncertainty.
When Legal Structure Becomes Strategy
In Europe, company formation is often procedural. In the United States, it is strategic. Decisions around incorporation, share classes, vesting schedules, and governance shape not just compliance, but fundraising, hiring, and exit options.
The popularity of the Delaware C-Corp setup for European startups is not accidental. It reflects investor expectations and a legal environment optimized for venture-backed growth. But adopting that structure without context can be risky.
Fellow’s role begins before the paperwork is filed — helping founders understand not just what to do, but why.
Czech and EU Startups Looking West
For Czech startups expanding to the USA legal support is rarely about speed. It’s about sequencing. Founders must align U.S. incorporation with existing EU entities, intellectual property ownership, and tax considerations that don’t disappear simply because a new company is formed overseas.
The same applies to Slovak and Spanish startups, where local corporate law, employment frameworks, and IP regimes must be reconciled with U.S. expectations.
Cross-border expansion is not a clean break. It’s an overlay.
Fixed Fees in a Traditionally Open-Ended Industry
One of the most consistent frustrations founders express about legal services is unpredictability. Billable hours compound anxiety, especially for early-stage companies watching every expense.
Fellow positions itself as Fixed-fee startup lawyers for US expansion, offering clarity in an area usually defined by ambiguity. The model is intentionally aligned with how startups operate: defined milestones, budget constraints, and a preference for planning over improvisation.
This structure is not just a pricing decision. It’s a cultural one.
Fundraising Changes Everything
The moment a European startup enters U.S. fundraising conversations, the legal landscape shifts. Term sheets, investor rights, and disclosure obligations follow patterns that differ markedly from EU norms.
Providing US fundraising legal support for foreign founders means translating expectations — explaining not just the clauses, but the logic behind them. Why investors ask for certain protections. Which terms are standard, which are negotiable, and which signal long-term implications founders often overlook.
Legal advice here is as much educational as it is protective.
Immigration as a Business Constraint
Expansion is not purely corporate. It’s personal. Founders often need to relocate, spend extended time in the U.S., or hire talent across borders. That makes US visas and immigration for startup founders part of the business strategy, not an afterthought.
Visa choices affect timelines, tax exposure, and even board decisions. Mishandling immigration can stall momentum or force operational compromises.
Fellow integrates immigration planning into its broader legal framework, rather than treating it as a separate problem to be solved later.
Intellectual Property: Where Value Actually Lives
For SaaS and technology startups, intellectual property is the company. Code, trademarks, patents — these assets must be protected across jurisdictions.
IP protection for European startups entering the US involves aligning ownership, assignments, and enforcement strategies so that value does not fracture across borders. Mistakes here are rarely obvious in the short term, but they surface during fundraising, acquisition, or litigation.
This is where early legal decisions quietly compound.
SaaS Startups and Regulatory Expectations
European SaaS companies entering the U.S. face overlapping regimes: U.S. commercial law, EU data protection obligations, and industry-specific regulations. The challenge is not compliance in isolation, but coherence.
Providing US legal counsel for EU SaaS startups means ensuring that terms of service, privacy frameworks, and corporate structures don’t contradict one another. Investors and enterprise clients notice these inconsistencies — even if users do not.
Legal alignment becomes part of brand credibility.
A Different Kind of Legal Partner
Fellow’s positioning reflects a broader shift in how startups view legal support. The expectation is no longer reactive problem-solving, but proactive partnership. Founders want lawyers who understand product cycles, funding pressures, and the reality of building under uncertainty.
This is particularly true for US market entry legal services for EU startups, where timing and sequencing can determine success or stall progress entirely.
The lawyer becomes part of the founding infrastructure.
Why Geography Still Matters
Although Fellow operates internationally, its focus on Czechia, Slovakia, Spain, and the U.S. is deliberate. These regions share a growing startup culture but differ sharply in legal tradition.
Bridging those differences requires more than templates. It requires fluency — not just in law, but in business norms and expectations.
Expansion fails less often because of bad ideas than because of misunderstood systems.
Legal Work That Stays in the Background
When done well, legal work disappears. It doesn’t draw attention. It enables decisions rather than obstructing them.
Fellow’s stated goal — helping EU startups focus on building while legal complexity is handled quietly — reflects an understanding that founders don’t want to think about law. They want to trust that it’s handled.
That trust is built through clarity, predictability, and experience.
The Long View
U.S. expansion is rarely a single event. It unfolds over years: formation, hiring, fundraising, restructuring, exit. Legal decisions made early echo across that timeline.
Startups that treat legal work as foundational rather than transactional tend to navigate growth with fewer surprises. They move faster not because they cut corners, but because they removed uncertainty early.
Final Thoughts
The story of European startups entering the U.S. is often told in terms of ambition and scale. Less visible is the legal scaffolding that makes that ambition viable.
Behind every successful expansion is a series of careful, often uncelebrated decisions — about structure, risk, and alignment. Fellow operates in that quiet space, translating complexity into clarity for founders crossing the Atlantic.
In a global startup economy, growth no longer depends solely on innovation. It depends on navigating systems — and choosing the right partners to do so.