Austin Michael Harms

AUSTIN HARMS IS A SEASONED BUSINESS LAWYER SPECIALIZING IN HIGH-GROWTH STARTUPS LOOKING TO SCALE THEIR BUSINESSES.

Austin Harms leads Startup Venture Advisors' as its founding attorney with over 8 years of experience in corporate law. He advises and partners with founders, investors, and directors both to build businesses from the ground up and to strategize and execute high-value transactions at every stage of the startup lifecycle, including formation, fundraising (e.g., equity, debt, and SAFE financings), and M&A. He also regularly counsels companies on sensitive corporate situations, privacy matters (including California Consumer Privacy Act, EU's GDPR, Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)) commercial agreements (including MSAs, terms of service, privacy policies and EULAs), intellectual property, employment, and tax matters, equity compensation, general corporate governance, securities laws, and restructurings. His clients are in various industries, including e-commerce, artificial intelligence, agriculture and food technology, gaming, and companies working to fight our climate crisis. Austin both supports companies with existing legal teams and serves as the “outside” General Counsel for companies that have not yet hired their own internal legal team. As an entrepreneur himself, he brings a practical and commercially-oriented approach to legal services and a passion for supporting the entrepreneurs building our future.

Before launching Startup Venture Advisors, Austin was a Counsel at Perkins Coie LLP where he spent seven years in their emerging companies and venture capital practice advising some of the most iconic startup brands in the Bay Area. At Perkins Coie, Austin led internal teams of attorneys and managed client relationships with over 150 early-stage companies and investors. Additionally, he served on the firmwide Associate & Counsel Committee, which is responsible for representing the interests of Perkins Coie's associates in firm matters.