Term Sheet Template: Speeding the Way for Startups

In an effort to create a term sheet that investors and academic institutions can use to more quickly launch life science startups, respresentatives from several US university tech transfer offices and venture capital and law firms worked together to create an approach.  The goal was to  significantly reduce the time spent negotiating deals to speed therapeutics, diagnostics, and medical devices to market, months or even years earlier, to benefit humankind. What evolved is a term sheet template, with full clauses, that can be downloaded and used freely by anyone.

Download the editable Word version
Access the PDF

While in many situations this term sheet can be used without significant edits, it should be noted that you or your would-be partners may have preferred approaches or policies that will drive modifications. Therefore, nothing in this template should be construed as binding, but rather as a reasonable approach overall for most situations.  

For more reading, the philosophical underpinnings of the template can be found here: “Term Sheet Recommendations for Launching University Startups” and “Recommended Process Improvements for Launching University Startups,” initially published in December 2020.  

If you have questions, please email [email protected].