Prepared for {{Program}}
Demo day is a public disclosure.
So is the cohort announcement. So is the pilot with a friendly customer, the launch post, the technical thread a founder writes at midnight. Each one is public, dated, and permanent.
In the United States like most other countries, the filing date is the only date that matters. Disclose before filing and those rights are simply gone. Not weakened. Gone.
Your program generates the exposure
Most of your companies have no revenue and no customer base. What they have is an idea and the work they've done on it. That is the portfolio value — yours and theirs.
And the single event most likely to compromise it is the one you schedule, promote, and put on a stage.
This isn't an argument against demo day. It's an argument for knowing what's already public before you walk out there.
The Patent Disclosure Exposure Check
Eight questions across three blocks. It tells a founder what they have already made public, and when.
It does not tell them what is patentable — that question needs a real conversation and a prior art search. What it does is surface the dates, so nobody discovers a fatal one after the fact.
| Questions | Time | Cost | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 3 min | Free | Immediate |
{{program}}’s Link
This link is yours. It is permanent, it never expires, and it tells us the assessment came from your program so we can build your cohort report. Use it anywhere.
{{LINK}}
Ready to paste
Written so you don't have to write anything. Tap copy, drop it in, done. The blocks are grouped by when they land, not by what they are — put each one where it belongs in your calendar and nobody has to choose.
TWO WEEKS BEFORE DEMO DAY
COhort Demo day message
Slack, Discord, cohort email
Before we finalize decks, do this.
Demo day is a public disclosure. So is the press release, the launch post, and the pilot you're about to announce. In the US the filing date is the only date that counts, and in most other countries there's no grace period at all.
The Patent Disclosure Exposure Check takes three minutes and tells you what you've already made public and when. Run it before your deck is locked, not after.
{{LINK}}
BEFORE YOU PUBLISH ANYTHING
Pitch Practice checklist item
Demo day tasks, program handbook
[ ] Run the Patent Disclosure Exposure Check and know your disclosure dates before demo day. {{LINK}}
Resource page row
Notion, Airtable, perks page
Patent Disclosure Exposure Check — a 3-minute check on what you've already made public and when. Run it before demo day. Free. {{LINK}}
Launch week, press cycle, first big post
Investor intro season, office hours follow-up
Quick one before this goes out.
Every public description of how your product works is dated and permanent. Some of them start a clock. Some of them close a door in Europe and China the moment they publish.
Three minutes, and you'll know which category you're in.
{{LINK}}
What you get back
The pre-demo-day checklist
A one-page disclosure checklist for your program to own and reuse every cohort. What counts as a public disclosure and what a founder should have filed before they take a stage. Your name on it, not ours, if you want it that way.
We'll also run a thirty-minute session during investor-readiness week if it's useful. The assessment is the homework.
What your founders are told
Your report exists because founders are told about it up front, before they answer a single question. This is the notice they see, word for word, on the first screen of the assessment.
Shown to every founder before question 1
Read this first. This is a self-assessment tool, not legal advice. Completing it does not create an attorney-client relationship with Nerd Lawyer Entrepreneur Services, and your answers are not protected by attorney-client privilege. The questions don't ask for confidential details. Don't add any.
Do NOT describe your invention. The questions don't ask you to, and a web form is the wrong place for it. Everything here is about dates and events, not technical detail.
What this tells you, and what it doesn't. This shows you what you have already made public and when. It does not tell you whether anything is patentable — that takes a real conversation and a prior art search.
Nothing goes back to your program. Whoever sent you here receives no report, no summary, and no indication that you took this.
What happens next. You get your score. Nobody calls you, and finishing this doesn't put you into a sales sequence. Email curt@nerdlawyer.ai anytime to have your response deleted.
If a founder asks you what happens to their answers, that is the whole answer. You don't need to check with us first.
The terms, plainly
You are handing your founders a link from a law firm. Here is exactly what that does and does not involve.
No money changes hands. We pay nothing for referrals and we accept nothing. Pennsylvania's rules prohibit it, and we would decline anyway.
No exclusivity. Carry other providers, carry competitors, carry whatever serves your founders. This arrangement does not constrain you.
Completing the assessment does not create an attorney-client relationship. It is a self-assessment tool. Founders receive a score and an explanation, not legal advice about their specific situation.
Nobody gets cold-called. Founders see their result and decide for themselves what to do next. There is no sales sequence attached to finishing the form.
We don't report back on this one. No aggregate, no summary, no list. See above for why.
You can pull the link anytime. No notice, no conversation, no hard feelings.
Also worth having on your resources page
No forms, no links back to us, nothing asked of your founders. Reference material you can drop into a Notion page and forget about
Capitalization structure, founder equity, and ownership mechanics, explained without the spreadsheet.
An interactive tool for working out what is actually protectable in an AI or ML product.
If your cohort is IP-heavy and you run a demo day, there's a companion page for the patent side: nerdlawyer.ai/operators-ip.
Want the checklist?
Twenty minutes. We go through the eight questions, you decide whether it belongs in your program, and you tell us where you want it placed. If you'd rather just use the link above, do that instead.
Nerd Lawyer Entrepreneur Services, 901 Western Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15233. Curtis Wadsworth, J.D., Ph.D. is responsible for the content of this communication and is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania and registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
This page is a communication about legal services. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Neither does completing the Diligence Gap Assessment. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.