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We sit down with Michael McDowell from Seed Legals to talk about making early-stage fundraising faster, cleaner, and less mentally draining for founders and funds. We dig into Northern Ireland’s startup ecosystem, the reality of SEIS and EIS rounds, and where AI can remove admin without replacing human judgement.
• why Northern Ireland produces resilient founders and strong university spin-outs
• Michael’s path from commercial roles to crowdfunding and legal tech
• teaching early-stage basics through Raise Ventures like cap tables and term sheets
• when shutting down early and returning cash can be the most mature move
• what Seed Legals handles across SEIS and EIS documentation and compliance
• how funds use the platform for term sheets, negotiation, signatures, and cap table updates
• AI support for founder questions using up-to-date HMRC and Companies House guidance
• why speed matters most at the exact moment founders need to build and sell
• the shift in the market towards traction, efficiency, and revenue focus
But come on to your platform and it'll explain it all beautifully and it'll become perfectly clear.

Note: you can also watch these episodes on youtube.com/@canopycommunity617