Late 2025. A 14-person Brussels SaaS startup contacts us. Fundraising planned in six months, legal due diligence imminent, and a hunch: "we don't really know where we stand on contracts". The entry audit revealed far more than they imagined.
The starting point
Leadership had grown fast. In 18 months, the team had gone from 4 to 14 people, with about twenty active providers and around sixty B2B clients. Contracts were signed as needed, often based on templates provided by the counterparties. No systematic review.
The audit — four half-days on site — covered: client contracts, supplier contracts, platform T&Cs, employment contracts, articles of association, UBO register, GDPR compliance, IP on the source code.
Three leakage zones identified
Client SaaS contracts: the T&Cs used limited liability to 12 months of billing, but no enforceable tacit renewal clause was in place. Result: three major clients had terminated at end of first year without notice, when a standard clause would have required 3 months. Lost revenue for the period: about €11,400.
Contract with founding CTO: the source code had been developed under a self-employed status, without explicit IP assignment. In case of departure, ownership of the intellectual property remained legally in a grey zone — a deal-breaker for due diligence. Cold-fix cost: a few hundred euros. Cost of the same correction mid-negotiation with the investor: several thousand euros in lawyer fees, plus an almost certain valuation discount.
Marketing providers: three ongoing contracts included monthly retainers without termination clauses. Coordinated renegotiation allowed exit from two contracts that had become useless, saving €6,800 over the following year.
What we did, in what order
Month 1: overhaul of client T&Cs with tacit renewal clause, liability cap consistent with the B2B SaaS market, and audit clause. New template deployed on the six renewals of the quarter.
Month 2: regularisation of IP with the CTO — retroactive assignment contract, quantified consideration, enforceable against third parties. Ready for due diligence.
Month 3: supplier audit, engagement dashboard, coordinated renegotiation of the three marketing retainers.
The figure
Direct savings over the year: €18,200. Total mission cost: audit + three months of Expert package, i.e. €4,150. Return on investment: 4.4x within twelve months — not counting the peace of mind during due diligence, which remains the real benefit.
This case is nothing exceptional. Among the SaaS startups of 10 to 30 people we support, the entry audit systematically reveals contractual zones with immediate value. The problem is never bad faith: it's simply that no one, internally, has the time or the perspective to reread everything cold.