Prepare Before You Scale - Delina Yasmeh on Startup Law

After more than a thousand consultations with business owners, business and tax attorney Delina Yasmeh says AI has made good lawyers more necessary, not less - she has yet to see an AI-drafted contract that was any good. Delina Yasmeh, founder and principal attorney of DELINA.ESQ, a business and tax law firm in Los Angeles, tells Jeremy Rivera how small business owners can prepare before they start or scale.

Delina has an accounting degree, a law degree and a master's in taxation, and worked on M&A deals at Deloitte and PwC. "My heart is really truly in helping business owners from the startup phase to the M&A phase." Her business law library turns the questions she hears most into general answers, the same answer-first approach Matthew Fornaro built for a law firm website. The full episode recap walks through each lesson.

In this episode

• Prepare before you scale - Delina's view: "Most small business owners are simply not doing enough to prepare when they are starting or scaling a business." A website without proper terms of service, a privacy policy and ADA terms is one example. "One lawsuit on your hands can make the business go down the drain."
• One real consultation - "We are in the wild, wild west of information online." Her approach: research first, then take thoughtful questions to one consultation with a business attorney.
• Budget and risk - her rule of thumb for early founders: "I don't need you doing a tax strategy until you actually have money coming in the door."
• Taxes heading into 2027 - Delina says the IRS is implementing AI in its tax return reviews. On write-offs other people brag about: "Just because somebody has been doing something and has not gotten caught by the IRS and has not been audited does not make it okay."
• Know it in and out - Delina puts data and privacy first, then knowing your field well enough to catch AI's mistakes. On a contract opposing counsel changed after five rounds: "I caught it in two seconds."
• Shared context for AI - Jeremy shares a point from a guest who works with Oleno: set up a teammate's AI with the right prompts and the right shared SOP, or expect different results from each person.
• AI made her more necessary - "If anything, it's made it so that I am more necessary." More in her post on whether you need a lawyer to draft contracts.
• Proof of concept first - for anyone leaving a 9-to-5, Delina's advice can be: "It might even be don't start an LLC quite yet." Then comes entity structuring. It pairs well with Brandon Moon on knowing your end game.

Chapters

• (00:00) Meet Delina Yasmeh, business and tax attorney
• (07:22) Her read on taxes heading into 2027
• (11:24) Where AI creates legal risk for a business
• (21:34) Why AI made her more necessary
• (34:28) Legacy companies and handshake deals
• (36:31) Leaving a 9-to-5: proof of concept first

Notable quotes

"I would rather you have a handshake and nothing on paper than what this is saying." - Delina Yasmeh

"You need to understand where you're going so you can get to where you want to be." - Delina Yasmeh

Reach Delina's firm at 818-888-6060 or on Instagram at Delina Esquire.

This episode is for general education only. It is not specific legal or business advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client or advisory relationship. Any genuine legal question should be handled through a retained professional.

This episode is supported by our sponsors uSERP, ClearLead Digital and Blawgy, white label SEO content for agencies.

Sponsor disclosure: uSERP, Oleno, ClearLead Digital and Blawgy are paid sponsors of the Unscripted podcast network. Links to them are marked as sponsored.

Unscripted Small Business is hosted by Jeremy Rivera. More episodes at unscriptedsmallbusiness.com.