Mital Makadia is Partner at Grellas Shah and a trusted advisor to startup founders. She serves as outside general counsel to early-stage and growth-stage technology companies across a wide range of industries. She works closely with founders from the earliest stages of company formation through venture financings, strategic transactions and exits. Her practice is grounded in helping entrepreneurs navigate complex legal and business decisions with clarity and confidence. Whether she’s structuring a reorganization, guiding a startup through its first institutional funding or quarterbacking an M&A deal, Mital brings sharp judgment, practical insight, and a deep understanding of founder priorities. Clients value her calm, thoughtful approach and her ability to simplify high-stakes, fast-moving issues without losing sight of the bigger picture.
Mital’s expertise has been featured in such media as Entrepreneur; Law360; Bloomberg Law; HR Daily Advisor; and more.
Company: Grellas Shah LLP
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company
Mital Makadia: As Partner at Grellas Shah LLP, I advise startup founders and serve as outside general counsel to early-stage and growth-stage technology companies across a wide range of industries. I work closely with founders from the earliest stages of company formation through venture financings, strategic transactions and exits.
My practice is grounded in helping entrepreneurs navigate complex legal and business decisions: structuring a reorganization, guiding a startup through its first institutional funding or quarterbacking an M&A deal, for example.
Prior to joining Grellas Shah, I practiced at Hogan & Hartson LLP in Washington, D.C., and at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP in New York, where I represented public and private companies in a variety of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, company formations and governance matters.
My passion lies in mitigating risk for both buyers and sellers and deal structuring, and I’ve served primarily as seller counsel for nearly 50 M&A transactions.
Based in San Francisco, Grellas Shah is a full-service boutique law firm. Our core practices focus on startups, technology and venture law, as well as complex business litigation. Our startup, technology and venture law practice provides wraparound services from structuring to financings and M&A.
Our litigation expertise spans the range of litigation issues that impact tech companies and their stakeholders – including intellectual property, securities, employment, contracts and regulatory and internal investigations.
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, how would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Mital Makadia: Grellas Shah is a founder’s firm, which means that founders’ interests are our primary focus. While we do what other firms in this space do – startups, technology, venture law and complex business litigation – we typically don’t represent the VCs. We are primarily on the side of founders and startups. There are very few people in the market that have this kind of approach, as most are chasing the VC money. But we feel passionate about representing startups and using our experience to guide founders, who often lack experience. We think it’s a voice that’s missing in the market and are happy to fill that void.
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, is an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle to keep talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are you adapting to the current shift we see?
Mital Makadia: We’re a pretty casual, self-deprecating bunch – we aim to be kind, and we keep egos in check. We care a lot about treating people well, listening and not taking ourselves too seriously. Our goal is to create an environment where people feel respected and safe to be themselves. We don’t make fun of anyone – just ourselves. And because the partners come from diverse backgrounds, we show that anyone can make it here… and maybe even laugh a little along the way.
Online business keeps on surging higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for the year to come and how are you capitalizing on the tidal wave?
Mital Makadia: Almost all of our meetings are now online, and almost all of our communication is electronic, both internally and externally. That has expanded our client base from primarily being in Silicon Valley to a broader, global reach. We have clients all over the world, with a concentration on early-stage tech startups.
The pandemic has also expanded the geographic range of our hires. We now have corporate attorneys in Denver, New York City and Boston. Since many of our clients find us online, we will continue to enhance our digital presence by meeting clients in online spaces – such as LinkedIn and in various online forums.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Mital Makadia: Creating a culture has become a major challenge for many businesses in a short period of time. The rise of remote work has its benefits, but over the past few years, we’ve seen that it’s difficult to build a team culture with a remote workforce. Even though some folks might be just as productive at home as they are in an office, remote team members are generally more distanced from and less attached to the company as a whole. This creates retention issues and can make it difficult to recruit new personnel. From a retention perspective, culture is often a significant reason that people stay at a company. If a job is simply “a set of tasks done remotely,” there’s less incentive for someone to stay in their position. In terms of recruiting, there’s the tension between people looking for WFH as a perk, while the hiring company has already seen the downsides of offering it.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Mital Makadia: It’s important for a manager/owner to recognize their limitations and leadership style. Yet, managers routinely underestimate their own weaknesses. Once they have that self-awareness, leaders can intentionally build a team that complements their strengths and offsets their weaknesses.
It’s much easier to remain focused on what you’re good at and what comes naturally to you. But to successfully run a company or a team, you should try to either improve your blind spots or bring in help to address them.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Mital Makadia: I love what I do, but there just aren’t enough hours. I’d love the ability to pause time. Catch a breath and clear my desk before the next project comes in. So, a remote control to pause time would be my ideal superpower.
