"Startups lose money on things that can be resolved with a single document," says Chingis Oralbayev about business security.

This material is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Examples are provided in a generalized manner, without disclosing client identities or case details.

Chingis Oralbaev, city — Almaty, Managing Partner of SOLIS Partners LLP, IT and Personal Data Protection Lawyer, Member of the Chamber of Legal Consultants of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Most often, people come to me when something has already gone wrong. A developer leaves, takes the code with them, and registers the rights in their own name. An investor deal stalls because due diligence reveals that the product rights are not registered to the company. A platform receives a letter from a regulator and doesn’t know how to respond. In such moments, the founder usually says the same thing: “We thought we’d get to it later.”

So, this column is about how to ensure that “later” doesn’t turn into an expensive problem.

About Me

I support startups, marketplaces, and digital services — from the first line of a user agreement to a share sale transaction. Briefly, my experience — for those who skim quickly: over 11 years of experience supporting Kazakhstani and international projects, including 8 years at an international Tier 1 law firm according to Legal 500 in Kazakhstan.

Significant projects within the practice of SOLIS Partners LLP:

— Preparation of a legal memorandum on personal data protection for a major international online and offline retailer in connection with changes in regulatory requirements in Kazakhstan
— Support in a court dispute regarding the recovery of 166 million tenge from a quasi-state sector organization; representation of the plaintiff’s interests
— Support of an investment transaction — entry of strategic investor Documentolog into an HR-tech product, full cycle until deal closure
— Company registration in MCIA, support of the redomiciliation procedure — transferring a company to the MCIA jurisdiction while retaining legal personality, support for technology companies entering the Astana Hub participant regime
— Development of licensing models and contractual frameworks for foreign and Kazakhstani SaaS and IT products: license agreements, public offers, software development agreements with transfer of exclusive rights, and others
— Operational legal support for large technology companies and digital platforms: contractual work, user documentation, personal data protection, IP, and labor issues in a continuous support mode.

Experience consulting on international IT projects — as part of an international law firm team. Experience supporting Kazakhstani IT projects: Astana Hub, Naimi.kz, TrustMe, Relog, TapHR, and others.

Before moving on to analyzing specific cases, I will briefly explain why I do exactly this — and why I believe that law in IT is structured differently than commonly thought.

How It All Started

I didn’t start with startups. I have more than 10 years in the profession, a significant part of which was spent at a large international law firm: a classic school where you learn to break down complex issues into details and not miss anything important.

Over these years, I have gone through dozens of audits of technological and other assets and observed a pattern that later defined my choice: deals fall apart not because of major reasons, but often due to a single unsigned or incorrectly drafted document — a public offer, an act of rights transfer. Conversely: clean documents directly affect the company’s valuation when entering the market. In IT, legal work is one of the key factors in preserving the value of the product and the company as a whole.

The real turning point occurred when my first truly technological project came into my work. A foreign taxi-hailing service was entering the Kazakhstani market — one of those that change an entire industry. I represented its interests in the Mazhilis, where a bill on taxi regulation was being developed. That’s when I saw what captivated me: law here does not chase business post-factum, but moves alongside it. A norm discussed in parliament today determines tomorrow how an entire market segment will operate. A lawyer in such a situation does not just draft documents — they participate in defining the rules by which the industry will live.

There was another notable, high-profile project. A popular caller ID application was blocked in Kazakhstan due to complaints about how it handled personal data. I worked on unblocking it — that is, bringing the product into compliance with data protection requirements. The issue caused significant public resonance and clearly demonstrated that data issues have long ceased to be merely “paperwork.” One violation, and the service simply disappears from the market.

Why Startups?

In a large corporation, a client is a procedure: a package of documents, regulations, deadlines. In a startup, a client is a person who has invested everything into the product and makes decisions on the go. They don’t need a forty-page memorandum. They need to understand which 10 legal tasks to prioritize and which can wait. This is a different genre of work: less formalism, more responsibility for real results.

And in startups, the cost of every mistake is visible. In a large company, a flaw gets lost in processes. In a young product, one unresolved minor issue — untransferred code rights, flawed consent, ambiguous contractor roles — can wipe out a funding round or derail a deal. Therefore, a lawyer is genuinely needed here, and their work is visible almost immediately.

In the technology business, legal cleanliness is not bureaucracy, but part of the company’s value. It is invisible as long as everything is fine, and it becomes decisive precisely at the moment when money or the product is at stake.

What This Column Will Be About

I will cover topics that the technology business in Kazakhstan is facing right now: personal data and new requirements for them, rights to code and disputes with teams, platform regulation, launching apps and games, advertising, and digital services. Without “legal fog” — in language understandable to those who build products, not just file lawsuits.

My task is simple: so that after each column, you understand not just “what to write in the policy,” but how it changes the structure of your product and your team.

Your question can become the topic of an entire column. Write to us — we will select the most pressing and practical topics. And in the next issue, I will analyze, for example: how not to lose rights to code if a developer resigns without signing an act of transfer of copyright. If this applies to you — stay tuned so you don’t miss it.