Executive brief
Funding paths for founders
Seven ways to pay for early software work, compared by what each asks of the company: customers, awards, loans, shares, convertible instruments and crowds.
Resources
Executive briefs
Executive briefs for founders on funding paths, company setup and building with AI. Each has a public outline and is sent by email on request.
Executive briefs are longer written documents for people who need to decide something and want the considerations laid out in one place. Each brief has its own page with an outline of what it covers. WE sends the full text by email to the address you give when you request it.
Every brief names its sources, states how far the evidence goes and says what it cannot tell you. A brief is general information for founders. It is not legal, tax or investment advice.
For startups
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Executive brief
Company setup for founders
Seven choices a first-time founder makes when forming a company: legal form, state, tax treatment, founder shares, ownership of the work, name and tax number.
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Executive brief
Building an AI-native product
Six considerations for founders building on a language model: risk process, attacks, authority, evaluation and law, and what each asks of the design.
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Executive brief
Your first hundred customers
What has to change as a software company moves from its first ten customers to a repeatable way of finding the next ninety.
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Executive brief
A pre-seed evidence pack
The records a founder can gather before a first investor conversation, and what each one shows about a young company.
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Executive brief
First hires for founders
Roles, contracts and day-one paperwork for the first person a software company hires, from public United States federal sources.
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Executive brief
The real timeline of a business
How long a new U.S. business takes to hire, to survive and to count as established, from Census, BLS, SBA and GEM figures.
For investors
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Executive brief
Early-stage diligence
How to weigh the records of an early-stage software company: ownership, rights, share sales, tax filings, security and reported numbers, and their limits.
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Executive brief
AI company diligence
Eight checks for diligence on an early-stage company that depends on a model: data, supplier, security, evidence, claims, rules and ownership.
For partners
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Executive brief
Partnering with founders
For organizations working with early-stage founders: six kinds of arrangement, the ownership and data questions they raise, and what to put in writing.
For corporate teams
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Executive brief
Spinning out a product
Four routes for a new software product inside a company, read through ownership, equity for staff, parent control and small-business rules.
Open research briefs
The research briefs on this site are open to read, with no request needed.
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Accessibility at launch
A source-based reading of WCAG 2.2, Section508.gov and the DOJ ADA Title II web rule, with a labelled analysis of why accessibility belongs in launch scope.
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Team, agency or freelancers
A criteria-based decision framework for choosing between a dedicated team, an agency and freelancers, with the legal basics that apply to each.
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SaaS metrics definitions
Definitions and a formula appendix for MRR, ARR, churn, NRR, CAC and LTV, drawn from public references, with a reporting discipline and no benchmarks.
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Security baseline for year one
What a first-year SaaS security baseline can draw from OWASP ASVS, NIST SSDF and the AICPA Trust Services Criteria, and how to sequence the work.
Every brief, its own world
Each cover is drawn from the brief it belongs to: a world of tiles in a starfield, one tile in amber for the company reading it.
The long horizon the briefs are written for
About half of new U.S. businesses are still operating at year five, and about a third at year ten. The briefs are written for the decisions that decide which side of that line a company ends up on.
Show the figures as a table
| Years since opening | All private industries | Information, including software | Professional and technical services |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| 1 | 79.6% | 80.8% | 81.6% |
| 2 | 69.1% | 70% | 71.2% |
| 3 | 61.4% | 60.8% | 63% |
| 4 | 55.4% | 53.3% | 56% |
| 5 | 50.2% | 46.8% | 50.3% |
| 6 | 46.4% | 42.6% | 46.9% |
| 7 | 43.6% | 38.6% | 43.2% |
| 8 | 40.3% | 35.4% | 40% |
| 9 | 37.4% | 33% | 37.2% |
| 10 | 34.7% | 30% | 34.3% |
Establishments with at least one employee, opened in the year to March 2015. A closure is not always a failure: it includes sales and mergers.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7 , March 2025 release
These figures describe the wider market, not WE's results.
- Month 7 First payroll, on average 1 More than two quarters after applying
- Year 1 77.9% still operating 2
- Year 2 7.5% have hired 1 Share of 2021 applications that were employers within two years
- Year 3 56.3% still operating 2
- Year 3.5 Established 3 Forty-two months of paying wages
- Year 5 51.4% still operating 2
- Year 10 34.7% still operating 2
These figures describe all new U.S. businesses, not WE's results.
How a brief reaches you
From an outline to the full text
- Read the outline Every brief has its own page with the sections in order.
- Request it On the brief’s page, with the address the text should go to.
- Receive the text WE sends the full brief by email.
- Check the evidence Each brief names its sources and says what it cannot tell you.
Starting a business in the U.S.
77.9% 2
of new U.S. businesses were still operating after one year (opened in the year to March 2024)
These figures describe all new U.S. businesses, not WE's results.
Start a readiness review
Tell WE where the company stands. WE replies to arrange a conversation and a written read of your company's timeline.
A short PDF of the charts and sources, sent by email to the address you give.
Talk to WE : A question that does not fit a form.