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Executive brief

Company setup for founders

The legal and administrative choices that turn a project into a company, and what each one settles

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Founders are usually handed a checklist for starting a company, and a checklist makes every item look like a form. This brief reads each item as a decision and asks what it settles, what it leaves open and what it costs to change later.

It covers the main choices in the order they tend to arise: the legal form, the state of formation, tax treatment, how the founders divide ownership, who owns the code, the company name and the tax number. For each one it reports what public sources from United States agencies say, then separates that report from analysis.

One choice carries a deadline that starts running when shares are issued, and the brief says why that one should not wait. It also gives questions to ask a lawyer or an accountant before committing to any of the choices.

The brief names its sources and states the limits of what they can show. It does not cover other jurisdictions, and it does not say which choice is right for your company.

It is general information for founders. It is not legal, tax or investment advice.

The brief at a glance

The chapters in reading order, and one public figure that frames the question the brief answers.

The chapters, as a constellation

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

7.5% 1

of 2021 U.S. business applications became employer businesses within two years

2.29 quarters 1

on average from application to first payroll, for 2021 applicants that hired

42 months 2

of paying wages before a business is counted as established

  1. U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics
  2. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, United States 2019/2020 Report (Babson College)

These figures describe all new U.S. businesses, not WE's results.

Format
Written brief
Updated
October 10, 2026
Sections
14

What the brief covers

The sections of the full brief, in order. WE sends the full text by email to the address you give.

  1. The question this brief answers
  2. About the evidence
  3. How to read the choices
  4. Choice one: the legal form of the company
  5. Choice two: where to form it
  6. Choice three: how the company is taxed
  7. Choice four: dividing the ownership among the founders
  8. Choice five: owning what the company makes
  9. Choice six: the name
  10. Choice seven: the tax number and the registrations that follow
  11. The choices side by side
  12. Questions to ask before choosing
  13. What this brief cannot tell you
  14. Sources

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This brief gives considerations for founders. It is not legal, tax or investment advice.

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.

Updated October 10, 2026. 15 sections.

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.

Updated October 10, 2026. 13 sections.

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.

Updated October 11, 2026. 12 sections.

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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.