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.
Executive brief
Funding paths for founders
What each way of paying for early work asks of the company in return
Founders are often shown funding as a menu, with the amount of money on offer as the only column. This brief reads the same options from the other side and asks what each one requires of the company once the money has arrived.
It covers seven paths: revenue and savings, federal research awards, loans, private sales of shares, convertible instruments, priced rounds and regulated crowdfunding. For each path it reports what a public source says the mechanism is, then separates that report from analysis of which kind of company the path tends to suit.
It also lists questions to put to any path before committing, and it sets out the limits of what its sources can show. Those include rules that change, facts specific to your company and every jurisdiction outside the United States.
The brief 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
These figures describe the wider market, not WE's results. WE makes no promise of funding.
- Format
- Written brief
- Updated
- October 10, 2026
- Sections
- 15
What the brief covers
The sections of the full brief, in order. WE sends the full text by email to the address you give.
- The question this brief answers
- About the evidence
- How to read the paths
- Path one: customers and the founder's own money
- Path two: government research awards
- Path three: loans
- Path four: selling shares in a private placement
- Path five: convertible instruments such as the SAFE
- Path six: a priced equity round
- Path seven: crowdfunding to the public
- A tax note on shares
- The paths side by side
- Questions to ask before choosing
- What this brief cannot tell you
- Sources
Request the brief
This brief gives considerations for founders. It is not legal, tax or investment advice.
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.