Just wondering whether to form a company straight away, or wait until some point before launch. I guess the 2 most important things are to protect ip, and ensure I get my stake in the future.
Any advice on this?
"Don't incorporate, though, if you can avoid it. Especially as an LLC. It's much more complicated for us to deal with existing paperwork than to start from scratch."
And as a personal note, I've found the same logistically - tinker together with friends on a project, see how you gel together, then worry about forming a company later.
There's also a contract that might help if one of you originally came up with the idea and recruited the other - you can create one that says basically that all the ideas and work belong to one person, the idea originator, but that they all transfer to whatever company you guys form if you actually get around to forming one.
I have zero legal experience, so take it for what it's worth, this isn't advice either way.
I guess we will 'tinker' until the point of release.
Thanks
Legal contracts aren't warm and fuzzy, but they keep everyone honest; as you can gather from the scenario I outline above, this isn't even about money -- in the Internet age, reputational risk is everything. You never know when/why you might get spit upon, or by whom.
You should probably vest some or all of the founders' stock (the usual time is 4 years) as a way of deciding in advance what happens if you split. It is a huge distraction to negotiate that later.
Don't incorporate as an LLC unless you don't plan to either take investment or sell the company.
You should postpone incorporating only if (a) you're still not 100% sure you want to start the company, (b) you're not sure yet what the stock allocation should be, or (c) you want to get funding soon from YC or some other investor who would prefer to start with a clean slate.
Use a lawyer. And if this is a startup, get one who works with startups, because the issues with startups are different from ordinary businesses.
