Incorporating a startup, with foresight

Incorporation is one of the few moments in a startup's life where five minutes of thought saves five months of cleanup later. Founders rarely give it those five minutes.

Three things matter most. First, entity choice — a private limited company is almost always right, but the question deserves an active answer. Second, the cap table — pool size, vesting, founder splits, all written down before the first hire. Third, the founders' agreement — a real one, not a template.

Get these right and the next four years compound on a clean foundation. Get them wrong and you will spend a quarter of every funding round cleaning up. The math is unforgiving.