There are three points of his, with which I have personal experience, where I believe the article is incorrect.
1. Division of ownership in an LLC can be made very similar to a C-Corp. In all rights and restrictions. In an LLC it is typically called a Unit instead of a Share. You can sell a PPM (Private Placement Memorandum) for Units, at some par value, to raise money. You can dilute Units. Units can have voting rights or not. His statement on division is clearly incorrect from my own company where we had many initial investors. Some were institutional, some were individual, some were via investment vehicles.
2. He states LLCs don't have Options. This is also not entirely true. The similar vehicle in an LLC is called a Warrant. Warrants can have the same rights and restrictions as Options. Warrants are used to incentivize employees with ownership rather than cash. Again, in our company we used Warrants to attract talent and compensate early employees to great effect.
3. Protection is another point he brings up. Yes the Corp (C and S) is battle tested in the courts. Yes LLCs have not been tested to quite that extent. However, to flatly state that a C Corp will protect you is a little overselling what the reality is. The Corporate Veil is not impermeable. As a matter of fact, it is most often pierced (outside of blatant misconduct) by attacking under or low initially capitalized companies and closely held businesses. Companies like startups who start small and become successful quickly.
I see this particular article as not having researched LLCs, their use case, and the benefits they possess in some cases over Corporations. I understand no SV VCs will talk to you unless you have a C-Corp. I get it many Lawyers in the startup ecosystem want you to create a C-Corp. But this is truly a small percentage of businesses and even a small percentage of startup businesses.
Why blanket write off any particular solution (or all others for that matter) without first checking to see if it can meet your specific needs?
1. Division of ownership in an LLC can be made very similar to a C-Corp. In all rights and restrictions. In an LLC it is typically called a Unit instead of a Share. You can sell a PPM (Private Placement Memorandum) for Units, at some par value, to raise money. You can dilute Units. Units can have voting rights or not. His statement on division is clearly incorrect from my own company where we had many initial investors. Some were institutional, some were individual, some were via investment vehicles.
2. He states LLCs don't have Options. This is also not entirely true. The similar vehicle in an LLC is called a Warrant. Warrants can have the same rights and restrictions as Options. Warrants are used to incentivize employees with ownership rather than cash. Again, in our company we used Warrants to attract talent and compensate early employees to great effect.
3. Protection is another point he brings up. Yes the Corp (C and S) is battle tested in the courts. Yes LLCs have not been tested to quite that extent. However, to flatly state that a C Corp will protect you is a little overselling what the reality is. The Corporate Veil is not impermeable. As a matter of fact, it is most often pierced (outside of blatant misconduct) by attacking under or low initially capitalized companies and closely held businesses. Companies like startups who start small and become successful quickly.
I see this particular article as not having researched LLCs, their use case, and the benefits they possess in some cases over Corporations. I understand no SV VCs will talk to you unless you have a C-Corp. I get it many Lawyers in the startup ecosystem want you to create a C-Corp. But this is truly a small percentage of businesses and even a small percentage of startup businesses.
Why blanket write off any particular solution (or all others for that matter) without first checking to see if it can meet your specific needs?