During the garage-stage and Zoom-room days of a company’s life, fluidity can feel key to idea creation. The lack of contractual obligations is baked into how we understand the origin stories of the most famous startups. We celebrate rapid pivots, love scrappy MVPs over perfectly polished platforms and pay attention to repeat entrepreneurs who raise money for their next idea before they even know what it is. The ability to quickly spin up a team and launch something is clearly the core of what makes startupland so special (and, candidly, fun to write and talk about).
Yet, even though the amorphous beginning of a startup can feel energizing beyond belief, formality matters. There’s a difference, both in ownership and weight, between a founder, a founding team …
