Every clean decision has a future cost.
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You filed a single-member LLC because it was simple. Your first hire will be a 1099 because that is also simple.
1
Year three: co-founder joins. You now need an F-reorg costing $40K to restructure what you filed in ten minutes at the kitchen table.
2
Year three: first real revenue arrives. The 1099s have been W-2s in function for 18 months. Your new accountant stops making eye contact.
3
Year three: you try to raise. The investor sees the cap table. The investor asks who advised this structure. You name three people who did not coordinate.
The $80K cost in year three
is the $500 you saved in year one.
This is not a theoretical example. This is most founders. The average US reorg costs $60K to $120K. Founders pay it thinking it is "normal growing pain."
· The sentence nobody says in year one ·
Structure is not a year-three problem.
It is a year-three receipt.