会社の形態

For many new startups, the form of corporate entity they choose is called the LLC. It stands for Limited Liability Company. This form of business has been around for a long time in some countries but became recognized and popular in the US sometime in the past 25 years. The key distinguishing characteristics of a LLC is that you get the limitation of liability of a corporation, you can take investment capital (with restrictions that we'll talk about next), but the taxes are "flow through". Most companies, including tech startups, start out as LLCs these days. Owners in LLC are most commonly called "members" and investments or ownership splits are structured in "membership interests."