Handshake agreements
Every institution begins with a promise.
Most promises stay in the chat. This one is followed from the handshake on day 0 to a record ten minutes later, a treasury at month 2, investors at month 6 and incorporation at month 8. Every stop is written down.
Most promises never make it.
Between the handshake and the state filing there is nothing. That is where most ventures die. Three causes of death, in the words they are usually spoken.
01
"We will figure out equity later."
The fuzzy split. Nobody wrote the numbers down, so everyone remembers them differently when the first real money arrives.
02
"Just send it to my account."
The personal account. The venture's money sits in one person's name. Every payment is a favour, every expense a negotiation.
03
"We do not need rules, we are friends."
The falling-out. There is no agreed way to decide, to leave or to settle a dispute. The friendship ends up carrying the whole company.
Chapter 1. The reality
Tarka Labs is three people, two paying clients and a name. Shared docs at v14_FINAL, money in Anjali's personal account, equity "we will figure it out", decisions by group chat. By every practical measure the venture exists. Except the measures that matter when money, credit or conflict shows up.
Chapter 2. Name it
Ten minutes in. The name resolves to acme-studio.entity.id, a public address anyone can check. Anjali and Faisal verify with an ID check. ops-agent-01 names D. Okafor as the person who answers for it. Three members, all verified, before the coffee goes cold.
Chapter 3. The rules
The conversation everyone avoids, had on the same night. Ownership 40 / 35 / 25, and it has to total 100 before anyone can continue. Money and members decided by vote. Disputes go to arbitration agreed in advance. Three sections, each signed by all three members. The rules are written down while everyone still likes each other.
Chapter 4. Operate
Months two to six. The first client pays into the venture's own treasury, not a personal account. Three treasuries, every transfer approved by two members. A seed round of 487,500 against 750,000, eight investors on the record, Meridian Ventures leading. Three founders become seven verified members. Nineteen decisions, every one with the votes that carried it.
Chapter 5. Incorporate
Month eight. An investor asks for a C-Corp. Tarka Labs incorporates in Delaware and everything carries over: the same seven members, the same cap table, the treasury history, 27 recorded decisions, eight signed investor agreements. Diligence is answered from history. Incorporation is a step, not a starting point.
Your first hire might not be human.
Software already transacts, hires and holds budgets. Without a record it has no standing: no venture, no disclosed operator, no rules, nothing a counterparty can check. On Entity.ID an agent registers within a venture, anchored to an accountable person, bound by the venture constitution, holding a recorded share. Before the money moves, anyone can check who is behind it.
Proof, not promises.
The record, not the vendor, is what people trust. Four properties, each built into formation rather than added after the first dispute.
Public, and nothing is quietly rewritten
Anyone can check the record. History appends; no one, including us, rewrites it.
Verified by design
Every member verified, every change signed. Diligence stops being archaeology.
Rules with teeth
A constitution and arbitration chosen at formation, binding on every member, not drafted after the falling-out.
A path to the state
Incorporation-ready from day one. When you want a Delaware or Wyoming company, the paperwork is already true.
Build the venture in your head
Assemble a venture, piece by piece.
Pick the parts. The record and the Open Registry line write themselves.
Ideal for internet native ventures
- Constituents
- 2 verified · 2 people
- Ownership
- Alice K 60%
- Bob M 40%
- Management
- every constituent has a say
- Model
- Super Entity
- Capital
- $25,000 · treasury second approval above a threshold
- Status
- Active · Good Standing
REC 5C527C acme-studio.entity.id { constituents:2, agents:0, management:"constituents", rules:"super-entity", disputes:"kleros", arbitration:true, treasury:25000, raising:false } ✓ signedYour venture is already real. Make it official.
You already made the promise. Minutes from now it can have a name that resolves, an ownership split that binds, rules everyone signed and a treasury of its own. Free to start. Incorporate when you need to.