The LLC was his team's preference (and I was happy with it as well, having prior Delaware LLC experience), it was formed for the investment.
We used YC docs (http://ycombinator.com/documents/) for the employment contract among other things, with a few adjustments for things I wanted changed.
The due diligence, formation, agreements, etc. were all a very easy process. His team is excellent to deal with, very professional, and his people and lawyers were always available if I had questions. They're pretty much an entrepreneur's ideal.
Regarding the LLC. I think for this business it was quite desirable, as it has slightly unusual attributes and prospects. It was always understood it wasn't going to be a billion dollar funding company (that would eg take numerous rounds from large VC firms). It was always going to be profitable from early on, requiring no substantial further funding. You could say it's a partnership in a corporation's body.
If we were going to agree to an investment from Andreessen Horowitz tomorrow morning, we'd likely reform to a C corp for future purposes.
I echo your sentiment about getting hung up on corporate form though. The hassle involved can vary depending on your partners of course. With a partner like Cuban, if there's something that needs to be done, like shifting to a C corp for business or investment purposes, then it'll get done with minimal drama.
Most of these things simply are not going to be a major problem unless you have shitty partners that might cause problems in the process of reforming the company from an LLC to a C. Mostly these are trivial issues that people sometimes waste large amounts of time on because their partners suck.
I have an LLC. I took funding from Mark Cuban, based on a product I created that took about three months to put together. I hadn't intended to raise venture capital, but in a spur-of-the-moment type action I emailed him about what I was doing. I didn't even have a number in mind when he replied, so I just came up with something off the top of my head in about five minutes (I tried to be reasonable, and aim a bit lower than higher, because his involvement was worth more than the cash); that was an interesting and surreal hour of my life. Mark is the real deal, and the best business partner you could ask for.
We used YC docs (http://ycombinator.com/documents/) for the employment contract among other things, with a few adjustments for things I wanted changed.
The due diligence, formation, agreements, etc. were all a very easy process. His team is excellent to deal with, very professional, and his people and lawyers were always available if I had questions. They're pretty much an entrepreneur's ideal.
Regarding the LLC. I think for this business it was quite desirable, as it has slightly unusual attributes and prospects. It was always understood it wasn't going to be a billion dollar funding company (that would eg take numerous rounds from large VC firms). It was always going to be profitable from early on, requiring no substantial further funding. You could say it's a partnership in a corporation's body.
If we were going to agree to an investment from Andreessen Horowitz tomorrow morning, we'd likely reform to a C corp for future purposes.
I echo your sentiment about getting hung up on corporate form though. The hassle involved can vary depending on your partners of course. With a partner like Cuban, if there's something that needs to be done, like shifting to a C corp for business or investment purposes, then it'll get done with minimal drama.
Most of these things simply are not going to be a major problem unless you have shitty partners that might cause problems in the process of reforming the company from an LLC to a C. Mostly these are trivial issues that people sometimes waste large amounts of time on because their partners suck.