Do you form a company for each indie project or have one and they all sit under 1?

I think you can start some products from one company. If some of them grow and you want to get fund or have some partners you can create a new company for this product. It will be easier to manage this way.

I start all under the same company. If the growth of any one project warrants it I would create its own business. I'd have like 20 businesses if I started a new one every time lol

Hi Jason,
It really depends:
– If you are testing an idea or doing market validation, I do not see a reason to form a company at all
– If you have first-paying customers, it's fine to have them under one company
– If your company starts growing - you can split it from the main one
– Also, it's important to calculate risks.

I use the same company for multiple products, but each one uses completely separate accounts for all infrastructure and services. So if the corporate entities do need to be separated, it's just paperwork, rather than an ops nightmare.

Feel I would have to reverberate the common response "It Depends". Obviously suggest consulting a lawyer first on legal matters though. Do realizing their incentive is to drum up billable hours so be diligent in asking pointed "why" and "what impact" questions. Same as you would when discussing product feedback with users.

If it is just you on all the projects with limited legal risk (little to no PII) having all in a single company, aka LLC taxed as a partnership is ideal. Can always change it later.

With the projects I am apart of we have split companies. That is primarily due to varying ownership across the multiple projects. Secondary reason is risk, with one business possesses much more legal risk than the other. That being said we have multiple projects under a single company including major and minor products as well as freelancing where everything aligns.

I typically put each new company under the first company I formed - now acts as a sort of holding co.

But, on a different note, I typically try to get going fast and keep momentum up before setting up LLCs, etc.

Always 1 company until you get a solid proof of concept that your business is solid, then you go and make a completely separate entity (think long and hard about the name, characteristics, etc). Always create a separate company with the goal of exiting one day. You never know when you're gonna come across a buyer that will pay you a really good price for your digital business. Everything is going to be a lot smoother if you keep all of your eggs in different baskets.

Would you sell them all together, and start them all with the same co-founders? Same company.

If not, start a new company.

One company per cap table or desired acquisition is what I've done.

It just makes sense to have all of them under a single company. You do not want to triple your accounting efforts and taxes. Still, if one of them is generating revenue, most likely, it will become a new company.

Unless I take on investment early on, I don't form a company at all. I only form a company as soon as I make actual money from it. :)

There's no need to formally start a company unless you've got clients and need to deal with the legal/financial aspects of it.