Ask HN: Suitable company structure for single founder looking for angels, non-US

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2961786
by wiradikusuma • 15 years ago
9 6 15 years ago

My country, Indonesia, was colonized by the Dutch. We inherit their legal structures including how companies are formed. As such, we don't have structures like C/S-Corp or LLC. AFAIK, we only have:

- Naamloze vennootschap (NV) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naamloze_vennootschap - Commanditaire vennootschap (CV, limited partnership) - And some others which are not contextual with my question (such as Sole Proprietorship).

Now, many people in Indonesia think NV is similar with Corporation, in the sense that it's a legal entity, has the concept of shares and limited liability. BUT... it has to be formed "at least two shareholders are willing to invest capital" (http://business.belgium.be/en/managing_your_business/setting_up_your_business/company_types/public_limited_company/, from Google). CV allows one man show, but it's not limited liability, and converting it to NV later on can be tedious.

The problem is, I'm a single founder and currently approaching an angel investor to invest in my idea using convertible debt. Ideally, like in US(?), I can just setup a company, get the money, and life goes on. But since we don't have such Corp/LLC thing, I could:

- Start a CV, and be prepared to lose my house if I can't pay back the investor. - Start a NV, by asking my mom to be my partner with minimum share allowed. - Or, how?

And, have I told you that the investor is a foreigner (non-Indonesian)?

Note: I know it's a bit silly to ask this in US-centric community, but I'm pretty sure there are lots of non-US citizen here who might have the same dilemma with me.

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