Vibe-Coded It? Incorporate Before You Fundraise.

Vibe coding — building software by prompting instead of programming — is now the default way non-technical founders ship. Collins named it Word of the Year. The idea-to-working-product cycle went from months to days.

Then October 13th brought the reckoning. Accountants started warning publicly: founders are shipping investable-looking products in weeks while the company behind them has no vesting agreements, murky IP ownership, and no financial records. Investors are finding it in diligence — and walking.

Here is the costly mistake almost everyone makes: incorporating too late. Everything you build before the company exists belongs to you personally, not the company. When you finally form the LLC or corporation, that IP has to be formally assigned over — and if a co-founder, contractor, or early helper touched the code, the ownership chain gets messy fast.

The fix is boring and cheap:

• Form the entity first — before the product has value, before the pitch deck. A Wyoming or home-state LLC costs ~$100.
• Assign the IP in writing — a simple IP assignment from you (and anyone who helped) to the company. It is in our free forms library.
• Open the business bank account — with the EIN (free from the IRS), so money and code live inside the company from day one.
• Paper the founders — operating agreement with vesting, even if it is just you. Future-you will thank present-you.

Speed is the whole point of vibe coding. Do not let the paperwork be the thing that kills the deal six months later. Check the name, file the entity, then get back to prompting.