Business Structures

1. June 5, 2012
StoryCode Immersions #4
Business Process / Transmedia Business Models

2. AGENDA
• Business Structure Overview - 30 Minutes
• Transmedia Business Models - 60 Minutes
Lina Srivastava: www.linasrivastava.com
Twitter: @lksriv
• #storycode

3. OVERVIEW
• Setting up your business - in order to do any significant
immersive media project you’ll likely need to incorporate
• Base Business Requirements - what you’ll need to
function
• Fiscal sponsorships - another alternative
• Equity issues - investment vs. artist direct donation
• Creative Compensation - tips
• Tech Partnerships - tips

4. SETTING UP YOUR BUSINESS
• Business structure options:
• C Corporations
• S Corporations
• LLCs
• Partnerships
• Sole Proprietorships
• Non-profit
• Different liability/tax implications for each
• Corporation.com / Legal Zoom vs. Local Lawyers

5. BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
• EIN# gets you a bank account
• Trusted accountant
• Legal documents to support your needs (NDAs, Releases,
Work For Hire, etc...) - solid drafts of these exist for free
• Insurance - research what insurance you might need
then decide what level of risk you are comfortable with
• Legal fees - very easy to get sucked into an expensive
legal outlay before you have revenue coming in the door

6. FISCAL SPONSORSHIPS
• Formal arrangement in which a 501(c)(3) charity
sponsors a project that may lack exemption status
• Alternative to starting your own non-profit allows you to
seek grants and solicit tax-deductible donations under
your sponsor's exempt status
• Fiscal sponsor charges a processing fee for all money
that comes in
• Most granting organization only grant to non profits or
artists with fiscal sponsorship
• ArtSpire, Fractured Atlas, fiscalsponsordirectory.org

7. EQUITY ISSUES
• Selling ownership in your business to investors is tricky
and expensive
• Sounds a lot easier than it actually is
• Artist Direct Models like Kickstarter sidestep equity
issues but you still get taxed on the contributions - 1099
income
• Artist Direct Models can process through a business OR
an individual

8. CREATIVE COMPENSATION
• Consider being transparent with your production team
on budget and profits
• Develop a profit sharing model to incentivize the team -
easier to deal with than equity distribution
• Pay a base rate then commit to a share of project profits
• Implement a simple tier system

9. TECH PARTNERSHIPS
• Consider a joint venture with a technology company
• Consider abstracting your story to see if a tech
framework can be created to support more than just
your story
• This becomes attractive because it can scale faster than
a specific single story
• If the project is innovative enough your tech partner will
have more skin in the game if you are true partners

10. CONTACT
mike@storycode.org
aina@storycode.org
www.storycode.org
@storycodeorg