Two academy founders combining a technical-training curriculum and a facility-based tournament operator into a single youth-development platform, an agreed handshake on economics, and no paper between them. We built the joint venture, the entity, and the exit ramp before the platform opened.
Neither founder had drafted an operating agreement with defined member roles, capital contributions, distribution waterfall, or exit provisions. The two-hundred-family customer base that would be routed through the new venture was mostly held on the facility founder's side. The training curriculum was mostly held on the coaching founder's side.
Neither had run diligence on the other's paperwork.
We formed the joint venture entity as a member-managed LLC with defined capital accounts, drafted the operating agreement to reflect the actual economic split, and built a distribution waterfall that tracked contribution over time. We drafted an IP license from the coaching founder for the curriculum with a defined term and a reversion trigger. We drafted a facility license from the facility founder with the same structure.
We ran a customer-database migration under a written data-processing agreement so the family list moved into the joint venture under an enforceable framework. We built a coach-services agreement template for the roster, an incident-reporting policy, and a waiver-and-release stack sized to the joint venture's insurance.
We wrote a buy-sell provision with mediation, appraisal, and a valuation trigger, so either founder could exit without litigation. The platform opened on time.
"We had the same vision on Zoom. Brandon made sure we would still have it in Year Three."
— Co-Founder, Youth Development Platform
Two founders who trust each other rarely feel an urgent need to formalize the partnership before launch, right up until a customer database, an IP asset, or a facility needs to move from one side to the other under an actual legal framework. Handshake economics do not migrate two hundred family records or license a curriculum.
The exit provision is the part most partnerships skip, because nobody wants to plan for the relationship failing while they are building it together. It is also the part that determines whether a disagreement in Year Three becomes a mediation or a lawsuit.
We form joint ventures between founders bringing different assets into a shared platform, and we build the exit ramp as part of the formation, not as an afterthought once something has already gone wrong.
Most engagements are flat fee, quoted before the work begins — and most matters resolve without litigation. Start with a free consultation.