You should create a “Brand LLC” that you will use to make offers. It will either be used as the Manager LLC of a syndicate or it may be used as your representative member in the management of a syndicate if there are other management team members for a specific deal.
Your Brand LLC is the company you will use on your business cards, website, etc. To determine if the name you’ve selected is brandable, do the following things (in this order):
- A Google search to see if others have already branded the name. If someone else is using it, find something else that won’t be confused with it. It’s not enough to add “the” in front of the name or words that could still be confusing to the public.
- A GoDaddy search to see if the domain is available. If it’s not, same advice as above.
- A search of the Secretary of State’s website in the state where you plan to form it. If the first two words are the same as another company’s name, you may be required to get permission from that company to use a similar name. If you don’t own the other company, you are unlikely to get it. Time to go back to the drawing board.
If you are creating a single-member Brand LLC, we suggest you do it in Wyoming, as it offers better single-member LLC protection than other states.
