Ask HN: Pros and cons of a company owning shares in a startup vs. as an individual

You should look at how VC firms are structured. I believe they are partnerships amongst the partners, where each partner has an LLC that makes investments on his/her behalf.

I could be totally wrong here. But worth looking into. As others have said, taxes is the main motivator - with a C-Corp investing, you'll be double taxed on any capital gains. The Corp will pay cap gain taxes when it sells shares, and then you or the corp will need to pay more taxes in the form of either dividends, payroll, or more cap gains taxes when you take the money out of the Corp.

This is a question for an accountant and perhaps a lawyer...actually almost certainly a lawyer for due diligence regarding the startup and its shares.

Taxes.