Time to have some serious, un-edited conversation here folks.

The comments around this question have been really interesting to watch. But the underlying subtext of corporations 'good' vs 'bad' and the level of seriousness it entails when they are dissolved is even more amazing.

First off, on a discussion group that is pretty much focused on creating innovation through technology, the concept of corporations is pretty much fundamental. If you hate corporations and everything they stand for then starting one should be the last thing on your mind. Further helping other people create theirs should also be pretty low on your list. Without the existence of these collectives there is no framework for seed rounds, 'happy exits', or IPOs. There is no 'acqui-hire' and no structure in which to build a vision that is greater than yourself.

But the second bit that must be understood is that "corporations" are composed of people, just as a marriage is composed of people. These companies are things that people invest time, emotion, and money into to further their goals. When they fail, people feel badly, sometimes really badly about that.

If you decide to live in the community of people who build companies from the ground up, or work to make them great, then someone you know personally will commit suicide when they come to the realization that their company has failed and they could have prevented it. I know it is hard to imagine this as a young person who has yet to face their own mortality in any serious way, but please try to understand this scenario.

You have been working with folks for 3, 4, 5, or maybe 10 years on building something together. Imagine someone you knew in 6th grade is is now graduating with you in college. There are challenges that you don't think you can overcome, personal hardships that you weather together, shared victories you've achieved. You've shared in people making progress toward their life goals, perhaps they have saved up enough to buy their first house, maybe their kids have made it into an Ivy League college, maybe their kids have married your kids. And now, all of this and more is going to be destroyed. These people, these friends and colleagues, are going to have their lives turned upside down, and some more than others. Some will lose their houses, their kids will be told they have to come home because there is no money for school, reputations will be smeared, and good people who did nothing but great work will be villified by a public which has been fed information in a way that creates the most rage and the least understanding.

If you, latinohere, or anyone else reading this, ever get the "opportunity" to be standing at that abyss and look into it, you may feel that your own death is actually preferable than having to live with that. Sadly I know friends who decided it wasn't worth it and they ended their own lives rather than live with the knowledge they had led people into a place that turned out not as they had hoped. And in that moment, that moment of decision, do you take this "deal" which converts a bad outcome to a slightly less bad outcome. it really comes down to people living and dying. Corporation or not, real people who have to live with themselves the day after and the day after that.