Chapter 02 of 10
The Offering · Vol. 02 No. 01
The Desk · 02
September 2026 · London
The issuer’s operating map: twelve fields before a public sentence · Field 01–02
Entity and people: who is actually on the hook
A handle is not an issuer. A DAO that cannot sign is not an approver.
Write the legal persons first. Operating company. Issuing company, if different. IP holder. Foundation, if it exists as a person and not as a vibe. Directors. Named founder who can decide budget and messaging on a thirty-minute call. Work email. If the public face is a handle and the company is “being set up in the BVI next month,” you have a sequence problem. Incorporation in progress is acceptable. Anonymity as a brand is a hard reject on this desk.
The map must say who talks. Founders talk. Sometimes a foundation talks. Sometimes a market-maker talks without being asked. Sometimes a community moderator becomes, in effect, the spokesperson of the offering because they have the pin. Name the speakers. If you cannot, you cannot have a claims register, because a register without an owner is a wiki.
Entity graph, minimum
If two boxes are the same person in different hats, write that down. Hats are how conflicts hide.
- Operate
- Who ships the product, employs the team, signs vendor contracts.
- Issue
- Who creates or sells the asset, if anyone. May be the same entity. May not exist yet.
- Hold IP
- Who owns the marks, the repo, the paper. “The community” is not a holder.
- Speak
- Named humans with calendars. Not “core contribs.” Not “the DAO.”
- Approve
- Who can kill a sentence in twenty-four hours. A time zone they will share.
Related-party facts belong on the map even when they are boring. If the market maker is also an advisor with tokens. If the lead developer is a director of the issuer. If the foundation is funded by the operating company on a loan that looks like an advance on a sale. Boring is not optional. Diligence rooms fill with the facts you found uninteresting.