# Identity and structure

URL: /business/record/identity-and-structure · Id: `page:business/record/identity-and-structure`

> What counts as one Startup, how it differs from its Idea, Brand, Company, Studio, and Portfolio, and the two trees it sits in.

A [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) is the smallest business that can be moved, promoted, or sold on its own, together with its [Customers](/business/nouns/customer). Everything else that names it answers a different question and keeps its own record.

## The boundary test
Ask one question: could this be sold with its Customers, as a unit, without tearing anything? If yes, it is one Startup. If two parts would have to be split first, they are two.

permitpulse.dev sells general contractors two things. One is a [Dataset](/business/nouns/dataset) of every building permit filed in their county. The other is an [Agent](/business/nouns/agent) that prepares and files the contractor's own permit applications.

Both [Products](/business/nouns/product) serve the same contractors and share one P&L, so permitpulse.dev is one Startup. Now suppose the same team sells permit histories to property insurers under the same name. Different Customers, different economics, a separate sale: that is a second Startup sharing a [Brand](/business/nouns/brand).

The reverse holds too. permitpulse.dev, api.permitpulse.dev, and a regional alias are three [Domains](/business/nouns/domain) for one Startup. Count Startups by the boundary test, never by Domains, Brands, or repositories.

## Six records, six questions
Six records surround a Startup. Each answers one question, and none stands in for another.

| Record | [Question](/business/nouns/question) it answers | For permitpulse.dev |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Idea](/business/nouns/idea) | What is pursued? | Permits that file themselves |
| Startup | Which business serves and earns? | permitpulse.dev |
| Brand | How are its [Offers](/business/nouns/offer) presented? | Its name, voice, logo, and colors |
| [Studio](/business/nouns/studio) | Who builds and directs it? | The Studio that minted it |
| [Company](/business/nouns/company) | Who holds its rights and signs? | The Studio's holding Company |
| [Portfolio](/business/nouns/portfolio) | Where do attention and money go? | The Studio's construction Portfolio |

Each edit touches one record. A rebrand changes the Brand, and no second Startup appears. A move to a new Company changes the legal holder, and a new Domain adds an address, so history stays legible.

## Two trees
A Startup sits in two trees at once, and they answer different questions.

The operating tree runs Studio, Portfolio, Startup, Product. Direction flows down it, and so do [Settings](/business/nouns/setting): each record inherits a Setting from its nearest holder unless it sets its own. The Studio sets a 14-day refund window; permitpulse.dev inherits it, and its filing Agent overrides it with 7 days.

The legal tree runs from Company to Startup. The Company signs [Agreements](/business/nouns/agreement), owns the equity, and holds the profit rights.

The trees move independently. When permitpulse.dev moves to a Company of its own, its operating parent, Settings, Domains, and Customers stay where they were. A Company officer who signs a lease gains no operating [Permission](/business/nouns/permission), and the Agent that files permits owns nothing.

## An Idea outlives its Startups
An Idea exists apart from any Startup that pursues it. The Studio often mints three to five sibling Startups for one Idea, each a variant with its own [ICP](/business/nouns/icp), approach, and Brand. The siblings run as one [Experiment](/business/nouns/experiment), judged on deposits from outside Customers.

"Permits that file themselves" spawned two siblings: permitpulse.dev for general contractors and a second Startup for rooftop solar installers. Installers filed more often but paid less per filing, so the Studio kept funding both and let the numbers decide.

A variant that loses goes [Dormant](/business/lifecycle/states/dormant). Nothing is deleted, and the Idea keeps every piece of [Evidence](/business/nouns/evidence) for the next attempt.

## Built from templates
Every Startup extends a [Startup Template](/business/nouns/startup-template). A Startup Template combines an operating model, one or more [Product Templates](/business/nouns/product-template), and a [Motion](/business/nouns/motion) for each Offer.

permitpulse.dev runs the [Autonomous](/agents/operating-models/autonomous) operating model, with no [Humans](/business/nouns/human) in its [Roles](/business/nouns/role). Its Products extend the [Dataset API](/products/templates/dataset-api) and [Agent as a Service](/products/templates/agent-as-a-service) Product Templates. Both Offers sell [b2b](/business/motions/b2b).

The Startup overrides a default only where it differs. An improved default in the Startup Template reaches every Startup that has not overridden it.

## The definition is data
Every record in this chapter lives in the Startup's namespace on [api.sb](/code/platform/api-sb). Humans and Agents read and write it through the same [Verbs](/business/nouns/verb).

Every edit is a [Change](/business/nouns/change), previewed and merged as one unit. Every choice is a [Decision](/business/nouns/decision) that records its options and its reason.

That is what makes a Startup operable by someone new. An operator, Human or Agent, reads the definition and knows who is served, who holds what, and who decides next.

## Next
[Customers and hypothesis](/business/record/customers-and-hypothesis): whom the Startup serves, and the belief it sets out to prove.