Most of the tech examples I know of in the US are small, boutique, often ephemeral consulting companies started among a few friends. Often the formal structure

Most of the tech examples I know of in the US are small, boutique, often ephemeral consulting companies started among a few friends. Often the formal structure is a standard partnership or corporation with shares evenly divided. If the partners get along, are smart about things and the market is good, they often do quite well while they last. Many of the companies are kind of transitory - doing web page design and the like in the late 1990s, and then when the market dries up, the partners close the business and go their separate ways. Or sometimes one partner is hired by the company he is consulting for, another moves across the country following his girlfriend, and the remaining partners agree to wind down the business.