{ "model": { "rank": 9613, "code": "thing-q1589009", "model_id": "vr.tr.privately-held-company", "name": "privately held company", "purpose": "Let an agent explain privately held companies and their legal forms by country, find public information on them, explain governance and disclosure differences from public companies, and support business questions at a general level.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q1589009/", "tier": 2, "score": 47, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "società consortile a responsabilità limitata", "Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung", "multi-family office", "family office", "gemeinnützige GmbH", "GmbH & Still", "entrepreneurial company with limited liability", "private limited company", "gōdō gaisha", "Quarterhorse", "Zeekr", "City Transformer", "Berma Hospital", "civil company in the form of a private limited liability company", "Private Company", "Baz Medical Laboratories Limited", "Marvel Tech Group Co., Ltd.", "Rent-A-Store (Pty) Ltd", "Trixon Drums", "Le Flower Film and TV", "Calumet Baking Powder Company", "Nextel Chile", "Puma Energy", "Scharffen Berger", "private company limited by shares", "Gemeinnützige Unternehmergesellschaft", "Société à responsabilité limitée", "limited liability company", "free zone limited liability company", "Sociedade Anónima de Responsabilidade Limitada", "Flexible limited Company", "Ednolichno druzhestvo s ogranichena otgovornost", "private limited", "private limited company under public law", "limited company (South Korea)", "Etaireia Periorismenis Efthynis", "shoqëri me përgjegjësi të kufizuar", "Swan River Ferry company", "d.o.o.", "OneData Software Solutions" ], "aliasCount": 65, "merged": 77, "knownIn": 47, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q1589009", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1589009", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T16:05:28Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q1589009", "registryId": "vr.tr.privately-held-company", "name": "privately held company", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q1589009/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.privately-held-company", "name": "privately held company", "purpose": "Let an agent explain privately held companies and their legal forms by country, find public information on them, explain governance and disclosure differences from public companies, and support business questions at a general level.", "definition": "A company whose shares are not traded on a public stock exchange and are held by a limited number of owners such as founders, families, employees or investors, taking legal forms such as the German GmbH, the Italian consortium company or limited liability companies elsewhere; privately held companies range from small businesses to large family firms and include family offices.", "what_it_is_for": "Organising business ownership outside public markets.", "affordances": [ "explain legal forms of private companies by country", "find registered information on a company", "explain disclosure and governance differences", "outline how to form a private company" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Shares not publicly traded", "Limited number of owners", "Lighter disclosure", "Many legal forms" ], "appearance": "Not physical; legal entities recorded in registers.", "visual_identification": [ "Legal form suffixes such as GmbH, Ltd or LLC", "Not listed on exchanges", "Public companies have traded shares" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "limited liability companies such as GmbH and Ltd", "family businesses and family offices", "private equity owned companies", "consortium and cooperative-like private companies", "non-profit private companies such as gGmbH" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "private company", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "private corporation", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "public company", "why": "related form" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "cooperative", "why": "other enterprise form" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "National company law", "Company registration and filing rules", "Beneficial ownership registers" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Opaque ownership", "Confusing legal forms across countries", "Agents giving legal or tax advice" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "forms", "name": "Forms", "description": "Legal forms.", "rationale": "Countries differ.", "layers": [ { "id": "form", "name": "Form", "description": "Which form.", "findings": [ { "id": "form-finding", "name": "Form", "description": "Which form.", "questions": [ { "text": "What does this legal form, such as GmbH or SRL, mean, and what are its features?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What is its equivalent in another country?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "versus", "name": "Versus", "description": "Private versus public.", "findings": [ { "id": "versus-finding", "name": "Versus", "description": "Private versus public.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do private companies differ from public companies in ownership, disclosure and governance?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Can a private company become public?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "information", "name": "Information", "description": "Finding out about a company.", "rationale": "Registers hold data.", "layers": [ { "id": "register", "name": "Register", "description": "Company registers.", "findings": [ { "id": "register-finding", "name": "Register", "description": "Registers.", "questions": [ { "text": "What does the company register show about this company, including directors and filings?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Who are the beneficial owners, where registers exist?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "financials", "name": "Financials", "description": "Accounts.", "findings": [ { "id": "financials-finding", "name": "Financials", "description": "Accounts.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which financial information must a private company of this size publish here?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Where can it be obtained?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "form", "name": "Form", "description": "Starting one.", "rationale": "Steps vary.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps", "name": "Steps", "description": "Formation.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-finding", "name": "Steps", "description": "Formation.", "questions": [ { "text": "What steps and capital are needed to form this kind of company, in general terms?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user asking for legal or tax advice on their own case?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance", "name": "Governance", "description": "Running it.", "findings": [ { "id": "governance-finding", "name": "Governance", "description": "Governance.", "questions": [ { "text": "What governance rules apply to shareholders, directors and meetings?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How are family businesses governed well, according to guidance?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "special", "name": "Special", "description": "Special forms.", "rationale": "Variants exist.", "layers": [ { "id": "family", "name": "Family", "description": "Family offices.", "findings": [ { "id": "family-finding", "name": "Family", "description": "Family offices.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is a family office, and how is it structured and regulated?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How does a multi-family office differ?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "nonprofit", "name": "Non-profit", "description": "Non-profit companies.", "findings": [ { "id": "nonprofit-finding", "name": "Non-profit", "description": "Non-profit forms.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is a non-profit private company such as a gGmbH?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which tax and reporting rules apply?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each legal form be a separate entry?", "How should company registers be linked?", "How should formation rules be localised?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "organisation or institution", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a privately held company, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain privately held companies and their legal forms by country, find public information on them, explain governance and disclosure differences from public companies, and support business questions at a general level.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "collective" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: società consortile a responsabilità limitata, Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, multi-family office, family office, gemeinnützige GmbH, GmbH & Still, entrepreneurial company with limited liability, private limited company, gōdō gaisha, Quarterhorse, Zeekr, City Transformer.", "77 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 47 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a privately held company, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Acts through people, and only through them.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. Recognised by name, register entry and the people acting in its name, and those change while it stays the same body." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "società consortile a responsabilità limitata", "Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung", "multi-family office", "family office", "gemeinnützige GmbH", "GmbH & Still", "entrepreneurial company with limited liability", "private limited company", "gōdō gaisha", "Quarterhorse", "Zeekr", "City Transformer" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 47 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 77 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one privately held company from another, and a privately held company from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a privately held company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a privately held company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a privately held company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a privately held company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a privately held company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a privately held company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a privately held company sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a privately held company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a privately held company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a privately held company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a privately held company from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a privately held company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a privately held company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a privately held company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a privately held company passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a privately held company between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a privately held company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a privately held company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a privately held company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a privately held company, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a privately held company is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a privately held company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a privately held company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a privately held company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a privately held company.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a privately held company and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a privately held company, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a privately held company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a privately held company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a privately held company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a privately held company and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a privately held company sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a privately held company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a privately held company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a privately held company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal-identity", "name": "Legal identity and mandate", "description": "What privately held company is in law and what it exists to do.", "rationale": "Legal identity survives changes of name, address, staff and premises, which is exactly why it must be recorded separately from all of them.", "layers": [ { "id": "registration", "name": "Legal form and registration", "description": "Form, register, identifiers and jurisdiction.", "findings": [ { "id": "registration-record", "name": "Registration and identifiers", "description": "What names this body unambiguously in law.", "questions": [ { "id": "registration-record-q01", "text": "What legal form does privately held company take, in which register, under which identifier?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "registration-record-q02", "text": "What survives a rename, a merger or a move of premises, and what does not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate and governing instrument", "description": "The purpose it is bound to and the document that binds it.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-record", "name": "Mandate and its source", "description": "What it may do, and the instrument that says so.", "questions": [ { "id": "mandate-record-q01", "text": "What is the mandate of privately held company, and which founding or governing instrument grants it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "mandate-record-q02", "text": "What lies outside the mandate, and what should an agent do when asked for it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance-and-membership", "name": "Governance, membership and decision rights", "description": "Who decides in privately held company and who belongs to it.", "rationale": "Authority inside an organisation is held by roles, not people, and an agent needs to know which role can commit it.", "layers": [ { "id": "decision-rights", "name": "Decision rights", "description": "Bodies, offices and what each may bind.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-map", "name": "Who may bind the organisation", "description": "The offices that can commit it and their limits.", "questions": [ { "id": "authority-map-q01", "text": "Which bodies or offices of privately held company may take which decisions, and up to what limit?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "authority-map-q02", "text": "What evidence shows that a given person currently holds that office?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership", "name": "Membership and affiliation", "description": "Who counts as part of it and on what terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-rules", "name": "Membership and its evidence", "description": "Classes of member, how membership starts and ends.", "questions": [ { "id": "membership-rules-q01", "text": "What kinds of membership or affiliation does privately held company have, and how does each begin and end?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "membership-rules-q02", "text": "What may a member do in its name, and what may they not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a privately held company came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a privately held company and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a privately held company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a privately held company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a privately held company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a privately held company is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a privately held company, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a privately held company, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a privately held company is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }