[SStephano]

I strongly recommend waiting until you get to one of these stages:

1. Formal agreement between partners on project - Time is your most valuable asset so if you are investing into the project with additional persons it's best to formalize structure once you've made an agreement and are at a place where you are each committing 10+ hours per week

2. Monetary Investment is being made - At the point that meaningful monetary investment is made which I would pin at $10,000. The cost to formalize an LLC in California is $800 + minor costs so setting aside 10% of your initial spend on formalizing is money well spent

3. Take on any outside investment from anybody - You need an ivnestment vehicle so the second you decide to raise $5,000 from your Uncle Larry it's time to open the LLC

I really like your idea of unifying projects in 1 LLC then spinning them on success. You can also create a unique DBA for each project and this is very effective.

Hope this helps.

Best, SS