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Stripe Atlas

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Re: Stripe Atlas

#61

Post by collision »

jasonsync wrote: post #56

Does this mean Stripe will phase out the ability for Canadians to accept USD and deposit funds directly to Canadian banks offering "US fund" accounts (that are not technically US bank accounts)? Currently, a Canadian business can accept $USD with Stripe and have it deposited directly into a Canadian US fund account without conversion to CAD. Stripes competitors can't do this - and have traditionally told Canadian bus…

This is complementary functionality: you can choose whether you want to incorporate locally or using Atlas. We'll stay supporting CA-USD and will be expanding local-country support. We recently launched private beta support for businesses in new countries like Brazil, Mexico, and Singapore, in fact: https://stripe.com/global

Re: Stripe Atlas

#63

Post by pentae »

This is huge. As someone who is involved in the digital nomad community here in Chiang Mai, Thailand - getting incorporation and processing set up for a lot of people here is very difficult.

Although places like Thailand are a great place for independent bootstrapping and there’s a solid network of entrepreneurs - one of the biggest hurdles is incorporation, banking and acquiring. This is taken for granted when you’re living in a first world country - but for the new location independent entrepreneur who is building their startup from cafes or coworking spaces in Chiang Mai to Ho Chi Minh or Medellin, getting a corporation, processing and a bank account structured is often a huge problem.

Re: Stripe Atlas

#64

Post by reitzensteinm »

jasonsync wrote: post #56

Does this mean Stripe will phase out the ability for Canadians to accept USD and deposit funds directly to Canadian banks offering "US fund" accounts (that are not technically US bank accounts)? Currently, a Canadian business can accept $USD with Stripe and have it deposited directly into a Canadian US fund account without conversion to CAD. Stripes competitors can't do this - and have traditionally told Canadian bus…

And that conversion is expensive. If I could have back the currency conversion margins PayPal has charged my businesses throughout my life, I'd easily be able to live for a year on that money.

Well, 50 weeks, if it were sent to my PayPal account in US dollars :)

Re: Stripe Atlas

#66

Post by michaelschade »

aprdm wrote: post #53

Wow this is simply amazing! I would love to be able to use Stripe in Brazil and that seems to make it possible! Must be a headache legally tho

If it's more convenient for you to setup everything locally, good news: we also have a beta going in Brazil! You can sign up for an invite at https://stripe.com/global#br and we'll send one as soon as we can.

Re: Stripe Atlas

#68

Post by glossyscr »

While I really like the idea—a one stop-shop company creator I am a bit unsure if Stripe will achieve the same quality level like dedicated registries which do this for several years.

Points I am missing/not seeing:

- Can I decide about the administration location (eg also Delaware or does it have to be my actual location)?

- Can I get some virtual office with address, mail forwarding, etc, sometimes offered by registry?

- Is Stripe a full state approved registry or do they use 3rd party registries? What are the ongoing costs (there can be significant differences)?

- How many people are in customer support?

- Is Stripe stated as the registrant in the Delaware corp database?

The only advantage I've seen is that Stripe is opening the bank account for you and it seems you do not have to visit the States but other than that I am not sure if going all-in with one entity (Stripe) is a bit too risky.

And if looking at dedicated registries there 3-5x more information on their websites—this is not a clear indicator for quality of service but since this is not Stripe's core competency it's something I'd be a bit cautious. But still something Atlas can catch-up.

Re: Stripe Atlas

#69

Post by impostervt »

I wish you could incorporate an S corp for side projects. C corps need boards and stuff - a bit much for my hobby projects. But, event for hobby projects, if I expect to make income (at some point) I usually set up an LLC and maybe even start a bank account. And I also use Stripe to collect payments.

Re: Stripe Atlas

#70

Post by petercooper »

patio11 wrote: post #44
Confusion wrote: post #21

Is this primarily aimed at citizens of the US and countries otherwise not serviced by Stripe? What could be a reason for me to want this as if I'm, say, German or Canadian?

Germany and Canada are excellent countries to run a business from. Can I pitch you on the United States? We're a large country with a thriving technology industry that spends billions of dollars on the thing you sell. We have thriving capital markets, including a majority of worldwide dollars in seed stage tech companies, at terms which are better than you will receive anywhere else. We have millions of very smart en…

I want to add a UK-specific viewpoint for anyone with a British business who's wondering if a US entity is a necessity for dealing with US corporations.

I run a service-oriented business with 10 employees in the UK and most of our income is from US-based corporations. Externally we work entirely in USD. Once we determined our tax and legal positions, we've not encountered any problems with payments, wires, forms (W-8BENI is accepted in place of W-9s), or taxes, and our customer roster is a couple hundred tech companies - ranging from F500s with arcane vendor account requirements, through to mid range companies, startups, and small ISVs.

Trade between the UK and US is common and, depending on what you are trading, has a low amount of friction due to the UK's relatively open nature and low level of bureaucracy on matters of banking, international trade and taxation.

(If you sell physical items, need to take on US-based staff, start a US office, are a low margin business that couldn't take exposure to exchange rates or cross-border tax volatility, or need to appeal to US investors, disregard the above and get a US entity! :-))

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