Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Stripe Atlas

stripe.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 402 posts

Re: Stripe Atlas

#301

Post by honua »

dreamfactory2 wrote: post #300
grellas wrote: post #259

If Atlas is implemented as promised (probably a safe assumption given the Stripe team), it will afford founders throughout the world a pain-free entry point into the world's most advanced economy, opening the way for key financing, for seamless payments processing, for ease of banking transactions to get people paid and to move funds easily, and for access to advice and guidance from people in the know to address a w…

I can see a marginal convenience factor but I'm struggling to see anything beyond that. Is it that hard to incorporate and set up a bank account in the US? Incorporation in the UK is a 10 buck 10 minute online process already and opening a business account is only harder really due to money laundering regs which I don't think would be solved by 3rd party automation.

It seems more like this service helps a business that may not be in the US get started with a US presence.

Re: Stripe Atlas

#302

Post by nickpp »

eis wrote: post #12

A very nice product it seems. But people should be aware that having a US business, bank account and so on makes you a "US person" in the eyes of the US government which comes with downsides. If you recently tried to open a bank account somewhere you might have seen the form you have to fill out which tries to discover if you are indeed such a "US person". I don't know exactly what the result apart from probably the…

Do you have some links on reading material about this? I would really appreciate it.

Re: Stripe Atlas

#303

Post by gabhubert »

kintamanimatt wrote: post #199
prodmerc wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because then you can do business in the US (largest English speaking client base) without any trouble? And accepting debit cards (especially US cards) is still quite hard in most of the world afaik, aside from the UK, so this is a godsend to any entrepreneurs who want a real chance at success. This was actually the dream just half a decade ago, to incorporate in the US without having to actually get a visa and go the…

Accepting cards from most locations isn't actually difficult any longer with Stripe, Braintree, Paymill, and others. US cards aren't special in terms of being able to accept them; they're just regular Visa/MC/Amex/Discover/whatever cards. The neglected payment methods are the country specific ones. Some major countries have very low credit-card penetration, for example in the Netherlands. The common internet payment…

(I work for Stripe) Hey! Yes we're definitely aware of the need to take into account local payment landscapes that can be quite specific (you rightly mentioned iDEAL in the Netherlands, there's also EPS in Austria, Bancontact/MrCash in Belgium, to name a few others in Europe...). We're working on this and I'd be happy to connect to learn more about your needs. My email is just gabriel at, feel free to reach out!

Re: Stripe Atlas

#304

Post by libertymcateer »

dreamfactory2 wrote: post #300
grellas wrote: post #259

If Atlas is implemented as promised (probably a safe assumption given the Stripe team), it will afford founders throughout the world a pain-free entry point into the world's most advanced economy, opening the way for key financing, for seamless payments processing, for ease of banking transactions to get people paid and to move funds easily, and for access to advice and guidance from people in the know to address a w…

I can see a marginal convenience factor but I'm struggling to see anything beyond that. Is it that hard to incorporate and set up a bank account in the US? Incorporation in the UK is a 10 buck 10 minute online process already and opening a business account is only harder really due to money laundering regs which I don't think would be solved by 3rd party automation.

> Is it that hard to incorporate and set up a bank account in the US?

Yes. Yes it is.

Let me put it this way: Setting up a corporation is trivial.

Setting up a bank account can be a literally insurmountable hurdle for a business that is not based in the US.

Banks can choose to let individuals and businesses open new accounts purely within their discretion, and as often as not they want the business owners to be physically present with their identification in order to open accounts.

This is a constant pain in the neck.

Re: Stripe Atlas

#305

Post by erict19 »

grellas wrote: post #259

If Atlas is implemented as promised (probably a safe assumption given the Stripe team), it will afford founders throughout the world a pain-free entry point into the world's most advanced economy, opening the way for key financing, for seamless payments processing, for ease of banking transactions to get people paid and to move funds easily, and for access to advice and guidance from people in the know to address a w…

Well said!

Re: Stripe Atlas

#306

Post by melvinmt »

If you can't bring your product to every part of the world, bring every part of the world to you. Pretty impressive of the Stripe team, I must say.

Re: Stripe Atlas

#307

Post by bgaluszka »

flashm wrote: post #291
michaelschade wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great question! I've learned a lot about this as I've gotten to hear from entrepreneurs that tried to setup in their own country, but ultimately came to the US. The video on our site gives some glimpse into the problems these entrepreneurs run into: https://stripe.com/atlas#stories The gist is that certain countries have a better business and banking infrastructure than others for entrepreneurs looking to establish a…

This only really works for people that aren't already setup as a company though. You can't just open a new company in another country and expect to start moving your revenue to it, it just doesn't work like that. For instance, I'm registered in the UK and would have a tough time telling HMRC 'oh that's my US company, nothing to do with you'. It's a completely different problem if you already run a business and want t…

> oh that's my US company, nothing to do with you

Can you expand on this? I don't understand a problem here.

Re: Stripe Atlas

#308

Post by randomdrake »

pbreit wrote: post #273
randomdrake wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is wrong. You do not have to be a C Corp to accept investments. Not sure where or how this idea got started. There are even advantages to LLCs that some savvy investors prefer as a matter of fact. It more comes down to the source of the actual money in the fund than the fund itself. Also they are quite easy to setup. Requiring a simple Internet form and a few checks written here and there. Additionally it is ext…

Perhaps not to accept but VCs are going to require it. I think that's what is meant.

"VCs" is not some catch-all well-defined term. To say that all venture capitalists "require" you to be a C Corp is incorrect and further reinforces the very issue I'm trying to address here. There are lots of different types of venture capitalists. From large funds, to institutional investors, to individuals, and everything in between.

Some of them require C Corps. Some of them require S Corps. Some of them require a specific C Corp like one in Delaware. Some of them are just fine and dandy for LLCs. Some prefer LLCs. For all cases[1]: there are appropriate methods and paperwork to ensure parties can come to agreements.

Continuing to add comments to this site with phrases that characterize VCs as being a single entity is confusing and not helpful.

New founders have a lot to worry about. Whether they created the right type of company or not, is so far removed from initial worries and so often easily taken care of at later dates. I don't think it's helpful at all to continue to try and convince them that there is a wrong or right way to do things.

[1] - I dont have any examples where a business owner and an investor couldn't come to an agreement when both parties wanted to work together.

Re: Stripe Atlas

#309

Post by karmelapple »

libertymcateer wrote: post #304
dreamfactory2 wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see a marginal convenience factor but I'm struggling to see anything beyond that. Is it that hard to incorporate and set up a bank account in the US? Incorporation in the UK is a 10 buck 10 minute online process already and opening a business account is only harder really due to money laundering regs which I don't think would be solved by 3rd party automation.

> Is it that hard to incorporate and set up a bank account in the US? Yes. Yes it is. Let me put it this way: Setting up a corporation is trivial. Setting up a bank account can be a literally insurmountable hurdle for a business that is not based in the US. Banks can choose to let individuals and businesses open new accounts purely within their discretion, and as often as not they want the business owners to be physi…

I live hundreds of miles away from my bank's brick and mortar, and when I call, I think I'm still a bit of a novelty to them. "This customer doesn't actually walk into the building ever? Fun, I want to talk to the mystery person on the phone!"

Re: Stripe Atlas

#310

Post by karmelapple »

tdfx wrote: post #237
taf2 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This usually assumes a larger net income for the business - I believe when you are just starting out LLC makes the most sense then you can transits ion to S-Corp once renvues hit a few million

You can incorporate as an LLC and elect to be taxed as an S-Corp.

One important point when doing this: you must do payroll.

Depending on if you have no money coming in, or a small amount of money, it may not be worth it to do payroll... but that's only for the smallest of businesses.

Post reply on HN