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Stripe Atlas

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Re: Stripe Atlas

#371

Post by stephenr »

eis wrote: post #74
pentae wrote: post #63

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’r…

You don't need the US for that though. You can incorporate for example in Hong Kong with ease and even better tax advanteges. For digital nomads in Thailand I think the bigger problem is that they can't get long term visas and are effectively breaking the law unless they somehow work for a local company which isn't easy as those need 4 Thais employed for every foreigner. And even if you could get a corporate bank acc…

Of course, never a HN thread about remote working without a Thailand subthread!

> in Thailand I think the bigger problem is that they can't get long term visas

To put this in perspective though, the longest visa I've ever seen here was a 3-year non-working business visa - effectively it's meant for people who regularly travel to Thailand for business meetings/etc but don't regularly "work" here (I know how stupid that sounds).

Other than that, the maximum visa for anything is 12 months. So while the 30/60/90 day stays are not great if you're doing a dodgy and working on a tourist visa, having a business visa + work permit is hardly a barrel of laughs. A Marriage visa is marginally easier, but obviously implies that you have a thai spouse.

> Thailand is great for the food, climate, cheap living costs and culture. But it's really bad for foreigners who want to start a digital business.

Having lived in several parts of Australia and operating as a sole-trader (similar to a single person LLC in the US I guess?), honestly the hassles to live + work in Thailand are a PITA but IMO they're worth it.

Re: Stripe Atlas

#372

Post by stephenr »

novaleaf wrote: post #78
pentae wrote: post #63

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’r…

i can also vouch for this. I founded and ran a software company in Thailand for 8 years, and regret doing it the "right" way (incorporated) because of the administrative burdens associated with taxation. Additionally due to US banking laws (anti terror yadda yadda) it is very difficult to do business on the internet unless you have a bank account in the USA (or perhaps EU etc.. just an account somewhere besides Thail…

> due to US banking laws (anti terror yadda yadda) it is very difficult to do business on the internet unless you have a bank account in the USA

Can you expand on what you mean by this some more?

I operated from Australia as a sole trader (similar to single person LLC in the US I believe?) and I'm now the Director of a Thai Limited Company. In neither case did I have a "US" bank account.

With literally one exception in.. 8 years, I've always been paid by clients via bank-to-bank Wire Transfers (the one exception used TransferWise). I've never had any issue with payments not arriving/not being processed?

In the last 12 months I've been using my Thai bank's NYC branch to allow US clients to make an ACH payment, and the NYC branch of my bank then handles the transfer back to Thailand.

Are you talking about B2B payments or consumer payments?

Re: Stripe Atlas

#373

Post by kriro »

I might face the decision of incorporating soonish. My current plan was to just incorporate in my country of residency (Germany) as that's the easiest route. How hard is it to migrate an existing company to Dalaware-C (D-C) which seems to be the gold standard for venture backed startups? Or is the recommended way just becoming a D-C from the getgo?

I'll gladly take tax cliff notes on being incorporated in the US as a non-US citizen starting a business. Basically if it doesn't screw me tax wise I wouldn't mind incorporating as a D-C from the getgo. US taxation seems a bit scary and I don't think it's all that easy to research. Would love some advice from Germans/people not living in the US that are incorporated in the US.

Between the recent "legal papers" post from YC and this it seems like it's never been easier to do the non customer facing stuff of a startup. Very good as this is something I'd worry about way too much.

Re: Stripe Atlas

#374

Post by vsl »

patio11 wrote: post #16
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…

A US corporation is a US person. The owners of it are not, unless they are citizens or LPRs. Feel free to check with your lawyer or the IRS. https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Clas...

Owning a US company is exactly the kind of "relation to US" (the phrasing banks use here, not "US person") that will trigger the consequences described by other commenters.

Re: Stripe Atlas

#375

Post by kalms »

tommoor wrote: post #220
kalms wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? Sexually-oriented services excludes a lot of legitimate, serious businesses. Seems fairly simple minded to me, but maybe that's the European in me speaking.

I'm sure it's a fraud / charge-back thing.. If you want to run 'riskier' businesses then you need your own merchant account. Although I agree i'm sure there are a few relatively straight-laced buisnesses that unwittingly end up in that bucket!

It makes sense, still.. Smells like censorship, when they put it in writing like that.

Re: Stripe Atlas

#376

Post by max_ »

Atlas is going to do with stripe what Bitcoin already achieved, and Paypal stubbornly refused to implement: Worldwide availability. Good work stripe!!

Re: Stripe Atlas

#377

Post by hurricaneSlider »

philfrasty wrote: post #33

Does this fulfill the requirement from the YC application? „International founders, please note: if your company is a non-United States entity (corporation, limited liability company, etc.), your participation in YC is conditional on conversion of your foreign company into a United States corporation.“ Could just sell the intellectual property from A to B for a $1.

Many countries are wise to those types of shenanigans. The convoluted legal requirements to move our company from South Africa to the UK was astounding, and we had to abandon our claims to our old IP to boot.

Re: Stripe Atlas

#378

Post by artur_makly »

tvladeck wrote: post #121

This is cool, but they should not offer a C corp as the default choice. An LLC should be the default for the vast majority of entrepreneurs. The only reason VC-funded companies are C corps is becaused VC LPs don't want to be hit with taxable income (which would flow through the VC to them). An LLC is much better for a variety of reasons: - Flow through taxation = you only get taxed once. With a C corp you pay corpora…

+100000 for LLCs

Re: Stripe Atlas

#379

Post by jakobegger »

Scarbutt wrote: post #350
michaelschade wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are looking into it :-)

does stripe support personal bank accounts? I have a U.S personal bank account but I don't live in the U.S. nor do I'm a U.S. citizen, in my country there isn't anything as awesome as Stripe, the bank infrastructure here is pretty bad and non existent for online payment processing of credit cards. All my clients will reside outside the U.S. but I want to use U.S/Stripe as a proxy for getting paid.

Make sure to consider exchange rates and costs for wire transfers if you want to go that route. I think Stripe charges an additional 2% for transactions in foreign currecies, and US banks will charge another 3% (or more) when you transfer that money to a foreign curreny. And there are lots of hidden fees for international wire transfers -- on a recent tranfer that I received, around 7% was missing and I had no clue where it had gone. Additionally, fluctuating exchange rates might eat a lot of money.

Re: Stripe Atlas

#380

Post by reviseddamage »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #370
reviseddamage wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why SVB and not WF? Seems odd that the sponsor bank for your payfac distribution, that has more resources than SVB, won't equally house the account for this new vertical. Any particular reason?

Having used SVB at two startups now, they just get startups in a way that the big banks don't. They're not a huge multinational behemoth with its own corporate culture, but rather they specialize completely in the SV business/tech/startup world, it's their DNA. That little intangible is worth a lot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley_Bank

That's anecdotal testimony really isn't it? and it's not true for fintech startups, SVB doesn't even bank Stripe's core payfac business. Other than the namesake, most fintech payment companies use WF, Fifth Third, Chase, Comerica or Cross-River.
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