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Startup incorporation checklist
21–30 of 115 posts
Re: Startup incorporation checklist
#22Where is CAAS "Company as a Service" as a business? Particularly for single person companies, I could see this being a very useful service.
Re: Startup incorporation checklist
#23I see no mention of sales and use taxes. Welcome to Hell. https://www.boe.ca.gov/info/taxoverview.htm#sales
There are a number of "Sales tax as a Service" businesses like Avalara out there, which honestly ANY small business that can afford it should partake.
I worked for a company that tried to build an in house sales tax rule calculator, it's damn near impossible unless you want to devote a team of people just to sales tax, and certainly not worth the risk.
Re: Startup incorporation checklist
#24HN has a global audience. Might be worth noting that this advice is aimed at Americans. This could be very bad advice for non-Americans. I'm a lawyer who deals with startups in Toronto. Quite a few people ask about how to set up a Delaware corporation because they've seen online that that's how you create a startup.
Can you share contact information for your services to tech startups?
User history is a useful thing: https://www.cameronhuff.com/
Re: Startup incorporation checklist
#25This is great. Just what I need. My non technical co founder and I are starting a company and I want to make it a real company before we start meeting 3 days a week.
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Re: Startup incorporation checklist
#26It's worth mentioning that incorporation by itself doesn't get you very far in terms of protecting against personal liability. It's really just the first step in company formation. You'll want to appoint directors and officers as well. And to protect against departures, IP issues, etc., you'll also want to issue stock with vesting to founders, and have everyone enter into IP agreements. We've automated all of this at…
The author raises 1 point that Clerky's services doesn't seem to include, Qualification of the Foreign DE C-Corp. I think this is a service/legal requirement applicable to almost any incorporated DE startup. Is this something Clerky does behind the scenes or something Clerky customers are advised to address with a local lawyer? Is there a chance some of these startups are not properly qualified in the States they are physically located?
Along the same lines, while it appears Clerky annually renews a DE registered agent for startups, I don't see anything regarding filing of the DE Annual Report/paying Franchise Taxes. Is this a service behind the scenes or something Clerky just prefers to defer to the startups and/or other professionals?
Re: Startup incorporation checklist
#27Some other resources that have served me well - not for incorporation per se, but the next few steps in setting up a healthy corporation: - Docracy.com has some good templates (contributed by some incubator I can't recall) for bylaws, ip assignation, founder terms, terms of service and privacy policy and customer contracts, etc. - Listing a phone number with one of the large online directories helps with various veri…
For bookkeeping I use Xero and love it. Then Expensify for expenses.
For payroll, Gusto (formerly ZenPayroll) is wonderful. I can't emphasize enough how much of a headache this takes away from me.
Re: Startup incorporation checklist
#28It's worth mentioning that incorporation by itself doesn't get you very far in terms of protecting against personal liability. It's really just the first step in company formation. You'll want to appoint directors and officers as well. And to protect against departures, IP issues, etc., you'll also want to issue stock with vesting to founders, and have everyone enter into IP agreements. We've automated all of this at…
Swampthing :) do you think is a good idea to incorporate in DE with only 5,000 shares? that gives a minimum anual tax of $175. The minimum tax for the Assumed Par Value Capital Method of calculation is $350. you save $175/year and any time you wish or for example receive external investment you can do a stock split or authorise more shares.
I think it really depends on your situation, in terms of how likely you are to receive external investment like you mentioned (and when), and how much that $175 / year matters to you. By external investment, I think venture capital is probably the most relevant category - other types of investors may not be as insistent.
For example, amending the certificate of incorporation to authorize more shares is probably going to cost around $500 a minimum (and definitely much more if you use a lawyer). That's roughly triple the $175 in tax savings you get from authorizing 5,000. But of course by then, you probably would have already issued shares to people, so you would probably want to do a stock split. That's going to definitely require a lawyer... my guess is at least a few thousand in legal fees.
So it seems like it could make sense if (1) you don't plan to ever raise venture capital or (2) you think it'll be at least 3 years or so before you raise venture capital and you can hold off on issuing stock until then (unlikely to be a good idea). I suppose the analysis would also be affected by the time value of the $175 / year. E.g. how much more that $175 means to your company now than it will a few years down the line.
Re: Startup incorporation checklist
#29I've heard that for small businesses in California, incorporating in Delaware for tax reasons doesn't legally make a whole lot of sense because California will want to tax you anyway. Is that the case? If so, why are so many people still set on incorporating in Delaware?
Re: Startup incorporation checklist
#30Someone should do Stripe Atlas for US startups.