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I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

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Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#11

Post by kbody »

simonswords82 wrote: post #6
ericjang wrote: post #3

@patio11: may we get a post-mortem on Starfighter, and more details on what you learned about startups?

Not wanting to do the concept for Starfighter any injustice but I get the feeling it's as simple as they spent too much time on the tech and not enough on the business. A very easy mistake when the co-founders are technically minded.

That too, but personally I think that it was targeting way to limited subset, required practically non-existant time if you already have a job, so it was mainly targeting capable people between jobs or college students. Even though I loved the subject of algotrading, there was no time for me due to work etc.

Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#13

Post by aeden »

chatmasta wrote: post #8

What I like most about the long term vision for Atlas is that, if it's truly "as easy as spinning up an EC2 instance" to form a new corporation, then it will be possible for a single entrepreneur to create complex global corporate structures previously limited only to multinational corporations. How nice would it be, as say, a digital nomad, to be able to have a single "holding company" based in HK, and dynamically c…

Slightly OT, but countries tend to dislike this brave new world where they cannot obviously and clearly collect taxes on business owners that reside in their country. It is going to be a tough day if the other shoe drops on this. No idea what it will look like if it happens though.

Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#14

Post by harryh »

chatmasta wrote: post #8

What I like most about the long term vision for Atlas is that, if it's truly "as easy as spinning up an EC2 instance" to form a new corporation, then it will be possible for a single entrepreneur to create complex global corporate structures previously limited only to multinational corporations. How nice would it be, as say, a digital nomad, to be able to have a single "holding company" based in HK, and dynamically c…

Why would someone want to do that?

Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#15

Post by afarrell »

simonswords82 wrote: post #6
ericjang wrote: post #3

@patio11: may we get a post-mortem on Starfighter, and more details on what you learned about startups?

Not wanting to do the concept for Starfighter any injustice but I get the feeling it's as simple as they spent too much time on the tech and not enough on the business. A very easy mistake when the co-founders are technically minded.

But strange for this developer whom I wouldn't consider to be naive in regards to business.

Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#16

Post by cloudjacker »

> it introduced me to the unthinkable notion that regular old geeks like me could run software companies. I thought it was illegal, ... my background therefore suggested it was either forbidden, risky, or risked being forbidden.

I encounter this so much in the states. Everything self directed is "sketchy", "is that legal?". It is really sad, because those same people would fall for scams that actually are sketchy and illegal.

Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#17

Post by afarrell »

chatmasta wrote: post #8

What I like most about the long term vision for Atlas is that, if it's truly "as easy as spinning up an EC2 instance" to form a new corporation, then it will be possible for a single entrepreneur to create complex global corporate structures previously limited only to multinational corporations. How nice would it be, as say, a digital nomad, to be able to have a single "holding company" based in HK, and dynamically c…

How do you avoid accidentally committing tax evasion with this?

Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#18

Post by angersock »

Automating startup of a company online is a bad, bad, bad idea folks.

Like, Gibson dystopia bad.

EDIT: Okay hivemind.

Seriously, can none of you think of any ill use that automatic provisioning of a economic entity--able to own property, intervene in politics, and interact with the legal system, enter into contracts, and so forth--could be put to?

Like, really?

Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#19

Post by cloudjacker »

davidw wrote: post #2

Sorry to hear about starfighter, but it looks like you've more than landed on your feet. Good luck! I think with a big company at your back, you may be able to leverage that to do some great things. People in the US have no idea how easy they have it with creating a company, something I helped to fix a little tiny bit in Italy: https://blog.therealitaly.com/2015/04/16/fixing-italy-a-litt... One of the key points: > A…

One thing I like about the US is that there are so many different jurisdictions all in the business of having competitive incorporation services. So although LLC formation might cost $800 in California, it can be like $50 in a nearby state.

Both a feature and a bug, is that there is no federal incorporation statute for private persons in the United States.

Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas

#20

Post by benmanns »

chatmasta wrote: post #8

What I like most about the long term vision for Atlas is that, if it's truly "as easy as spinning up an EC2 instance" to form a new corporation, then it will be possible for a single entrepreneur to create complex global corporate structures previously limited only to multinational corporations. How nice would it be, as say, a digital nomad, to be able to have a single "holding company" based in HK, and dynamically c…

It's still fairly expensive though, with Atlas costing $500/corporation. I think that's out of reach for most simple side projects.
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