Is this at all related to MYOB's Atlas? https://www.myob.com/au/small-business/atlas-website-builder
No.
I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas
111–120 of 342 posts
Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Vs sole proprietorship.
Liability protection, if nothing else. If someone sues a company, they can't (in theory) take the CEO's house. Also, in the US, you can save a bunch of money on payroll taxes if you elect to be taxed as an S-corp. The short version is that you only pay those taxes (Social Security, FICA, Medicare, etc etc) on money you get in paychecks -- so, if you make $100k in a year and "pay" yourself $70k, you end up with the ot…
In many states your house is protected even as a sole proprietor.
Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Liability protection, if nothing else. If someone sues a company, they can't (in theory) take the CEO's house. Also, in the US, you can save a bunch of money on payroll taxes if you elect to be taxed as an S-corp. The short version is that you only pay those taxes (Social Security, FICA, Medicare, etc etc) on money you get in paychecks -- so, if you make $100k in a year and "pay" yourself $70k, you end up with the ot…
What becomes of that other $30k? I assume there's a reason why you wouldn't just pay yourself $30k and keep the tax-free $70k.
It has to sit within the company. You can use it to buy an ice sculpture for the office lobby, but not for your own palazzo.
As you can imagine, there is a ton of bookkeeping and bureaucratic pain associated with having an S-corp (like pretending to have annual meetings, and having to write minutes for them).
Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas
#114Patrick @ Stripe just shared via Twitter that he sent original idea for stripe to patio11. To which patio11 perfectly replied that note had gotten stuck in his spam folder :) https://twitter.com/patrickc/status/774309309874221056
He would definitely have replied :) .
Patrick replied (very accurately, as it turned out) back in 2011 to my attempt to do a micropayments startup:
"I would strongly advise rethinking starting a payment processor as a student. It is relationship-, credibility-, and capital-intensive. It also requires truly massive scale before being worth any money. (Incredibly massive scale in micropayments. If you make $0.01 off each transaction you have to facilitate hundreds of thousands a month just to pay for the founding team's ramen. If you somehow possess the magic that you need to find 100,000 paying customers you shouldn't end up eating ramen!)"
As someone who started down the payments path and desisted pretty quickly ("fail fast", they call it :) ) I'm extremely impressed by Stripe, and they've definitely gotten a great talent and great guy in Patrick.
Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas
#115>There Is No Future For Scarcity
This section worries me a bit, as it's the sort of thing that doesn't consider the possibility of a major world-wide crisis. There are plenty of conceivable futures where these things could happen. A simple one is a small-scale non-nuclear war between China and US, where they disconnect completely from the larger Internet, but we avoid a global thermonuclear war. The continental European countries saw a 50% drop in GDP through WW2, and it could very well happen again.
Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
It turns out --- I'm speaking for at least Erin and I, but I suspect to an extent Patrick too --- we don't have the stomach for the contingency recruiting model. Referring someone for an interview and watching them get turned down was, for me at least, about 80% of the psychic cost of applying myself and getting turned down. Fuck that. It's a job that is possible to do and possible to do well and my life is too short…
Was there a pattern in them getting turned down, like that applicants were too expensive or had the wrong skillset or something?
I stopped referring people to a former employer because I saw how much they jerked around people during the pipeline.
Good luck on the new news, and thanks for getting Starfighter as far as you did. :)
Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas
#117First time I've seen Atlas. I'm immediately worried. If someone starts a company using this I presume it's subject to US laws? What does this mean: 1. For taxes? If I live in the UK and start my business with Atlas does the US get the corporation tax revenue or the UK (or a split of the two)? 2. For data security/privacy? Is the data I store now subject to access by the US government through National Security letters…
To rephrase the question slightly differently: "Is Atlas a suitable tool for a UK startup, selling to the UK/EU markets?"
To which the answer may well be "No. Right now, Atlas is US-centric, but could potentially broaden its scope in the future to include other jurisdictions".
Personally, I'm not worried about Atlas, in the same way as I'm not worried about other US company startup facilities.
When I started my latest UK company, I used a UK accountancy service, who handled the initial set-up for me.
Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas
#118Automating 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 ?
Seriously can you think of any ill use of a hammer?
How about a car?
Or ooh, money!
Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas
#119I for one am more than faintly relieved that Starfighter has fallen. It looked to me like an attempt to find the most direct way possible to parlay the prominent position that Thomas and Patrick have in this community into cash - by literally selling its members. There's a line that's crossed here between being a member of HN buoyed up by the good wishes and advice of your fellows, and using the community as a resource to be exploited.
Yes, this is a throwaway. Yes, I think it's a problem that I feel I need to use one.
Re: I’m Joining Stripe to Work on Atlas
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
It turns out --- I'm speaking for at least Erin and I, but I suspect to an extent Patrick too --- we don't have the stomach for the contingency recruiting model. Referring someone for an interview and watching them get turned down was, for me at least, about 80% of the psychic cost of applying myself and getting turned down. Fuck that. It's a job that is possible to do and possible to do well and my life is too short…
Was there a pattern in them getting turned down, like that applicants were too expensive or had the wrong skillset or something? I stopped referring people to a former employer because I saw how much they jerked around people during the pipeline. Good luck on the new news, and thanks for getting Starfighter as far as you did. :)
We're not done yet!