I think Stripe's API is great, but the support has certainly suffered in comparison to the early days. More automated, unhelpful emails than I'd like. Maybe it's inevitable that support and general helpfulness suffer when you grow as quickly as they have?
Tell HN: I Hugely Regret Using Stripe Atlas
11–20 of 105 posts
Re: Tell HN: I Hugely Regret Using Stripe Atlas
#12Fellow Stripe Atlas company founder here. SVB is a bit annoying, but really $25/month is probably not worth your time to worry about unless the company is VERY small.
Even in our situation, where we are a 2-person consulting company that isn't taking any outside investment, and have to run pretty lean (since we only get to eat and have a house every month if we do enough business to cover it), it's not worth our time to switch.
But at a higher level, the Stripe Atlas (and Stripe in general) people have been SO responsive and helpful that I'm surprised they haven't sorted this out yet. It looks like they've even popped up in this thread, so I hope and suspect that will happen soon.
With the AWS credits and how generally easy it was, I would definitely recommend it to others who are looking.
Re: Tell HN: I Hugely Regret Using Stripe Atlas
#13I think Stripe's API is great, but the support has certainly suffered in comparison to the early days. More automated, unhelpful emails than I'd like. Maybe it's inevitable that support and general helpfulness suffer when you grow as quickly as they have?
Our CSAT metrics have shown support has been improving over the years (particularly since we rolled out 24/7 phone + chat)—but if there’s any case that we’ve felt short on, I’d love to investigate. Can you share some more about those unhelpful emails? If you can forward those to me that’d be useful (edwin@stripe.com).
Re: Tell HN: I Hugely Regret Using Stripe Atlas
#14Just wanted to chime in because I've been using Atlas for over a year and am very happy with both the service and the team at Stripe.
SVB sucks, true. But $300/yr for a bank account should not be a deal breaker. You'll pay way more than this just to operate the corporation and stay alive.
I think I pay around $800/yr just to keep the corporation running (almost non-existent accounting, filing fees and franchise taxes to Delaware). And now that I'm a C Corp I have payroll taxes in addition to salary (~$2k/mo). As always, be sure you really need a corporation before you create one. Most of the tax benefits you get with a corporation (e.g. write-offs), you get as a sole proprietor too.
Atlas also made filing 2017 taxes trivial, I never even spoke to an accountant, it was a very smooth process.
Re: Tell HN: I Hugely Regret Using Stripe Atlas
#15I was looking at Atlas, but I don't live in Delaware, so I'd still have to deal with managing the business in my home state all myself. That's more forms and fees every year I have to do, in addition to the Delaware ones. In my view Atlas only solves half the problem (unless you've in Delaware)
TBC, with Stripe Atlas, you get set up in Delaware, but you don’t have to live there. We help you deal with all the paperwork remotely.
Re: Tell HN: I Hugely Regret Using Stripe Atlas
#16Just wanted to chime in because I've been using Atlas for over a year and am very happy with both the service and the team at Stripe. SVB sucks, true. But $300/yr for a bank account should not be a deal breaker. You'll pay way more than this just to operate the corporation and stay alive. I think I pay around $800/yr just to keep the corporation running (almost non-existent accounting, filing fees and franchise taxes…
I don't think 300/year for a bank is itself a deal breaker. Just if it's a crappy bank and I can spend a couple hours fixing that, then it's well worth the 300/yr savings + having a better bank.
The trouble is Stripe Atlas has not really been working with me and adding an extra layer of complication. Support team is responsive but issues remain with the product.
Re: Tell HN: I Hugely Regret Using Stripe Atlas
#17I was looking at Atlas, but I don't live in Delaware, so I'd still have to deal with managing the business in my home state all myself. That's more forms and fees every year I have to do, in addition to the Delaware ones. In my view Atlas only solves half the problem (unless you've in Delaware)
TBC, with Stripe Atlas, you get set up in Delaware, but you don’t have to live there. We help you deal with all the paperwork remotely.
Aren’t businesses required to also register (as a “foreign” company) in the states where they do business? So if I’m sitting in Iowa doing business with my Delaware-formed business, Iowa still wants a registration?
Re: Tell HN: I Hugely Regret Using Stripe Atlas
#18[deleted]
Re: Tell HN: I Hugely Regret Using Stripe Atlas
#19That’s nonsense. I switched my bank to Chase in my Stripe account settings, it took seconds.
Re: Tell HN: I Hugely Regret Using Stripe Atlas
#20I’ve probably helped ten people start a company using Stripe Atlas over the past two years. I know some of them have grown frustrated with SVB and switched banks, but I don’t know any of them who’ve had a bad experience like OP did. Just thought I’d offer these extra data points