Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups
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Re: Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups
#2We've technically speaking got a lot of US startups on Atlas, but we're happy to have more. Today's announcement also includes a number of other improvements we've made the last few months.
I'm happy to answer questions if anyone has them.
Re: Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups
#3We've technically speaking got a lot of US startups on Atlas, but we're happy to have more. Today's announcement also includes a number of other improvements we've made the last few months. I'm happy to answer questions if anyone has them.
When might the LLC track be ready? I'm looking forward to that. Thanks.
Re: Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups
#4We've technically speaking got a lot of US startups on Atlas, but we're happy to have more. Today's announcement also includes a number of other improvements we've made the last few months. I'm happy to answer questions if anyone has them.
Do you have some sort of guide or FAQ which can give potential clients a guide as to the possible extra costs involved for internationals, like typical accountants and lawyers fees?
I've been interested in Atlas in the past, but the potential financial unknowns can be... intimidating.
For instance, how would this compare to opening a company in Hong Kong?
Re: Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups
#5We've technically speaking got a lot of US startups on Atlas, but we're happy to have more. Today's announcement also includes a number of other improvements we've made the last few months. I'm happy to answer questions if anyone has them.
When might the LLC track be ready? I'm looking forward to that. Thanks.
We ship first and then announce dates because down the other path lies disaster, but LLCs are a great way to incorporate many tech businesses, and Atlas aims to incorporate most tech businesses.
Re: Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups
#6We've technically speaking got a lot of US startups on Atlas, but we're happy to have more. Today's announcement also includes a number of other improvements we've made the last few months. I'm happy to answer questions if anyone has them.
Hello Patrick, thanks for answering questions.
From the looks of these most recent updates, and reading over this blog post, it seems as though Atlas is positioning itself to be an accelerator in its own right. Offering connections, assistance, setup help, guidance, and even access to investors. It seems like Atlas/Stripe is only missing a funding portion and perhaps access to a highly covered "demo day." Are those in the pipeline as well? If not, can you elaborate on what the end goal is here besides simply altruism? Is it just to get new companies in the Stripe pipeline faster?
Re: Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
When might the LLC track be ready? I'm looking forward to that. Thanks.
We ship first and then announce dates because down the other path lies disaster, but LLCs are a great way to incorporate many tech businesses, and Atlas aims to incorporate most tech businesses.
No offense but outside of our little HN/YC bubble I think it's the other way around. LLCs seem far more common than Delaware based C Corps for tech companies. For tech startups looking to raise venture capital (a subset of tech companies) a Delaware C Corp is far more common though.
Re: Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups
#8We've technically speaking got a lot of US startups on Atlas, but we're happy to have more. Today's announcement also includes a number of other improvements we've made the last few months. I'm happy to answer questions if anyone has them.
Do you have some sort of guide or FAQ which can give potential clients a guide as to the possible extra costs involved for internationals, like typical accountants and lawyers fees? I've been interested in Atlas in the past, but the potential financial unknowns can be... intimidating. For instance, how would this compare to opening a company in Hong Kong?
The TCO of a company depends heavily on your situation, which is one reason we find it difficult to have an official answer on that.
As a single data point, my personal tax situation involved US LLCs last year, as an American living in Japan. I spent about ~$10k on accountants to file taxes in both countries plus bookkeeping services. That's towards the high end among my friends; that's nowhere near the high end for "total amount spent on accountants in a year." For comparison, Atlas would have introduced me to an accounting firm offering the US side of that for ~20% of what I ended up spending on it. (This is difficult to do an apples-to-apples comparison even in this case, because C Corp vs LLC, but trust me when I say "I was pleasantly surprised where we got the numbers to.")
We're working on having an even better offering here for next year. We'll have more to say that closer to tax season 2017.
Re: Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups
#9We've technically speaking got a lot of US startups on Atlas, but we're happy to have more. Today's announcement also includes a number of other improvements we've made the last few months. I'm happy to answer questions if anyone has them.
Hello Patrick, thanks for answering questions. From the looks of these most recent updates, and reading over this blog post, it seems as though Atlas is positioning itself to be an accelerator in its own right. Offering connections, assistance, setup help, guidance, and even access to investors. It seems like Atlas/Stripe is only missing a funding portion and perhaps access to a highly covered "demo day." Are those i…
Stripe's goal is to increase the GDP of the Internet. We're doing Atlas because we think it is instrumentally useful to achieving that. This isn't purely altruistic; we're increasing the GDP of the Internet both because it is a good thing to do and because we intend to capture a sliver of the value unlocked during this economic transformation.
In terms of what we'll build into Atlas: absolutely anything that is needed by ambitious technically-oriented companies, with a particular focus on things that we feel we have a comparative advantage in shipping. Sometimes we'll be building things ourselves, sometimes we'll be partnering with folks who have part of the puzzle already.
Re: Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups
#10I'm a fan of Stripe generally and loved the concept of Atlas when I first heard about it.
I'd be slightly concerned about the commitment bias that might creep in though for startups who rely on Atlas for all their incorporation and financial needs.
As a future gatekeeper for some pretty crucial operational issues, do you see any risk in Stripe eventually becoming a dependency for startups?
I'd compare it slightly to the App Store where Apple made it simpler for developers to submit, launch and market their apps. As the gatekeeper they then kept increasing their portion of in-app charges. Reduced friction at the start for developers resulted in a sort of sunk cost problem at a later stage.
As Da Vinci said "it's easier to resist at the beginning then it is at the end".