Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups • Hacker News Board

Re: Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups

#121

Post by henrikschroder » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 9:30 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #104

henrikschroder wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're happy Stripe customers, but our Stripe account is based in an EU country, and our entire volume is in USD. For some Stripe policy reason, we can't transfer USD from Stripe to our EU bank account, it's not allowed. You can only transfer USD to US or Canadian bank accounts. We've been in contact with Stripe support over this, and their recommended solution was to use Atlas and setup a US company and bank account,…

I'm going to look into this for you and will follow up by email. (If I find something which is useful for similarly situated companies, I will post what I learn here.)

Thanks!

I actually got a great response from the Stripe customer support team today where they said that it's not possible today because of your banking partner in Europe, but that you're working on it, and hope to have it done later this year.

So that's great news for us! :-)

Re: Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups

#122

Post by henrikschroder » Fri, Apr 07, 2017, 9:53 PM UTC

laverick wrote: post #101

henrikschroder wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're happy Stripe customers, but our Stripe account is based in an EU country, and our entire volume is in USD. For some Stripe policy reason, we can't transfer USD from Stripe to our EU bank account, it's not allowed. You can only transfer USD to US or Canadian bank accounts. We've been in contact with Stripe support over this, and their recommended solution was to use Atlas and setup a US company and bank account,…

What you're describing isn't unique to Stripe. Pretty much every payment processor works this way. I've looked into a lot of them have yet to find a mainstream one that will deposit USD to a USD account in Europe, HK, SG, etc. (If Adyen does specifically that without big fees then great, but it's news to me.) What Stripe support is really telling you is that you need a US bank account to avoid the exchange fees. This…

Thanks for the writeup, but we think that any US presence for the company presents unknown liabilities that simply aren't worth it at our size. The risk simply does not outweigh the potential savings of the few percent we lose in exchange fees.

I know other payment processors don't do this either, and I remember the bad old days when you had to have your own merchant account and separate agreements with the card companies, and I wouldn't have expected this flexibility back then.

But, the way Stripe presents itself to its customers is that payments are made in whatever currency of the user, and it all drops in a bucket over at Stripe. You can accept payments before you've setup a bank account with Stripe. After that, and unrelated to whatever currencies users paid in, you can then transfer your Stripe balance to your bank account, in a few select major currencies. It looks like those two activities are completely separate, and one would assume the normal rules for transfers from one bank account to another would apply, i.e. it can be done in any currency regardless of the nationality of the bank accounts. But apparently that's not the case.

Re: Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups

#123

Post by soloadventurer » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 12:38 AM UTC

wut42 wrote: post #111

soloadventurer wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered http://startupr.com ? I am not affiliated with them, but are using them currently and they are providing great service.

Startupr looks nice but it doesn't seem to come with a bank account. Last time I've heard it's hard to get a bank account for a company abroad.

KYC rules require you appear in front of the bank officer to open a bank account. If you are going to spend money on opening a company, and are prepared to pay the annual maintenance costs going along with financial statements, tax returns, and other reporting, you should be prepared to travel somewhere and open a bank account. Running a company is NOT cheap.

Re: Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups

#124

Post by wut42 » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 11:03 AM UTC

soloadventurer wrote: post #123

wut42 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Startupr looks nice but it doesn't seem to come with a bank account. Last time I've heard it's hard to get a bank account for a company abroad.

KYC rules require you appear in front of the bank officer to open a bank account. If you are going to spend money on opening a company, and are prepared to pay the annual maintenance costs going along with financial statements, tax returns, and other reporting, you should be prepared to travel somewhere and open a bank account. Running a company is NOT cheap.

I know that, yes. But it seems that Atlas somehow don't require you to travel to the US for KYC.

Re: Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups

#125

Post by delibaltas » Mon, Apr 17, 2017, 10:58 PM UTC

markdown wrote: post #64

delibaltas wrote: post #19

As a foreigner that used Atlas to incorporate my consulting business, I can certainly vouch for it. It is an excellent example of "one stop shop" philosophy.

They let you incorporate a consulting business? Are you in a niche field? All their marketing has led me to believe they exist to support businesses like typical techcrunch-worthy SV startups, just based elsewhere.

Yes they did. For what it worths I had established clientele and cashflow.