What better to incorporate a Deleware C-Corp. Clerky or Stripe Atlas and why?
Any idea which one is better to use? Will I need a lawyer at all? Does stripe atlas allow you to appoint directors and then buy stock from the directors?
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In a lot of places, you can make a throw-away LLC with two sheets of paper and less than fifty bucks. Delaware C-corps are not that way.
In the earlier days of HN, "Ask HN: I have an expensive legal issue with my Delaware C-corp" questions were rather common. The lessons were often price of a new BMW expensive just for letting one sit with no activity.
The main reason to form a Delaware C-corp is to take outside investment that requires it. This is typical of Silicon Valley venture capital and much much less typical of any other form of investment and of most investors just about everyplace else.
Or to put it anther way, a Delaware C-corp exists to manage capital. If there isn't enough capital to justify a lawyer and accountant, then there is an impedance mismatch. Good luck.
I was not aware of the _why_ for creating a c corp over an LLC for a new company
My only minor gripes are I wish they offered more options for banking and registered agent services.
Banking: SVB is the only bank option, which has a $25/mo. fee until your balance is over a certain limit. Other options like Mercury would be good. Though, if I recall correctly, the bank setup is optional, so you can skip it and pick your own bank after formation.
Registered agent: The service they use was $100/yr (first year free). But after some research, I ended up switching to virtualpostmail.com, which gives you a virtual business address (which we needed anyway since we're fully remote) and includes free registered agent services.
Those are relatively minor issues though, I highly recommend Stripe Atlas. And it works well regardless of whether or not you use Stripe. They also include credits/discounts for various services.
I discovered Stripe Atlas through YC's startupschool.org (which is excellent). They had a 50% discount on Stripe Atlas (and other things) when you went through the program.
I used Stripe Atlas in mid-2020, so not sure what has changed since then.
I’ve used SVB for over 20 years in multiple startups, but they have sadly really lost it and won’t use them anymore. One of my partners, who used to go skiing (etc) with the SVB team has given up on them too.
First Republic (which I would not have guessed) has really built a good startup practice (and poached a bunch of people from SVB).
The big banks are terrible and at best treat startups like small businesses, though the two have different needs.
https://stripe.com/docs/atlas/next#bank-account
But there are a number of things you'll have to track and handle yourself, like filing your 83b election with the IRS.