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Re:Handbook: Startup Incorporation for Founders by jedberg on Thursday June 08, 2023 @02:55PM (#36246819)
> As the name implies, this handbook is narrowly focused on startup incorporation. A lot of people don't know this, but there's a lot more to forming a startup than just incorporation

A product suggestion for you. Something like turbotax for founding a company. Ask a series of relevant questions, then create the formation paperwork, set up the board, issue the stock, automatically sign them up with an insurance partner, payroll partner, etc.

The target audience would be a couple of people who have a really great idea and just want to get down to coding and talking to customers and building, and not dealing with all of the boring muck of legal stuff.

When I was starting companies I really wished there was something like this. Your guides are a good start, but I still have to do a lot of legwork just to get the company going!

And then once you have that, a second product -- the same thing for shutting down.

Shutting down a company is even more difficult than starting one, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of products focusing on that, even though there are almost as many shutdowns as there are startups!

Edit to add: I would gladly pay a few hundred dollars for this service, on top of the normal Clerky fees, as it would save me a ton of time. Also you could probably work out deals with the preferred partners to get some sort of referral fee.

ps. This guide is great, thank you for putting it together!

Re:Handbook: Startup Incorporation for Founders by swampthing on Thursday June 08, 2023 @03:25PM (#36247334)
Thank you for the kind words and excellent suggestion! Definitely helpful to know you'd pay for it :P

I touched on this in another comment here, but dissolution, counterintuitively, is actually a very different ballgame. There is a lot more variability in how it should be done, depending on the specific circumstances of the company being shut down. That's one of a few reasons why you don't see many products out there for this. But I completely agree it's a pain point for us to solve!

Re:Handbook: Startup Incorporation for Founders by jedberg on Thursday June 08, 2023 @03:32PM (#36247460)
> Definitely helpful to know you'd pay for it :P

As a founder myself, I know it's easy for people to throw random ideas at you with absolutely no intention to pay for it, so I know how helpful it is to have a price anchor. :)

Re:Handbook: Startup Incorporation for Founders by swampthing on Thursday June 08, 2023 @03:55PM (#36247846)
Haha, that's why we love having founders as customers! :)

FWIW we have at least the banking portion of what you described worked out. The idea is that you can pre-fill your applications with banks with the information that you entered for your legal paperwork. It's not quite a one-click process due to how the best banks for startups work, but it's as easy as it gets!

Re:Handbook: Startup Incorporation for Founders by er4hn on Thursday June 08, 2023 @07:35PM (#36250871)
Adding onto my own experience as well. It's a huge pain in the neck that I've been working on for 4 months. Nearly all of this has been back and forths with various state government agencies on how I have not filed paperwork correctly. I too wish there was an option to pay a few hundred dollars and have this done for me.
Re:Handbook: Startup Incorporation for Founders by swampthing on Thursday June 08, 2023 @08:31PM (#36251429)
Yikes, sorry to hear that! Things like that are frustrating to hear, because something is clearly broken with the system, but there’s no simple quick fix for it even though it feels like there ought to be one. Hopefully we’ll have a solution for it one day...
Re:Handbook: Startup Incorporation for Founders by LrnByTeach on Thursday June 08, 2023 @06:33PM (#36250169)
I think the following service may match what you are asking for , it is priced at $500 and from a reputable company.

https://www.angellist.com/incorporation

Included with Incorporation

Entity formation in Delaware

State filing fees

IRS Employer Identification Number (EIN tax ID)

Founder stock issuance, custom equity pool and 83(b) filings

Legal templates and founder discounts

1 free year of Delaware registered agent, $100 per year thereafter. Renews automatically

1 free year subscription to Base plan

Re:Handbook: Startup Incorporation for Founders by jedberg on Friday June 09, 2023 @12:59AM (#36253409)
That's very similar to what Clerky does. Clerky even goes one step further and helps set up bank accounts.

But what I'm looking for is more involved. Ask me a few questions. Do you plan to have employees? Yes? Ok we will set you up with a payroll provider and a health insurance provider and a worker's comp provider and a business insurance provider. That kind of thing.

Re:Handbook: Startup Incorporation for Founders by im_down_w_otp on Friday June 09, 2023 @03:21AM (#36254453)
We use Gusto for that stuff. It's been fine.
Re:Handbook: Startup Incorporation for Founders by jedberg on Friday June 09, 2023 @03:39AM (#36254586)
I think you're completely missing the point. I want a one stop shop that asks me questions and then signs me up for everything I need.

Sure I can go to Gusto and they can do payroll for me, but they don't do taxes. They don't do insurance. They don't do bookkeeping. And so on.

I don't want to have to look up all the things I need to do as a business owner and find all the services that do that stuff.

I want to go to one place and have a legal, compliant business.

Re:Handbook: Startup Incorporation for Founders by trevor-e on Friday June 09, 2023 @12:46AM (#36253284)
This sounds like https://stripe.com/atlas

The shutting down part is interesting and I'm not sure how/if Atlas handles that.

Re:Handbook: Startup Incorporation for Founders by jedberg on Friday June 09, 2023 @01:01AM (#36253425)
Stripe only does the first part. It doesn't set me up with payroll or insurance or all the other things that I might need. That's why I said I'd like a turbotax like system that asks questions so you can get the right stuff.