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Ask HN: Has anyone here successfully applied to Stripe Atlas?

51 points by anacleto ↗ HN
I've been thinking to apply - but I was wondering if anyone here at HN has any experience with Stripe Atlas so far?

How long the acceptance phase during does it last?

31 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 97.7 ms ] thread
ryanol
I applied in August and was accepted in about 2/3 weeks. They were in beta at this time and were very helpful throughout the entire process. All I had to do is enter information onto the forms they provide and they do all the work behind the scenes. Personally, I'd recommend Atlas to foreign startups looking to incorporate in the US, rather than US based startups looking to incorporate. They only offered C-Corp at the time of my acceptance.
pradipmj
Yes , we received an invite couple of weeks back. Once you fill in all required information , it takes a about 7 to 10 days to complete the process and you'll also get 15000 $ worth of AWS credits
MOARDONGZPLZ
US based looking for incorporation, rejected after a couple weeks.
GordonS
Can you say why you were rejected?
guywithabike
Their HN username gives you a hint as to why.
facetube
No it doesn't.
joemi
I'd be very willing to bet that the same qualities that drive someone to use a crude username may cause that person to be less desirable in several aspects of professional life.
partisan
It's sad that this has to be spelled out.
allannienhuis
Their username suggests that they're related to the porn business (dong == penis). Stripe (and any credit card company) has rules about the types of businesses they will support/allow. Porn "Adult" sites are on the prohibited list. https://stripe.com/ca/prohibited-businesses
oh_sigh
Or maybe the user just enjoys penises, or wants more dong for himself at a personal level. Not everyone uses HN as an extension of their business/professional interests.
allannienhuis
perhaps - but the parent was questioning that the username did not provide a hint about the reason. I think it's fair to say that's a reasonable hint. It may or may not be the actual reason he was denied of course.
MOARDONGZPLZ
They didn't say. Business is licensing an algorithm we designed to enterprise customers for use in their software products.

Dǒng is my surname by the way.

[deleted]
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bastawhiz
I have. It took about six months before I heard back after initially signing up. After that, it took about three weeks to get through the paperwork, and then about a month of waiting for the government and various third parties (SV Bank, Amazon) to get their pieces together.
noodles23
March 5th - We signed up to the waitlist the instant we heard about it

April 8th - Received an invite. They gave up a form to fill out online where we had to upload some IDs and other details.

April 10th - The docusign (digital signature) email documents came along with a legal/tax guide. We filled that out on Apr 19th.

We ended up delaying for a while discussing the tax implications since we're moving from a low tax (Hong Kong) to much higher tax (Delaware C-Corp) area. Unlike Hong Kong, taxes in the US appear much much more complicated and intimidating. Ultimately for our startup, we weighed the benefits and decided to go ahead.

May 16th - Decided to go ahead with the incorporation and signed all the forms (via docusign)

May 17th - Get 15k AWS credits emails (super cool)

May 19th - Our Stripe payments account was opened "You can now accept payments via Stripe" Email

May 19th - "Welcome to SVB Bank" email with login details

May 25th - "Your Company is now incorporated" w Certificate of Incorp attached

June 4th - "Your Company now has an EIN", which a number ID to file taxes

June 21st - SVB Bank asked us to print out a few docs to sign. Basically to confirm we received the EIN.

And that's it. In most cases, it only takes a few days once you've signed the forms to be able to start taking payments via Stripe US (so you get the cheaper Stripe US fees rather than the more expensive international fees).

As an international, we ended taking a while to decide if a US incorporation was the way to go. There's 2 reasons we hesitated:

1) Stripe released a beta in Asia where you can accept payments in many Asian countries. No more Braintree/Paypal crap so you don't need to have US bank account to use Stripe and the Stripe API.

2) American taxes are pretty high (compared to HK), and there seems to a lot more rules and paperwork required.

For us, what pushed us to go ahead despite our reservations was that we spent 1 week in SF (for our YC interview). We didn't get in, but we scheduled a lot of meetings while we were there and we realised if we were to raise any sort of significant funding, a Delaware C-corp is a prerequisite.

will_brown
It would seem odd SV Bank opened the business bank account prior to the EIN (though maybe Atlas had the EIN and delayed sending it to you for one reason or another).

Can I ask what the game plan is for the annual DE C Corp compliance? Specifically do you know how much your DE franchise tax will be (did you determine how many shares were created or did Atlas)? Do you file your own DE annual report or does Atlas? Do you know who your DE Registered Agent is and the annual cost moving forward?

I'm thinking I could easyily offer those services, but it is not clear if Atlas does/plans to.

noodles23
The default option for #shares was 10k @ $0.0001 per share

The list of fees is at: https://stripe.com/atlas/faq#Are-there-any-additional-costs-...

We have to file everything ourselves but we do have a few guides available from PWC and Orrickk? via Stripe Atlas that we're following as best as possible.

I have no idea what level of support Stripe Atlas will provide going forward, we have not heard anything in that regards, so we have enlisted friends in these professions to help us out.

If you do end up provided all these services in one place, let us know. It'll make my life a lot easier

diziet
I know this sounds trite, but you typically want to incorporate with either 10 million or 100 million shares (10 million being much easier to deal with) initially. Imagine giving someone .25% equity - this means you will give them 25 shares, which is a bad idea for multiple reasons, from rounding making a big difference in vesting (you vest .52 shares every month) to it not sounding impressive. You're not BRK.A.

Just make sure to pay via Assumed Par Value Capital Method.

charlesdm
So, the only reason why you incorporated in the US is because it is required from a funding PoV, right? Aside from that, I can't really see any reason why you would want to run things through a high tax US entity, in comparison to the sweet deal you're getting in HK (tax wise).
noodles23
100% agree.

It's a tradeoff. If I had a lifestyle trading business, the corporate tax rate in HK is 0% (17% for revenue derived in HK, 0% for non-local revenue).

On the other hand, funding in this part of the world is pretty depressing. I have a collection of term sheets we keep to remind ourselves how bad it could've been. Personal liability, right to veto future investments, majority board control... you name it.

So we're trading higher taxes + crazy amounts of compliance, for a more managed and predictable funding process in the long run.

charlesdm
Good luck! Makes sense, given startups don't pay corporate taxes anyway
CCing
How the taxation works ? you work from hk right ?
romanr
You mentioned twice that you're moving to US because tax is higher and more complicated. Isn't that the opposite of what you should be doing?
kl_r
Got in at the initial beta. Super smooth, took us about a month from getting approved to having everything sorted out (bank account, AWS credits etc).
CCing
Can someone explain how the double-taxation works ? I mean, if you have your business in america, but then you work from your home country, how you manage it ? It's really hard found some informations about it...
tim333
I think that stuff varies a fair bit on the specifics of which home country and where the company is. In general you fill in the tax returns in both countries and they work out something you owe. At least for C-Corps. I've got a Delaware LLC and live in the UK and that one's simple - there's no US tax and the company is ignored and it's earnings considered yours for UK tax.
pentesterlab
Got in during the beta. Incorporated in less than 2 weeks. The process was quick and straightforward. I started the paperwork to get a debit card from SVB 3 weeks ago and I should receive it in few days.
Skrint
Could you share a little more details about the debit card process? How was the paperwork, how do they ship the card (courier company or regular international mail), do they ship anywhere in the world, the fees to receive the card (cost of the card + shipping) how do you request the card, can it be used internationally without limitation (it would make sense since this solution is for international customers, but US banks tend to be very strict regarding sending wires or withdrawing money from ATM outside of the US), what are the daily/monthly ATM withdrawal limits, and any other useful information. Thank you
soneca
A brazilian startup of some friends got accepted (with no warm intros or fancier credentials, just "cold" application). They applied as soon it came, got an invitation in July i think. Now, as far as i know, the process is on hold as the startup is still figuring out some bureaucracy on their side.