Hi HN! I'm Arjun, one of the co-founders of StartPack (
https://startpack.io/). StartPack helps US and non-U.S. small and medium businesses (SMBs) set up U.S. based bank accounts so that they can accept payments from customers globally. We take care of everything you need to form an LLC, set up a bank account, accept payments, and manage ongoing compliance and tax filings.
When my co-founder JP and I started our US company, it was too complex and time-consuming, especially as a non-US team. We were looking to create a Delaware C Corp but as JP was a non-US resident we did not know how to properly form our company, and make sure we were fully compliant with US tax laws. We ended up setting up our C Corp and it cost us money (thousands total) and time: even after "forming" we were bogged down in paperwork regarding compliance for our company, ensuring we had submitted forms to the IRS correctly (83-b elections) and we felt in the dark around maintaining our company + having support around what to do. Sure "forming the entity" was fast but after that, we really had no clue what to do / what was in store.
As we went through a pivot from our first company, we were going through the process of setting up yet another company and realized we wanted an "initializer" that would start our company for us, but not just stop there. We wanted someone (or something) to help us maintain our company, and provide long-term support in case we had any questions or needed help. This got us thinking: why can't a startup / product deal with this so we can focus on building our business, instead of forming it and maintaining it?
For any entrepreneur, just "starting" a company isn't the goal. Growing a business is. This is hard enough... then there's everything else founders have to deal with and spend valuable time on. We've learned (and personally know from our experience) that founders don't want a checklist of things to do. They want someone who can handle it for them. Not a one-time offering that forms a company. But a long-term partner, where the incentives are aligned to provide ongoing support and handle all the administrative work. And also help setup and maintain the initial stack of software and accounts needed to get a business off the ground.
The bigger thing we've realized is that despite the fact that SMBs power the global economy, they're often overlooked when it comes to forming and maintaining a US company. Most founders globally don't want to raise US venture capital (and don't need a C Corp); they want to build a profitable bootstrapped business and try to create something from scratch or sell something online. SMBs don't raise millions in capital. SMBs don't make the front page of TechCrunch. But people who start SMBs are still entrepreneurs just like anyone else and they are overlooked (or not even supported).
We want to help small and medium businesses globally launch and maintain a US LLC, get access to US banking + and access US payments. This is what fires us up about working on StartPack. So many people out there don't even realize it's possible to form an LLC as a non-US resident and being able to make this reality come true for creators, e-commerce sellers and SMB founders, even one company at a time, is incredibly rewarding.
Let us know if you have any feedback, questions, comments or thoughts, we're more than happy to answer and looking forward to hearing what HN thinks of StartPack!
I'm a non-US who knows a bit about going through the US incorporation.
I've never considered an LLC because of the pass-through taxation which is pretty much impossible when you're outside of the US.
Stripe Atlas used to support LLC for non-US but they stopped it because they found that people recklessly open it but cannot run when they are non-US residents.
So, how does your product help those non-US resident with an LLC?