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Q for founders - how did you decide where to incorporate your company?
2102 sats \ 19 comments \ @aljaz 29 Dec 2023 startups
I'm curious how much of a thought did you put into where to incorporate your company and what were the factors that played into that decision.
Did you consider access to capital, taxes, favorable jurisdictions to bitcoin or something else?
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480 sats \ 2 replies \ @Natalia 29 Dec 2023 freebie
depends on what you do and where you are in ( ideally you don't register company in where you live, especially if it's online )
  • tax, ideally 0
  • how annoying to maintain it ( bureaucracy )
  • what benefits would it give me
to give you an example, I registered in WY for online stuff, it works like a charm:
  • 0 tax
  • not much annoyance need to deal with
  • freedom to access all the useful tools
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @aljaz OP 29 Dec 2023
I'm guessing you are talking about WY LLC in this particular instance
Can you elaborate about the first point to make it clearer for people reading this - i'm bot sure its always clear to people that they dont need to incorporate in their local country
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Natalia 29 Dec 2023 freebie
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428 sats \ 2 replies \ @justin_shocknet 29 Dec 2023
People want to overthink this issue but its usually just procrastination or contrarianism for the sake of it.
In reality there are very few cases where you'd actually want to bother incorporating and simultaneously not just do that in Delaware, especially as a Bitcoin company.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @aljaz OP 29 Dec 2023
thats a very US centric view of the world, its not necessarily the panacea for everything specially if you're not a citizen/resident
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @justin_shocknet 29 Dec 2023
It's the realistic view of the world
Foreign co's looking for a level playing field and access to the largest capital market in the world incorporate in Delaware, because it's what's best for business and nothing more.
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408 sats \ 4 replies \ @Rsync25 29 Dec 2023
Did you consider access to capital, taxes, favorable jurisdictions to bitcoin
  • 0 tax on Bitcoin winnings, i.e. liquidation.
  • Incentive for open source
  • Low cost in hiring people to work in the company (labor charges if applicable)
I think that founders can "diversify" risk across several jurisdictions instead of just one, because Governments by nature are unstable and can change laws according to their wishes
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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @aljaz OP 29 Dec 2023
How would you diversify risk across several jurisdictions, the parent company is still tied to one specific jurisdiction?
Of course you can have subsidiaries in jurisdictions favorable to for example bitcoin and do all your handling of bitcoin there but that is a lot of overhead for a early stage company
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21 sats \ 2 replies \ @Rsync25 29 Dec 2023
How would you diversify risk across several jurisdictions, the parent company is still tied to one specific jurisdiction?
Parent company and subsidiaries
that is a lot of overhead for a early stage company
Yes, I agree with you on this part. With this, founders can choose a good jurisdiction and later, when they are large companies, open subsidiaries or controlling companies in friendly jurisdictions.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @aljaz OP 29 Dec 2023
my feeling is (also the reason why i posted this question) is that we as an industry are not optimizing enough for jurisdictional arbitrage, while at the same time its a huge mental burden to also figure out all of this while also trying to build a company/product
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rsync25 29 Dec 2023
we as an industry are not optimizing enough for jurisdictional arbitrage, while at the same time its a huge mental burden to also figure out all of this while also trying to build a company/product
That's point.
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164 sats \ 2 replies \ @beorange 29 Dec 2023
favorable jurisdictions to bitcoin
In the event I would need to start a company, this would be a very important aspect I would put on the table.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @aljaz OP 29 Dec 2023
But how much weight would you put on that specific one? For example El Salvador might be great if you are optimising for this alone but ease of doing business there is probably far from great
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @beorange 29 Dec 2023
That would depend on the type of business. Perhaps between 15% to 25% percent of the total weight.
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92 sats \ 0 replies \ @davidw 6 Jan freebie
Not yet launched or 'founded' a product, but for me registering a business here in Uruguay 🇺🇾 is an easy decision for the simple fact that they:
  • have very favourable tax rates (0% on software and 'foreign income')
  • very light touch paperwork and very unlikely to be audited
  • make it easy to become a temporary/permanent resident as a secondary benefit
  • small country with just 3.5m people, so very easy to build network and contacts
  • other business owners talk of being treated like a customer, not a cow
  • are punching-above their weight in the tech & AI industry
  • zero interest in regulating, taxing or tracking Bitcoin currently
  • great diversification strategy, outside of increasingly uncompetitive Western countries - like mentioned inside this recent SN post
  • was mentioned inside the Sovereign Individual 🤣 (my bible these days) as a likely favourable jurisdiction

Learn More

  • I wrote about Uruguay in much more detail here on SN, including such tax benefits, for those interested.
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42 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 29 Dec 2023
I put hardly any thought into it. When I incorporated, I wasn't sure if the corporation would exist a year out so I did what was standard for US-based companies.
Even with hindsight I'm not sure where the right place would be for something like SN. Considering how aloof counterparties might fuck me is one of my least favorite things to think about. When I have the option, I prefer to remove them from the equation.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @hyperfree 7 Jan
Romania and Estonia are fairly cheap EU options. Also Poland, Bulgaria, Malta, Georgia can be relevant.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @robbinskeelingmelvin5635 29 Dec 2023 outlawed
stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.