This is the first post in a series about starting a business and running it like a boss in the US. 💪🏼 Stay tuned over the next couple weeks for more posts on how to hire, raise capital online, and incentivize your community using tools made for today’s times. This first post is written by Joris Delanoue, co-CEO and co-founder of Fairmint.
Founding a company is always a challenge. To truly focus you must accept the simplest solutions for anything that is not your core business. Again, the key is to KEEP IT SIMPLE. Here are the tools that have worked amazingly for me in my experience as a founder.
1/ Incorporate in Delaware:
If you are a startup founder, Delaware is a no-brainer! There is a startup ecosystem there and it has its codes. Most investors around the world consider Delaware to be the best jurisdiction in which to incorporate a business. There’s no need to innovate on this.
Our partner phrases it this way:
The best entity for your Company is a Delaware C-Corp. Delaware is the only state in the US with the laws and Regulations that allow C Corps to raise venture capital and Corporations allows you to issue shares.
To incorporate you can simply call a law firm, or you can use services like Doola, Stripe Atlas. Online services like these are used extensively by many founders from the US, Europe, Asia, and Africa to incorporate their Delaware C-Corp. With our partner, you get access to incorporation services for a small fee (believe us, it will save you time and many headaches!).
And the cherry on top? 🍒 Doola is cheap, costing just $197+$90 of State fee for incorporation in Delaware.
2/ Open a bank account AND credit card
Now that you’re incorporated, you need a bank account. You are super lucky to be an entrepreneur in today’s times — innovators like Immad have decided to create a great banking experience for founders just like you!
I strongly suggest going with Mercury Bank. I have to say it is among the best banking services I’ve ever used to run a business. Their tech, support, and services are A-plus.
Personally, I coupled Mercury with Ramp, which is the best corporate card out there. It offers 1.5% cash back, plus it has an expenses management platform that automates your accounting and lowers your bills.
(Update as of December 2022: Mercury offers the iO card now as well to compete with Ramp.)
Brex is also a well-known name, but they don’t accept all businesses and their current offer is kind of confusing.
With Fairmint, your community members and investors can invest in USD or in $USDC. However, since Mercury does not support $USDC at the moment, you will need to create an account with Circle (and/or Coinbase) to instantly swap between USD and $USDC. Once your account is set up, you can easily withdraw your money. For example, if you receive a large amount of $USDC, like $700,000, you can convert it to USD on Circle and have it available in your Mercury Bank account later in the day. We personally use Circle for this purpose.
(Update as of December 2022: Multis now offers a checking account in USD as well entire access to off-ramp. An option to consider.)
Now that you’re set to start running your operations properly, it’s time to start saving time on anything that is not at the core of your business. Once again, you can count on amazing entrepreneurs who have delivered products made to make your life easier.
3/ Run your back office like a boss:
You’re incorporated, you’ve got your accounts, and now you’re ready for hiring and managing.
Gusto is a must-have to run payroll wherever you, your company, and your employees are (or, at least, your founding team).
In parallel with your employees, you can easily scale your contractor teams with platforms like Upwork, Deel, or Multiplier. We’ve been using those and from what I know, the market won’t have a single winner. Talent is borderless and those tools make it smooth and easy to connect globally. As millions of more people enter the gig economy to generate a new source of income, payment products will continue to rise.
For accounting, Pilot literally helps you pilot your finances. That’s one of the biggest fears when running a business in the US, especially for a foreign founder. You will receive access to your own QuickBooks account with your transactions sorted and prepared by your dedicated bookkeeper.
(If you sign up with Pilot, be sure to let them know we referred you! You can email referrals@pilot.com to get started.)
On top of Pilot, Gusto, Upwork, Multiplier and Deel, when considering the use of blockchain in your stack to maintain transparency and traceability, Gilded.Finance is the back-office tool you will love. Made by CPAs/CFOs for CPAs/CFOs, plugged into your bookkeeping, you can easily monitor all the USD that are funnelled via the blockchain. It’s among the best ways for businesses to monitor their balances and synchronize with the rest of their bank accounts.
To complete your stack, MainStreet for R&D tax credits is another no-brainer. I wonder how any startup could not be using it yet! With MainStreet, you transform what’s normally a pain into a simple monthly payment you receive on your Stripe account. They really have changed R&D tax credits for good, making it as simple as it should have always been. Here is a nice cover story by Packy McCormick at Notboring if you want more details. (Update: Gusto now proposes R&D credit, deductible directly from Gusto. We will now use it exclusively at Fairmint.)
Now that your R&D tax credit is under control, you might be eligible for grants. But again, anything that is not a core part of your business shouldn’t take up your time. You can now ping OpenGrants.io, an open equity company! They will get rid of the pain that many founders have had to endure while working on grants.
And voila! You now have your “back office” under control!
Keep an eye out for upcoming posts on how to start and run your business efficiently — like a boss! And be sure to check out https://fairmint.com if you’re interested in how you can raise equity from your community.
About me.
I’m Joris Delanoue, an entrepreneur and angel investor. I’ve been building and scaling companies from scratch mostly in Europe, but now in the US. I’m on a mission to counteract inequality by decentralizing access to wealth. Fairmint, Inc., the company I co-founded with Thibauld Favre, is a big step in this long journey. Find me on Twitter @joris_DLN.
