
Atlas and Cuba - lx
https://stripe.com/blog/atlas-cuba?ref=hn
======
adolfojp
A few months ago I inquired about using Stripe from Puerto Rico, a US
territory for over 100 years, and was told that it wasn't available in the
unincorporated territories yet.

[https://support.stripe.com/questions/can-i-use-stripe-if-
my-...](https://support.stripe.com/questions/can-i-use-stripe-if-my-business-
is-based-in-an-outlying-territory-of-a-supported-)

And now I see Stripe getting friendly with Cuba.

I don't have a clear point to make, as I'm writing this while still upset, but
I just felt like I had to get my word out there perhaps to get some
perspective or perhaps to start a discussion.

~~~
edwinwee
Hi, I work at Stripe. We are actually now able to support Puerto Rican
businesses. (We need to update that support page!) Shoot me an email at
edwin.wee@stripe.com and we can get you set up.

~~~
hiphipjorge
Was there actually a good reason for this?

The limitation seems completely arbitrary or stems for a misunderstanding
about the difference between a state and a territory. For better or for worse,
Puerto Rico is virtually a state (with residents who can't vote for the
president with some minor other caveats), but legally there shouldn't be any
difference.

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davidu
This is really incredible.

Many of small actions by a small number of focused people in Washington, in
the Whitehouse, and entrepreneurs and bankers, may have a profound impact on
millions of Cuban lives in a very short period of time.

Another good reminder (to abuse a quote), "chance favors the prepared" \--
Stripe had already laid a lot of groundwork before Atlas to handle the systems
required for this, and then they launched Atlas to handle many of the
regulatory requirements, and so when this opportunity came along for Cuba,
they were quickly able to take advantage of it.

~~~
k-mcgrady
>> "Many of small actions by a small number of focused people in Washington,
in the Whitehouse, and entrepreneurs and bankers, may have a profound impact
on millions of Cuban lives in a very short period of time."

While this is true don't forget that this also applies to the last several
decades in Cuba too. They're fixing something that they created in the first
place.

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marcoperaza
Every other country in the world was free to trade with Cuba. Cuba is a
disaster because of Communism, not the US embargo. Communism failed everywhere
else, why would Cuba have been any different but for the embargo?

~~~
apalmer
Communism failed everywhere... BUT most of those countries have started down
the path to a more market driven economy primarily through external trade...
its weird to have trade with USSR and China but not allow trade with Cuba at
this time.

~~~
mikeash
The embargo was never about communism itself, it was a response to the seizure
of assets owned by Americans without compensation. I think these other
countries either didn't do this, or at least didn't do it as much.

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plg
"SVB will share more details about your account’s complete fee schedule and
functionality once your bank account is open."

???

\- I'd like to open an account. What are the fees?

-> well umm I don't want to tell you until you open the account

\- good luck with your chickens

~~~
edwinwee
We definitely agree that startups should have a clear understanding of fees
before they get started. To make things simple as a company gets started,
Silicon Valley Bank is waiving account maintenance fees for Atlas users for
the first 24 months. Other fees vary depending on which services customers
choose to use, so we can’t post a one-size-fits-all rate card. We’d be happy
to walk you through the details — feel free to get in touch with me at
edwin.wee@stripe.com.

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zaroth
The sad thing about Atlas is... why should it be so complicated anyway? If you
can prove your identity, and can pay the franchise fees, it should be
completely trivial to setup a legal entity and start paying taxes in any
country. You just file the paperwork.

Is it the bank account that's the hard thing to get? If you have a Deleware C
corp with a statement of good standing and an annual report identifying the
corporate officers, and you're the President setting up a bank/merchant
account, is this not just a routine affair?

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allr
Cuba will have to step up its game with their Internet access, which is almost
non-existent.

~~~
amazon_not
That assumes that the Cuban's in charge want to get it fixed. The Internet is
not non-existent in Cuba because of some technical problem.

~~~
reis4g
Almost right. It's both a political and a technical issue. Like you don't get
a whole country with access to the internet from one day to the other without
signing a contract with the devil (whatever that is). So, it takes time, but
it is happening, Cuba is getting online, and there's no step back.

~~~
amazon_not
What contract with which devil?

Cuba already has a fiber optic cable to Venezuela, so they can get all the
Internet they want and need into the country.

Cuba already has a national backbone, so they can get the bits distributed to
every city.

Cuba already provides Internet access to government and educational
institutions and some businesses, so they already have the capability to
provide intenter access, even if so far it's been in limited quantities.

There are plans to provide ADSL service and Internet access can also be
provided via existing wireless networks. There are also informal wireless
networks that could be used to,get Internet out there to the people.

The Chinese will sell them as much network equipment as they want. They
already provide the most of it anyway.

There are very few technical issues. All the Cuban powers that be need to do
is unrestrict access and allow the use of existing infrastructure.

EDIT: all of Cuba could have some level of Internet access right now if they
just allowed satellite usage.

~~~
reis4g
Nice. And you didn't take my parenthesis as a warning! Give me 10..

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arbolaez
awesome!!!

