
Ask HN: Startup Equity to Iranian National and Delaware Inc - daves_startup
Hello, need a hand here. We are a small tech start up and have a team of 6 from all over the world. One of our team is an Iranian national, based in UK on a work visa.
We are all working for equity right now and the company is based in UK today.<p>We are considering registering our company in Delaware and it looks like US sanctions might give us a challenge.<p>Does anyone have any experience or advice in this area &#x2F; lawyers to recommend etc?<p>Thanks Dave
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JCoder58
The US Embassy in London has a list of UK lawyers who have experience with US
Law:

[https://uk.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-
services/attorney/](https://uk.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/attorney/)

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daves_startup
Thank you!!

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brudgers
I’m not a lawyer. Issues with Iran aside. A Delaware C corporation may need to
pay its employees actual wages. Not equity. Not complying with labor laws is a
known method for creating legal problems later if the company becomes
successful. Business practices that might work for proprietorships,
partnerships, and LLC’s don’t scale out to C corps. Good luck.

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daves_startup
Thanks!!

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keepspeechfree
yes definitely consult a lawyer, it might introduce complications working with
US companies.

There might be other ways you can structure his compensation that would be
better for the company, maybe as a profit share and a bonus if the company
sells that matches up to what would be his % ownership.

But it's the right move to find an attorney with experience.

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tomklein
Maybe you could ask at a US embassy if you don’t find answers?

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daves_startup
Thank you!!

