
Stripe opens its Atlas program to US-based startups - lebek
https://stripe.com/blog/atlas-updates
======
patio11
We've technically speaking got a lot of US startups on Atlas, but we're happy
to have more. Today's announcement also includes a number of other
improvements we've made the last few months.

I'm happy to answer questions if anyone has them.

~~~
henrikschroder
We're happy Stripe customers, but our Stripe account is based in an EU
country, and our entire volume is in USD. For some Stripe policy reason, we
can't transfer USD from Stripe to our EU bank account, it's not allowed. You
can only transfer USD to US or Canadian bank accounts.

We've been in contact with Stripe support over this, and their recommended
solution was to use Atlas and setup a US company and bank account, but that's
the wrong solution for us. We already have a company which we're happy about,
we don't want to become a multi-national entity with all the liability that
follows.

So, question: Are you actively going to push Atlas as the solution to our
problem as well? It seems completely misguided to me, we just want to be able
to transfer the USD held in our Stripe account to our EU-based USD bank
account, and not do any currency conversions at all.

~~~
patio11
I'm going to look into this for you and will follow up by email. (If I find
something which is useful for similarly situated companies, I will post what I
learn here.)

~~~
henrikschroder
Thanks!

I actually got a great response from the Stripe customer support team today
where they said that it's not possible today because of your banking partner
in Europe, but that you're working on it, and hope to have it done later this
year.

So that's great news for us! :-)

------
nodesocket
Silicon Valley bank is frankly awful. I used them for three years but just
recently switched over to Capital One Spark Business Checking[1] and love it.
Spark is all online, has zero fees unlike SVB (I used to pay $15/mo), and has
solid technology again unlike SVB. The account gets setup instantly and your
debit card and checks arrive about a week after opening. The Spark iOS mobile
app is really solid and allows for check deposits. I highly recommend Spark
business checking over SVB.

[1] - [https://www.capitalone.com/small-business-
bank/](https://www.capitalone.com/small-business-bank/)

EDIT: Also want to mention, I have two software products and was able to
create two bank accounts under the same corporate tax id with Spark, which I
was unable to do at SVB. This allows me to isolate income and expenses for
each product as each has their own Spark checking account number and
transactions under a single unified login.

~~~
seanmccann
SVB's biggest value is in more complicated financial products for startups
when traditional banks may not want to work with startups. I've worked with
SVB in the past for an AR line that almost no bank would have given us.

If you just need a checking account, then there are lots of cheaper banks with
better UIs.

~~~
nodesocket
You have to acknowledge a bank named Silicon Valley and having absolutely
terrible technology and only recently a mobile app that is not even native is
somewhat of an oxymoron. They also nickel and dime fees.

While I am sure SVB does assist with loans, investors, legal, most small
businesses and startups just need a checking account and going with SVB is a
mistake.

~~~
curuinor
VC's and tech financing really have awful technology in and of themselves. You
can think of it as the cobbler's kids having no shoes or you can think of it
as really technically competent folks only really being attracted to VC to get
conventional VC money and not ever as customers, but they often just run on
excel and such.

~~~
brazzledazzle
I wouldn't be surprised if being burned by one of their investments going
under has made them wary of jumping headfirst into trends. Maybe avoiding bias
plays into it too.

------
WordSkill
Info I would find useful in deciding to proceed with Atlas:

1\. What are the ongoing costs for a company which, worse case scenario, makes
little or no money?

2\. What are the costs to close such a company, fulfilling the likely tax and
regulatory requirements?

I do understand that Stripe is not a law firm or an accounting firm, and I
have read through the publicly available documentation. Even so, I find myself
uneasy about the possible downsides of getting tangled up with the US system.

Obviously, if everything goes well nothing will be a real problem: the money
coming in can cover all sorts of ridiculous fees, tax demands and ridiculous
bank charges. I am sure, however, that many potential owners are, like me,
more focused upon the possibility that they might find themselves in a
financial and paperwork blizzard that will drag on for years.

I am grateful that Atlas makes it easy to jump in, but how difficult will it
be to jump out if necessary?

Related: I get that making the entire Atlas Forum members-only adds to the
perceived value of membership, but it is frustrating for potential applicants
who are hungry to hear about the experiences of others. Having just one open
section would almost certainly encourage more people to go ahead and sign up.

------
delibaltas
As a foreigner that used Atlas to incorporate my consulting business, I can
certainly vouch for it. It is an excellent example of "one stop shop"
philosophy.

~~~
markdown
They let you incorporate a consulting business? Are you in a niche field?

All their marketing has led me to believe they exist to support businesses
like typical techcrunch-worthy SV startups, just based elsewhere.

~~~
delibaltas
Yes they did. For what it worths I had established clientele and cashflow.

------
fiatjaf
As a foreign developer with a small startup I'm pretty lost with the guides
Atlas provides. Is it actually possible to run an Atlas company without ever
going to the US and without hiring an US accountant (or PwC, as recommended by
Atlas somewhere)?

Also, nowhere in the FAQ it is mentioned if it is possible to close the
company and how would that work.

The SVB terms are also scary to me: "SVB will share more details on its
pricing once you have an account". What? What if they're charging me a million
dollars? I'll only know after the fact?

~~~
rodionos
Long time SVB customer here. Their international wire is rather expensive. I
think they charge $40 per wire, then they deduct $20 from the amount to cover
their own correspondent banking fees so you have to always keep the $20 in
mind which is painful. On top of that - monthly analysis fees. So... you
raised a good question. Make sure you get answers from the program managers.

~~~
pbarnes_1
Their rates are also bad.

Use USForex instead.

------
chejazi
I apologize for the begging, but if anyone has an invite, I would love to use
Stripe Atlas with my co! chejazi@umich.edu

~~~
nebabyte
Why would anyone invite you without knowing what they're recommending?

For that matter, it sounds like the founder or someone who works there is in
this thread, but even if you were going to appeal to them, the information you
could give them would likely just be the same information that the (linked in
the post) signup/product pitch page's application form would ask for.

And fundamentally, why would someone want to work with someone who wasn't
proactive in figuring this out? I'm sure as Atlas grows they'll be happy to
take your money regardless, but right now they obviously wish to filter out
the noise as they likely have a vested interest in starting with the most
success-oriented founders.

I can't imagine someone who didn't take the 2 minutes to figure out that they
have a non-invite-requiring route, and that that's likely because they don't
want to shut the door on anons like yourself asking for an in but don't want
their existing members having to recommend people they don't know.

~~~
chejazi
Thanks, but:

1) If the HN community is so noisy then why are you here? :P

2) I deliberately used my university email address to create trust, and if
someone wanted to do due diligence I use the same handle everywhere else.

3) I've been following this project for longer than 2 minutes and applied
previously.

------
watsonc73
I'm a fan of Stripe generally and loved the concept of Atlas when I first
heard about it.

I'd be slightly concerned about the commitment bias that might creep in though
for startups who rely on Atlas for all their incorporation and financial
needs.

As a future gatekeeper for some pretty crucial operational issues, do you see
any risk in Stripe eventually becoming a dependency for startups?

I'd compare it slightly to the App Store where Apple made it simpler for
developers to submit, launch and market their apps. As the gatekeeper they
then kept increasing their portion of in-app charges. Reduced friction at the
start for developers resulted in a sort of sunk cost problem at a later stage.

As Da Vinci said "it's easier to resist at the beginning then it is at the
end".

~~~
patio11
We incorporate real companies for real businesses. If one ever wants to e.g.
get legal advice from a professional other than ones Atlas recommends, we’re
more than happy for our companies to do that. (Many of them do, already.)

We see ourselves more as a builder of doors than a keeper of gates. There is a
formidable wall of operational nonsense which separates entrepreneurs from
building things and selling them to people. We want to get them through that
as quickly as possible, rather than creating additional hurdles.

For similar reasons, Atlas is more than happy to help folks take payments with
Stripe, but that’s not required or exclusive in any way. If your company
thinks Paypal or Apple is a better way to get money from your customers,
awesome; your company is no less able to transact with them than any other
company. (We literally help people on our forums get set up with DUNS numbers
to get on the App Store, for example.)

~~~
watsonc73
Got it, thanks for clarifying Patrick. That sounds like a fairly clear ethical
line in the sand so kudos for taking that position.

Good luck with the US launch :)

------
danellis
One of the benefits of Atlas is the AWS credit, which has been useful for us.
We would have much preferred to be on Google's cloud, though, and Google's
startup program offers a lot more credit.

Is there any plan for Atlas companies to become eligible for that?

------
npx
Is it possible to start an S corporation instead? Part of the appeal of
Delaware is that transitioning from S->C is a well defined process, and a C
corp seems a bit silly for many businesses.

------
preetish
Appreciate your response, Patrick. Quick question - is it necessary for a
start-up to have payment side to apply for the program? What about a start-up
that is pre-revenue?

~~~
patio11
We have many companies that are pre-revenue before they incorporate. We'll ask
for some detail on what the general plan is for making money, so that we (and
our banking partner) know, but we don't quite need the same level of detail
that e.g. an investor would need.

------
coupdejarnac
Is there a roadmap for Stripe supporting more countries? I'm working on an on-
demand/marketplace app where buyers and vendors could be anywhere,
particularly the Middle East at the outset. The alternatives, Paypal and
Payoneer, don't really look too appealing.

------
davenull
How does the AWS credit work? This, for me, is the biggest selling point of
the whole shabang.

~~~
zupreme
They probably use the AWS Activate program (which my main startup is part of).
It basically gives you a set amount of "credit" with AWS. We got ours almost a
year ago and it just ran out this month. It allowed us to run key workloads on
AWS for a year at zero out of pocket cost.

Of course Amazon does this, in part, because once you have built a functional
business on their platform(s) you are more likely to stay there and to
continue paying them long-term.

------
jstoiko
If you're looking for a guide/checklist before going through the "The Twelve
Tasks of Asterix"[1] involved in setting-up a startup, I found this one
particularly helpful: [https://github.com/leonar15/startup-
checklist](https://github.com/leonar15/startup-checklist)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Tasks_of_Asterix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Tasks_of_Asterix)

------
thetli8
We incorporated using Stripe Atlas during the beta.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. Would be happy to provide
another perspective on incorporation.

~~~
markdown
1\. Do you sell a product or a service?

2\. What part of the world are you in (Europe/Asia/Oceania/South America/etc)?

3\. Were you already a functioning business with revenue already flowing in?

~~~
thetli8
1\. Yes, we sell a back-house automation subscription service for restaurants.

2\. From the US! Grateful to have been able to be a part of the beta, even in
the US.

3\. Nope. You don't need to be generating revenue to work with Stripe Atlas.
Companies decide, on their own, when they need to incorporate.

~~~
markdown
Thank you, that's helpful.

------
markdown
Only one of the showcased customers sells physical products, and even then
they appear to be a retailer of third party products.

I wonder whether they'd accept a startup trying to manufacture and sell a
physical (botanical) product from the other side of the world.

------
blowski
OT - the Atlas website kills my 1 year old Macbook Pro.

~~~
madlynormal
Works on my 2013 MacBook Pro. Downgrade needed?

~~~
blowski
It works, it just uses a heck of a lot of CPU. Using Chrome in El Capitan if
that makes a difference.

------
samuraibunny
Smart business idea! Help startups succeed, and in turn, they'll generate
revenue for Stripe.

------
markfer
Does anybody have an invite code they wouldn't mind sharing for Atlas?

~~~
ploggingdev
[Reposting my comment]

Contact patio11 directly by email (it's in his HN bio) and ask for an invite.
I remember him making an open offer to all HNers who don't have an Atlas
invite but need one.

------
themihai
>>>Tell us about what you’re working on and we’ll get back to you within two
weeks.

How is this better than a traditional bank?

