
Ask HN: Has anyone here successfully applied to Stripe Atlas? - laurencei
I&#x27;ve just applied - but I was wondering if anyone here at HN has any experience with Stripe Atlas so far?<p>How long did it take for you to be accepted? Was the process as simple as it sounds? Are you based in the US, or international?<p>Any experience(s) you can share would be great.
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benologist
I got accepted but didn't pursue it. The bank they use traditionally works
exclusively with local venture-capital funded startups and multinationals
opening offices near venture-capital funded startups, so I'm a bit skeptical
they'll be a good match for anyone a continent or two from the Bay Area.

From what I read SVB don't actually issue debit cards to anyone so I'm not
sure how useful the account would be, I don't think you could use it to pay
for anything except maybe indirectly through PayPal, that may make accessing
the funds complicated too. It may leave you requiring local incorporation and
a local bank account for all your business needs in which case you're paying
15+ percent tax in the US purely for Stripe.

The incorporation process is itself just a couple forms to fill out. A company
I registered through [http://clerky.com/](http://clerky.com/) beforehand was
effortless, getting an EIN and registered agent was also easy through
[http://delawareinc.com](http://delawareinc.com) (except fitting very verbose
Costa Rican addresses on the forms), and taxes by [http://de-
taxes.com](http://de-taxes.com). Price is around $499+ either way you do it.

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laurencei
Not been able to get a debit card from SVB sounds like a problem.

But once the business is registered - how hard is it to open a 2nd bank
account, with another bank, so you can get a Visa Debit card through them?

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benologist
I think you need to be standing in a bank branch to do that.

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dfinzer
Are you referring to getting accepted into the beta or completing all the
various forms for your company? I've been accepted to the beta, and the
landing page says:

"After you submit the application, we will send you the documents to review
and sign within a day or two. Your company and bank account will generally be
set up within a week of submitting the signed documents."

I have yet to submit my forms, but I was under the impression the process
would be relatively quick.

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laurencei
Sorry - I meant "getting accepted". How long was it between applying, and
getting accepted?

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dfinzer
I was accepted into the beta a little over a month after I applied.

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video-host
Still waiting...

