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Comment by mrkurt | Hacker News Reader

This is awesome. For anyone who's starting a company, Clerky is by far the best way to do all the legal legwork. I've used a number of companies to try to save time (including Stripe Atlas, which is kind of a disaster) and wish I'd just done everything through Clerky.

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Curious - what's a disaster about Stripe Atlas? I would have considered going down that route if I was to start a company

Well, they screwed up filing docs for a friend of mine, we haven't gotten an EIN after a month, and the bank account with SVB is really limited (SVB won't do a credit card for those accounts, for example).

I used them primarily to get the bank account with minimal fuss and now I'm regretting it. :)

I wondered how SVB was getting around the know-your-customer regulations. It appears they aren't :(

Would you mind sending me an email (my HN username @stripe.com)? I work on Atlas and I'd be happy to look into what went wrong and what we can do to fix things.

Patrick how is SVB getting around the KYC regulations? It seems impossible for any bank following the regulations for non-US resident founders to open a US business bank account.

SVB and Stripe are complying with all of our legal obligations. You'll forgive me if I generally abstain from more detailed commentary on internal operations of my employer.

I do not believe your understanding of the regulations to be accurate. Are you of the opinion that it is impossible for e.g. Toyota to have a US bank account? No, of course not. That would be crazy. So if the mental model has a Toyota-shaped hole, what other holes does it have?

I only speak from my personal experience. In the past (pre 2001) it was possible to set up a business bank account in the USA if you weren't a US resident (I opened one back in 2000 which I now wish I didn't close in 2005). I tried again in 2012 and it proved impossible due to the changes in the KYC regulations. If SVB and Stripe have figured out how to get around the KYC regulations I wish they would share their knowledge with the greater startup community.

I am sure Toyota opened their accounts pre-2001 so I am not sure they are the best example.

Toyota also has legal subsidiaries in most major jurisdictions.

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