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- Do I need to document every single expense with invoices similar to vat?

Not at all.

- What kind of expenses I can write off to my business? Apartment, house, car lease?

This is determined by US tax law, not YC. Generally part of your rent can be expensed if you are working out of your house or apartment.

- What kind of salary to founders pay themselves?

Usually founders pay themselves initially a salary that is below market for what they could be making at an established company, but enough to live on. Once their company reaches a certain level of success, they raise their salary to a market level.

- Do you hire yourself at the company or only pay yourself dividends as a salary? That's a popular method in Poland for founders to lower their income tax

You hire yourself.

- What's a popular visa used for this? I am looking at L1 but I am not sure how the connection between companies is established

During YC most founders stay on a visitor visa. After YC, most founders choose to get an O1.

- How demanding are the investors? If growth is slower than expected are there problems?

Not from YC or from typical silicon valley seed investors.

They pay the investment into your company, you pay out what you need. They don't monitor expenses etc.

Visa wise most people I know travel on an ESTA (visa waiver, 3 months) or get a B1 if needing to stay for longer than 3 months.

After running a US/Europe/China based startup for 4-5 years I’d be happy to answer your questions for free (not on my phone though). Feel free to email me at my handle in google’s excellent email service and I’ll do my best when I’m back at the laptop.