The 175-180k figure for franchise tax is misleading. Our franchise tax as an early pre-revenue company was $450 dollars this year because of one of the methods of franchise tax calculation available.
The maximum is however $200k. I can believe that it may have been $180k in the past.
I’ve always been advised to open a company for the few times I’ve done it with an initial 10m shares for ease of investors and to more easily manage an employee options pool so I’ve never had a co that would qualify for the 175 method. The more you know