Ask HN: What company for EU based startup
Our plan is to build the MVP, show that there’s interest in the product, and then pitch to VCs to get funded. For the time being, the company doesn’t have any real operations other than the two of us building it on the side. We are looking for the best option in terms of costs now and we are trying to avoid legal headaches later on.
Coming from Germany, our natural choice for the company would be a GmbH or UG but that’s not very attractive for US VCs. We can’t really estimate how much of a hassle it is to convert this to a C Corp later on. Has anyone here ever done that?
Starting with a Delaware based C Corp would put us both in uncharted territory. We would need experts for basically everything. Which would make it quite costly. We can’t really estimate how much this would cost us per year. Looking at Stripe Atlas, it’s $500 initially + around $3000 (including legal fees) yearly to run the company.
Another choice would be a UK based Limited. Easy to set up and relatively cheap to run. But here, again, no idea how easy it is to convert it into a C corp later on.
Any ideas, recommendations greatly appreciated