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Comment by kirsty | Hacker News Reader

Applying to YC as a non-DE company does not reduce your chances of being interviewed or accepted. However for us to be able to invest in so many companies in such a short time frame, we do require you to convert to a DE C-Corp if we agree to fund you. I'll help you with that though, if the time comes!

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Kirsty ~ Do you allow your startups to execute the formation/conversion documents with electronic signature services like HelloSign & Echosign or do you require actual hard signatures?

We try to do everything through e-signatures - less chances of PDFs getting lost than bits of paper. And of course at all opportunities I tell founders to use Hellosign :-)

The only document that is wet signed is the 83(b) election that is sent to the IRS since they not sure yet about e-signatures.

It seem strange that you should select Delaware as your standard, given that you require your companies to be in California -- incorporating in Delaware is dishonest when you are not actually there.

Incorporating in Delaware is standard practice for any US corporation. Not only are there tax and legal advantages, but since everyone else incorporates in Delaware, Delaware case law is extraordinarily mature, so legal risks are minimized. It may seem dishonest to the uninitiated, but the people who specialize in such things are well aware of Delaware.

Companies can incorporate wherever works for them ie Delaware. If they are actually doing business in CA then they register as a foreign entity with CA (Foreign because they incorporated in DE) so there is nothing dishonest about it.

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