Which state to file my LLC?
I am not yet at the stage of forming an LLC, but my goal is to do so, so that I can create products with different DBAs. For example, I just listened to the park.io interview and noticed that they are a product under humbly llc. I was thinking of this sort of approach. Anyways, I always hear Delaware as a good option but wanted to know what the rest of the Indie Hacker community has done, once they have decided to pursue their business idea? And do you use something like Legal Zoom to do so?
I’d just spin up an LLC in your local state. The filing fee should be cheap.
If you have a lawyer friend in your network see if you can get them to give you a boilerplate operating agreement. Otherwise find one that is ok online. Docracy has open source legal docs.
digicontracts.com is a $300 Service that gets you popular SaaS contracts.
This is all for a pre traction single member LLC. If you decide to add partners or start getting traction at that point get your operating agreement reviewed and updated to make sure you and the company are protected.
Optimizing which state your LLC is in as an indie hacker or self funded software venture I feel is a premature optimization.
Hey Harry,
Thanks so much for responding to my post! I appreciate your answer and could not agree more that worrying about automating business structures is not an important thing to worry about in the early stages. I guess I am just kind of a think-ahead type of person so I like to ask these questions before I even get to these types of points.
Best,
Colin
No worries at all! You need to definitely learn about the legal side of things at some point.
Just don’t let it happen at the expense of getting into the market.
The three states I hear about most for LLC formation are Delaware, Nevada, and Wyoming. Delaware is often favored because of its favorable laws and its Chancery Court, a court which solely adjudicates business matters.
Like most people in the YC orbit I’ve heard a great deal about Stripe’s Atlas product which, as I understand it, dramatically streamlined the LLC formation process at a reasonable cost ($500).
I’m actually signing up for Atlas for my own side project. Check it out: stripe.com/atlas.
Hey Eric,
Thanks so much for responding to my post! I think I will definitely be considering Stripe Atlas once I am ready to legally launch my business.
Best,
Colin
I'm about to pull the trigger on Stripe Atlas for my project, Tribe of Five (www.tribefive.me for reference).
They seem to be most specific / targeted for software based companies. They also have lots of good guides that I've spent time reading.
Cheers,
Jonathan
Hey Jonathan,
Thank you so much for this tip! This looks like an amazing tool to use when I am ready.
Best,
Colin
I have not used Stripe Atlas but I am a huge fan of Stripe and anything they do. I have done this similar thing and formed an LLC early because of protections it makes. I opted to go a different route and used delawareinc.com and they had taken payment, processed my documents and sent me back telling me it was successful all in 3 business days.
Hey Josh,
Thanks for responding to my post and sharing that resource, I really appreciate it. Good luck with Merched :)
Thanks Colin!