Anybody incorporated with JumpstartFilings? (non-us citizen)
Hi! I'm getting close to the point where I need to start charging my customers for my recently launched SaaS web app. Most of them are on LA countries (I might get to the US latter maybe), where I not live. After studying different options, looks like charging via credit card and Stripe is the only feasible route as Paypal is too informal (B2B, ~ 12U$S monthly subscription).
Stripe is not available in my country, so l will need to create an LLC in the States to run my business (and mostly to get a bank account without traveling in person). Now, I know about Stripe Atlas, but looks like:
- Is not possible to incorportate into LLC (only C-Corp which are most expensive, also worth to mention I'm not planning to raise founds) as a non-US citizen.
- I can only choose Delaware, where Wyoming looks like it fits my needs better (I will be a solo-owner and I want to keep running costs low).
- Their only option is the Silicon Valley Bank, which is 25U$S a month.
Also, I've found jumpstartfilings(dot)com that looks very promising as I will be able to incorporate into a LLC and also choose Wyoming. They work with Mercury bank (only online) and claim that after opening my account I will be able to link it with Stripe.
But, I'm struggling to get reviews on them here or on reddit and, which is a bit suspicious for me. The only place where I've found reviews is www(dot)trustpilot(dot)com/review/tryjumpstart.co but not sure If I can trust it.
Any reviews will be highly appreciated!
Hey @bepragmatic!
We work with non-residents all the time :) If you need help filing the LLC/Corporation check out https://blook.io.
We provide similar services to Stripe Atlas.
Thanks @Pedro_M, yes I have blook.io under the radar also.
A few comments:
It is not clear in the website what is the fee to mantain the registered agent after the first year.
Do you provide the service to digital scan the received mails to the registered agent for us to be able to see on the dashboard?
Can you tell me what is the current situation regarding IRS not processing new EINs for corporations without a SSN (as the online form is not available for us)?
Of course :)
Feel free to hop on over to blook.io and use our live chat if you have any more questions!
They say on their website they're a Y Combinator Company, but they're not listed with YC https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/
Also, no info on the founders...
Even if they are legitimate, I'd proceed cautiously. They're one of many businesses in the US that provides legal forms, but you're not working with actual lawyers and won't receive any legal advice, which I promise is worth something. Check us out as an alternative: start.law
Congratulations on generating sales!
Hey I was reading about firstbase and Jumpstartfilings.
I noticed that jumpStartfilings does not have a terms of service and privacy page.
Make sure that before you sign-up for their services you get an update on those two.
@bepragmatic Hey - founder (Aldrin Clement) here @ Jumpstart Filings! You caught us a little earlier than we wanted to launch on Indie Hackers but no worries!
We are currently a S20 batch company - hence why were not listed - and would be happy to hop on a call to share more information.
Basically here's how our service works:
We have worked with a law firm to define our process and the documents for filing in all 50 states for the most common entity types (C Corporation, LLC, Nonprofit, etc) and have built a tech solution to make the process easier for folks like you. It's true we can't give you legal advice but we're good enough to get you going and can recommend some good counsel if you need.
We started out because one of our close relatives back home in India ran an IT consulting business and wanted a U.S. entity to handle payments similar to you and we did it manually for him and realized other folks need this too.
Also, I'll address the elephant in the room - Stripe Atlas. Basically, the reason folks use us over Atlas is two fold:
We offer more states and entity types (Delaware is good for venture startups but not many lifestyle businesses)
We handle ongoing compliance year over year at an affordable price (with Atlas you're on your own after the first year which doesn't work well for a lifestyle business)
Happy to discuss in detail any questions you have about our service. Just shoot me a DM and we'll get something scheduled.
I also wanted to address the question related to the IRS:
IRS fax lines have opened up and are now accepting international EIN applications. We believe the process will take longer than usual due to a large backlog from COVID-19 but things are moving (we’re slowly receiving the EINs we faxed).
Lastly, congrats on getting to a point where you're ready to start charging customers for your SaaS app - that's a big milestone!
~ AC
Hi Aldrin.
Glad you are here, I signed up for one of your package in June and till now, the process is yet to be completed.
Your support team are not professional and ignore after sales messages.
There have been lot of negative reviews on trustpilot about your company which raises alarm on your competency.
As for me, it is a worst decision to file my company with you.
If you are reading this, do not use this company.
Hey @mcode, apologies for not getting back to you earlier. We've been heads down working to close outstanding orders and respond to inquiries. Our entire team has been on deck making sure folks are taken care of. To provide some context, as you know, the IRS was closed from March until May and as a result this severely backlogged all applications from getting EINs (other similar services were noting an 8 week delay) which are required in order to file a bank account. Since they've opened up in July, we've re-processed all old applications (IRS lost around 22% of our applications) and are manually working to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
Regarding our support team, we've heard your concern and have bolstered up our team to handle inbound requests in 24-48 hours. Since doing that a few weeks ago, we've had no complaints from folks about slow responses. Again, while I know this doesn't make up for your negative experience with us, I encourage you to drop me an email at [email protected] with your company name and email used to file and I'll see what we can do for you (partial refund, free compliance, 50% off next years plan).
Hi @buzz_aldrin! We have processed the dissolution of our company since November and still isn't completed until today. The team is doing their best but they have given me all the runarounds to a point that we're stuck. We don't know what happened to the dissolution and are totally lost. I have sent you an email at aldrin@jumpstartfilings 2 times and yet to receive a reply.
It seems that your team hasn't done any dissolutions before and we're paying the price.
Googling them must have triggered their Facebook ad for me. In case you haven't seen it, here you go. Seems they created their page in October of 2019 and have over 2k followers.
https://www.facebook.com/tryjumpstart/?tn=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARAqyWr85TGIJSklsj2ZC5k3xq2hezTOhpacr8nGq_sM94p325PAMfUO6SK0DlWHsOrfvqbsHs0uClCk
Yes thanks, a tech friend of my saw an ad of them and send it to me. We were chating about stripe atlas at the time, which is the other option.
The big drawback of Stripe Atlas is that it doesn't allows non-US citizens to create an LLC ..
I have no information about JumpastartFilings (this is the first time I hear about them), but you may want to check out services like Paddle and Fastspring. With them, maybe you won't need a US LLC.
They basically act as a reseller between you and your customers, i.e. when a customers clicks BUY, they are redirected to Paddle/Fastspring page, they sell it for you via Stripe, PayPal (however you want), and then they pay you out however you want (or once a month or so, not sure...). They do this for a small fee per sale.
Here are the links:
https://fastspring.com/
https://paddle.com/
@petartod thanks for your reply, but my country is tax hell and also forces you to liquidate your external income in 5 days to local currency (which has 50+ inflation), at an under market rate! (yeah you have read that right).
So, incorporating into a LLC is an advantage here (at least if the product works).
Are you from Argentina? You should definitely use the LLC ;)
Yes, I am too. I've just followed u in twitter.
Hey, I've just read about First Base and thought about your issue. If you are not from Cuba or Venezuela, it should be easy I believe.
The link https://firstbase.io/en
The bank https://mercury.com/
Hey everybody, thanks so much for all the comments. They helped me navigate issues with JumpStart a lot.
I have registered in May, the application went smooth, company was registered, but the emails I got along the way were not very useful. But that was okay.
Until Mercury bank denied my application.
I reached out to JumpStart and they would not reply for days and days, and even when they did reply, you could see they did not ready what I wrote or what I asked.
Since I could not get hold of them, I decided to leave a review on Trustpilot. This is when they replied to me. And then they disputed my review by clainmiming I was not their customer. Long story short, my review is still there, but I got even more frustrated because somebody spent time on disputing my review instead of actually replying to me.
This is when I realised I need to change something, so I went out and I contacted as many lawyers as I possibly could. Explaining my issues.
The ONLY one that actually helped me was Maria from @Start_Law.
The service she provided me with is amazing. Phone calls, Terms of service and Privacy policy for our website. Communication with bank. Mails sent to my registered agent. And for only 99$.
Amazing value!
In 4 weeks we resolved banking issues, and Mercury accepted our application. Wo-hoo!
It was now time for us to check if our registered agent will get back to me with documents they receive. Weeks went by and nothing showed up in my JumpStart dashboard.
Again, I reached out to JumpStart, and I even eded up receiving litteraly following words “(insert reason here)”.
So, customer support experience is horrible with JumpStart, but they are doing a good job demistifying opening LLC or C-Type corp in USA.
What we actually need are reliable:
So far, I am extremely happy with @Start_Law, and will follow up with more information on points 2 & 3 once I figure out those.
Now, I don’t think JumpStart is a fake company doing funky stuff. But for now, they seem to be very unorganised.
Is https://businesslaunchhub(dot)com genuine? I saw reviews only on trust pilot. I want to get my business registered too. They claim to register in the UK
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This comment was deleted 4 years ago.