Curated access to startup lawyers and accountants
Hello hackers,
After reading about founders' experience with lawyers and accountants I noticed many regret not hiring the accountants and lawyers earlier, eg. if the founders knew what services were available they could've grown their business faster. Common faux-pas include failure to form a legal entity or forming the wrong type, insufficient book-keeping, and lack of written contracts.
I'm working on a curated community of startup lawyers and accountants to help up-and-coming entrepreneurs. Comment here and I'll add you to the initial launch.
It is true. Many people try to save some money, so they don't hire professional accountants or lawyers and do their work by themselves. Sometimes it can create bigger problems in the future if the person doesn't do it correctly. It is why I am always using the help of a law consultant from https://www.hg.org/legal-articles/did-you-receive-a-pharmacy-audit-61380 whenever I have some plans for the future related to my business because I want to do everything correctly and not to have any problems in the future.
Sounds interesting, add me
I had a raft of questions/observations/thoughts (even longer than the below) on this but will keep it relatively simple for now. Been thinking about this as I navigate some challenges here, albeit as a solopreneur with a service business serving clients (potentially) on a global basis—rather than a startup building a software product.
— I think this could be very helpful, but do wonder if the lack of investment here on a founder's part tends to be a function of perceived cost and perceived risk. You say "regret", is that "regret" really about it holding them back on growth or did something happen where it completely derailed their business. Or is it a timing thing? Would knowing accountants and lawyers provide many services change the timing? Or is it a case of after the fact (after actually growing their business that they go "oh yeah, if I were to do it again, I would have forked out $$$ sooner", but then in reality, if they were to start another venture with no cash and high uncertainty on market need that they would wait until they got traction and cashflow before investing heavily in such services? I'm having a hard time with the "it's a lack of awareness problem" and suspect it's more to do with how much debt they are comfortable with / how much cash they have. I could be way off the mark here but curious about the leap from "earlier" to "lack of knowledge" in your post.
— Is this curation designed to be additive or is it meant to be a replacement for hiring an accountant or legal expert? (I'm using the term legal expert there deliberately as I have got a follow on question next)
— Will this be focused on a particular geographic market?
— Is it an actual community or a mini marketplace or both? Or is it just a list of people in various categories? If it's a community would a founder be paying to join, if so what could they expect? Do they get to post questions that lawyers and accountants would answer? It reminds me of some subreddits and other forums Im part of where such experts happen to hang out. Albeit the other forums I mention are local to the country Im living in and trading from.
— When you say founders, in this context do you mean Indie Hackers specifically? I assume so given that list of common faux-pas. I have my own theory on why they fall victim to them. In part, I think it's a conscious decision on timing rather than a "I wasn't aware I could hire someone to do it for me". Some of the things you list seem to be conscious decisions i.e. not poorly drafted contracts but none at all. I suspect the regret is more about the timing and that the second time around the founder would make similar decisions, but adjust the timing or change the decision based on the risk or the level of certainty they have about generating cash flow. Or if they had personal cash reserves then their decisions might look different.
Hello @lynnastyie,
Thanks for the detailed comment.
On "regret": I'm a mentor at SCORE and one of my clients has run into issues with the law, he has not incorporated and is not defined as a non-profit either, so it's a tricky situation. It would have been better to incorporate as incorporation to separate personal from business liability.
I don't have pricing yet.
Please elucidate on "list of common faux-pas," I wasn't aware that founders and Indie-hackers were separate categories.
Got you @badaboot. I was thinking that the need you described sounds more like mentor need, but perhaps earlier in their journey. You could add to that list insurance!
Wondering here how someone who's likely to end up in this situation would even know to seek out such a curated community if they were not thinking about legal, accounting and tax matters in the first place—assuming it's tax complications that's the case here.
Of course, you also have the same challenge with knowing such mentors can be sought out. But does someone like this not Google things like setting up an business or tax stuff (if a side project). To be fair, I can see how a side project could take off and then someone finds themselves in a tricky spot. But would be surprised if someone had left their job and started a business without getting things in order, —either by incorporating or declaring themselves as a sole proprietorship.
Re founders: What I meant there was founders in general or specifically those that are part of the IH community. And I guess I was thinking founders there could also mean those on the cusp of raising capital, but would find it strange if anyone thinking about going on that path wasn't making conscious choices when it comes to incorporation decisions etc.