I'm a non-US founder. I spent $200 to register a US company so I could take Stripe payments. Now I'm turning that into a product.
I'm a non-US founder. I spent $200 to register a US company so I could take Stripe payments. Now I'm turning that into a product.
Six months ago I was just another indie hacker in Asia, trying to sell a SaaS to US customers.
Then Stripe blocked my account. No explanation. No appeal. Just "your account has been closed."
Then OpenAI banned my API access. Same story.
I realized the problem wasn't my product. It was my identity. I was a ghost in their system — no SSN, no US address, no US bank account.
So I did what any stubborn indie hacker would do: I figured it out.
What I did:
• Registered a Wyoming LLC — $200, took 1 week
• Got an EIN by faxing the IRS — free, took 2 weeks
• Opened a Mercury bank account — free, took 5 days
• Connected Stripe — approved instantly
What changed:
• Stripe hasn't blocked me since
• I built a World Cup-themed tool and made $3,000 in a month
• OpenAI/Claude — never banned again
• When I email support, actual humans reply. In hours. Not bots.
The craziest part? The whole thing costs $200/year to maintain.
So I turned this into TopStartNow — a service that handles the entire process for other non-US indie hackers. LLC registration, EIN, bank account setup, compliance reminders. All of it.
My MRR right now: just getting started. First paying customers from Reddit and word of mouth.
What I'm trying to figure out next:
• Best channels to reach non-US indie hackers who need this
• Whether to focus on Asia, Europe, or both
• How to make annual compliance feel like a feature, not a tax
If you're a non-US founder who's been through this — what was the hardest part for you?
Or if you've been putting off forming a US entity — what's stopping you?
Yeah I am the one who is also almost complete the project and want to sell to US users but myself a non-US founder and want to activate stripe payment it requires LLC so want to be in link with you for help.
As a non-US founder selling into the US, the $200 was never the blocker. What stops people is the fear of missing a filing nobody warned them about — the $25k Form 5472 surprise you described is exactly that. If TopStartNow's compliance side turns "the thing you didn't know existed" into a dated reminder before it's due, that's the part people pay to stop worrying about, more than the registration itself.
The interesting insight isn't LLC formation—it's removing the trust barrier non-US founders face when selling globally. I'd keep validating whether customers are buying incorporation services or confidence that they can operate internationally without payment and platform friction.
The $200/year is not really the feature; predictable access is. I'd package compliance as a calendar plus evidence vault: annual report, registered-agent renewal, KYC changes, and a human check 30 days before each deadline. For reach, pick one corridor first and document its exact bank and Stripe edge cases. Which compliance step generated the most questions from your first customers?
This is gold. "Predictable access" is exactly the right framing — I've been struggling to articulate that and you just nailed it.
The calendar + evidence vault idea is going straight into the roadmap. Especially the human check 30 days out. Most founders don't even know what they don't know until the penalty email shows up.
On the corridor question — you're right, I should pick one first. I'm leaning toward Asia → US since that's where my first customers are coming from and I've personally been through every edge case there (Stripe's region checks on Asian IPs, Mercury's address verification for non-Latin scripts, etc.).
As for which compliance step gets the most questions: hands down, Form 5472. It's the one nobody knows about going in. People Google "register US LLC," they find the $200 number, they do it, they feel great. Then months later someone mentions a $25,000 penalty for not filing a form they've never heard of. That's the moment they reach out.
Second place is BOI reporting — even though enforcement got paused, the confusion around it is massive.
What corridor are you operating in? Would love to hear if you've run into similar patterns.
I don't operate a company-formation corridor, so I can't offer firsthand edge cases. From what you've shared, Asia -> US is still the defensible first wedge: it already contains your first customers, non-Latin address checks, and the Form 5472 surprise. I'd make that corridor explicit before adding another geography.