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I used to worry how incorporating is almost an inescapable need if you want to be taken seriously. Surely, you want a professional company label when a customer

I used to worry how incorporating is almost an inescapable need if you want to be taken seriously. Surely, you want a professional company label when a customer goes to bill his subscription. Right? Learning more, I have realised that you can either chose to build the right thing and try hard to get your first customer, or fuck around with these pointless tasks. It's possible some customer may balk at a one-person business but most find it perfectly acceptable and have zero-issues in buying from you.

dudul 9y ago
Thanks for the answer. I guess I'm not really wondering about the "being taken seriously" aspect. More when it comes to managing taxes and liability. A LLC would protect your personal assets in case something goes wrong with your product (let's say you leak the information of your 255 million users), but when is it worth it?
- shubhamjain 9y ago
  When you're starting out, you're full of optimism about your success. I was too. But when you get down to actually doing things, you start to realise how hard it is to get first few paying customers, let alone hundreds or thousands. I think it's fairly easy to start a LLC in US, so I am not dissuading you from incorporating one but do realise that it is one of those things that can be done later; and personally, I feel, if you don't have sure-shot path to growing revenue, should be done later. I don't think taxes and liability are much of an issue when you're small. I wasted ton of time in wondering about these things when I was making something just two years back, and eventually, I realised how less it would've mattered.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- shimon 9y ago
  Good point. You should probably incorporate once you hit, say, the 10 million user mark. ;)
shimon 9y ago
This. Getting real customers is so, so much more important than incorporating. Not only that, it's more important than building the full product. It's also hard, so hard that you should be doggedly single-minded about it. If you're concerned about taking money, just figure out how to get attention and have conversations with your target customers. When you notice your customers are getting frustrated that they can't give you money for this thing you have that they neeeeeeeeeeed, then do whatever they need to make it work.

dudul 9y ago

Thanks for the answer. I guess I'm not really wondering about the "being taken seriously" aspect. More when it comes to managing taxes and liability. A LLC would protect your personal assets in case something goes wrong with your product (let's say you leak the information of your 255 million users), but when is it worth it?

shubhamjain 9y ago
When you're starting out, you're full of optimism about your success. I was too. But when you get down to actually doing things, you start to realise how hard it is to get first few paying customers, let alone hundreds or thousands. I think it's fairly easy to start a LLC in US, so I am not dissuading you from incorporating one but do realise that it is one of those things that can be done later; and personally, I feel, if you don't have sure-shot path to growing revenue, should be done later. I don't think taxes and liability are much of an issue when you're small. I wasted ton of time in wondering about these things when I was making something just two years back, and eventually, I realised how less it would've mattered.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
shimon 9y ago
Good point. You should probably incorporate once you hit, say, the 10 million user mark. ;)

shimon 9y ago

This. Getting real customers is so, so much more important than incorporating. Not only that, it's more important than building the full product. It's also hard, so hard that you should be doggedly single-minded about it. If you're concerned about taking money, just figure out how to get attention and have conversations with your target customers. When you notice your customers are getting frustrated that they can't give you money for this thing you have that they neeeeeeeeeeed, then do whatever they need to make it work.