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Ask HN:Launch your product without being incorporated?
What are the pro's or con's of not incorporating before you launch your web/phone app to consumers?
Would you recommend against not being incorporated before launching?
- debacle 15y agoYou, personally, have full liability if your app burns the retinas of your users out. You also get slammed with taxes. It only costs ~500 to create an LLC in NYC, and it takes ~48 hours. I imagine it's less in almost every other state.
- SkyMarshal 15y agoYou might want to resubmit with your question in the subject line. Good question, but most people won't bother clicking and reading it b/c there's no subject.
- youngdev 15y agoFixed..Thanks
- calculus 15y agoLimited liability and credibility (people DO read legal mentions!)
- paulsutter 15y agoIf you are a team, incorporating is important to clarify ownership. You dont want to have to figure that out later, after you are successful. You can also do that with a document among the team. But don't wait too long. It's amazing how everyone's recollection of an oral agreement is sincerely completely different a few months or years down the road. If you are an individual, it's not that big of a deal either way. You can wait till you get traction to do it. If you hope to raise VC money some day, I'd suggest creating a delaware corporation and not an LLC. But it isnt that big of a deal either way. There are of course tax questions, liability concerns, etc. Talk to a professional (attorney, accountant) if you're not familiar with these.
- dctoedt 15y agoAn excellent discussion of the pros and cons, with useful comments from 'tptacek, is at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=359155 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=359155. Another one: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2925222 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2925222; see especially the comments by 'grellas and 'tptacek, as well as the discussion between the latter and 'idlewords.
- youngdev 15y agoThank, I'll go through both of the threads.
- tstegart 15y agoThe pros to not incorporating are to save money and hassle. Especially if you're bootstrapping an idea you're not sure of and you don't have a lot of cash. If you have no income or don't expect to have income for a while and your liability chances are low then its worth considering not incorporating. You can always use your first bit of income to incorporate 6 months down the road. I think people underestimate the amount of money needed to incorporate properly. Yeah, you can do it for $500, even less in some states, you just need to file a form. But what your LCC or corp agreement says actually does matter and it pays to do it right if you're going to do it at all.