Easy Ways to Incorporate in Delaware

A prospective founder recently came to me to ask about how to incorporate her company in Delaware. She was thinking of using a lawyer. I don’t know what a lawyer would charge for that, but I’m sure it’s more expensive than the many alternatives out there. Here are four very easy ways to inc yourself:

• Gust Launch ($500)

• Stripe Atlas ($300)

• Delaware.inc (starting at $179, they can also be your registered agent)

• You can also do it yourself (I did!) instructions here.

P.S. Wondering why or whether you should incorporate in Delaware? If you are planning to raise money from VCs at any point, or join a start-up accelerator, they will require you to be a Delaware C-corp, so you may as well just do it now. (One reason you need to be a C-Corp is that VCs receive funds from pensions or universities and those entities are tax-exempt and cannot receive “unrelated business taxable income” which is what an LLC produces. Here are some other reasons why.)