> With all that said, it remains incredibly tough to set up business in the US. Even with the US funding behind us, and an American co-founder, options are surprisingly slim as the usual work visa – H1-B – is not suited for companies that are just starting out or for founders who have major stakes in the company. It doesn’t matter how many jobs you do or promise to create, the options are surprisingly limited.
One gloomy forecast, this.
Can anyone who's gone through the motions of starting a company in the US as a EU citizen share their experience?
We (UK-based, with 2 UK founders) created a US subsidiary with relatively little work - at least compared to the work of actually growing a US part of our business.
We initially created an LLC (Distilled LLC) that was wholly controlled by the UK limited company (Distilled Ltd). We have just recently changed that to a UK holding company that owns the UK trading company and changed the LLC to a wholly-owned US corporation.
So we now have Distilled Group Ltd owning Distilled Ltd and Distilled US Inc. (we weren't allowed Distilled Inc. because of potential confusion with Distilled LLC).
I wasn't personally involved with the paperwork / legal hurdles but I believe the company creation stuff has all been pretty straight-forward - certainly compared to visas for the (2, non-founder) UK employees we sent to the US. They haven't been too troublesome, but they certainly could have been and they did cost us money (in advice).
Sidenote for anyone considering this slightly convoluted process - if you have an EMI options scheme in the UK, you need the US subsidiary to be a corporation as it must have shares (the parent must own "all the shares" (or some such language) in all subsidiaries to qualify for EMI tax protection).
I'm also British, and found YC invaluable setting up in the US. Kirsty Nathoo, one of the YC team, proved very helpful with her knowledge of both UK and US accounting norms.
Remember that for anyone wanting to apply for funding to Y Combinator that we only invest in US corporations (registered in Delaware), which means that the parent company will need to be a US company. So if you're thinking about applying you probably should hold off on any type of incorporation in the UK, until you know whether you'll be in Mountain View over the summer!
Great article. I run a British startup and we're thinking about doing business in the US at some point. Randomly I grabbed coffee with Amir this morning and just a few minutes from someone who's been through it was incredibly useful! Information sharing amongst startups needs to happen more!
I went to college with Amir and also caught up with him while he was in London. I'm one of the founders of www.distilled.net - we have a US subsidiary (see comment elsewhere on this page) - let me know if you have any questions I can help with.
[+] [-] antonp|14 years ago|reply
One gloomy forecast, this.
Can anyone who's gone through the motions of starting a company in the US as a EU citizen share their experience?
[+] [-] will_critchlow|14 years ago|reply
We initially created an LLC (Distilled LLC) that was wholly controlled by the UK limited company (Distilled Ltd). We have just recently changed that to a UK holding company that owns the UK trading company and changed the LLC to a wholly-owned US corporation.
So we now have Distilled Group Ltd owning Distilled Ltd and Distilled US Inc. (we weren't allowed Distilled Inc. because of potential confusion with Distilled LLC).
I wasn't personally involved with the paperwork / legal hurdles but I believe the company creation stuff has all been pretty straight-forward - certainly compared to visas for the (2, non-founder) UK employees we sent to the US. They haven't been too troublesome, but they certainly could have been and they did cost us money (in advice).
Sidenote for anyone considering this slightly convoluted process - if you have an EMI options scheme in the UK, you need the US subsidiary to be a corporation as it must have shares (the parent must own "all the shares" (or some such language) in all subsidiaries to qualify for EMI tax protection).
[+] [-] niccolop|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kirsty|14 years ago|reply
Remember that for anyone wanting to apply for funding to Y Combinator that we only invest in US corporations (registered in Delaware), which means that the parent company will need to be a US company. So if you're thinking about applying you probably should hold off on any type of incorporation in the UK, until you know whether you'll be in Mountain View over the summer!
[+] [-] leoncrutchley|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] will_critchlow|14 years ago|reply