How do I form a startup?
FormationEIN83(b)Registered agentMulti-state
You form a startup by filing one document with a state: a certificate or articles of incorporation for a corporation, or a certificate of formation or articles of organization for an LLC. The state stamps it, the company exists from that moment, and then the real list begins. Every state offers both forms. Most companies planning to raise venture money choose a Delaware corporation, and most freelancers, studios and small businesses choose an LLC. The entity turns on who will own the company and how it will be taxed. The state, for a business that is not raising venture money, is usually the one you work from, because forming somewhere else means registering at home anyway.
Before you file
Pick the entity and the state, check the name on that state's business search, and name a registered agent with a street address in the state. The filing itself asks for little else: the name, the agent, the authorized shares of a corporation or the manager or members of an LLC, and a signature.
After the state approves it
Get the EIN from the IRS, which takes minutes online once the company is on file. Open a business bank account with the stamped filing and the EIN letter. Adopt the internal documents: for a corporation, bylaws, a consent naming the directors and officers, and stock issued to each founder, usually with vesting; for an LLC, an operating agreement. If a founder receives stock that vests, that founder files an 83(b) election within 30 days of the issuance. The IRS grants no extension on that one. Finally, if the company will have an office or employees in a state other than the one it formed in, it registers there as a foreign company and names a registered agent there as well.
Arabella files in all fifty states and DC. The Delaware corporation packet includes the bylaws, consents, founder stock agreements, invention assignments and 83(b) elections, signed in the app, and the flow asks whether you want the EIN filed and whether the company needs to register in another state.
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Written by the lawyers who built Arabella. This is legal information, not legal advice for your situation, and reading it does not make us your lawyers. For a real dispute or a high-stakes decision, talk to a licensed attorney. More questions.