I'd say this is a heavy form of premature optimization

So I would disagree and say form a company as a liability shield. It’s cheap and quick in the uk and us

Thanks for the offer! I think I’m gonna stick to the UK for this one

UK companies are quick and cheap to set up? That's interesting, I almost never hear of people incorporating there and assumed it would be arduous.

Very. You fill out a 5 minute form, pay £12 and the company is ready to go within 24 hours max.

That's awesome

i second that but US companies are #1 just due to compatibility with payment processors & all sorts of software

ogoqqrja I agree with zqsjtkyomy - you’re dealing with servers and infrastructure. It would be utterly foolish to run without liability protection. If your service gets hacked, for example, and exposes a ton of production servers or customer info, what then?

pwemu thanks for your thoughts

anyone can advise a good broker for setting up a Belize company & Bank account?

Yes, 19% corporation tax on worldwide net profits

gkrpgcbwz I'm chatting with a guy who specializes in this stuff on Monday. I can report back after I make sure he's up to snuff

mpmjhkocvc that would be super helpful

Can anybody recommend a lawyer to ask advice about publishing and editorial issues?

US? Check our Phil Weiss out of New York. I’ve used his for 2 of my companies.

ooooooooooooh.... pablo escobar in the flesh!

Thanks Brad, this folk you mean right? philweisslaw.com/

That's right. And I was silenced by the bot for 24 hours for trying to post this info.

Nope for something else :)

What then?

anyone using EPayments system?
They announced suspension of all accounts today. Wonder if it somehow related to Brexit 🤔

You can edit but Slack limits edit time to 5mins

Posted to one channel, then couldn’t delete. Would’ve great if there a bit more flexibility with these rules.

I need to have a form notarized (a US Mail form). I was googling where to find a notary public in Dubai and noticed this



Has anyone used an online notary?

Good friend of mine use to work there (#5 at the company) and he says the service is great, even though he got laid off due to cashflow. Recommend to use he says.

Thanks!

I've used them. Can confirm, easy to use

hey all. I'm curious if anyone knows more than nothing (as myself) about international patent and IP protections? Say, the client is in US, company is in Europe, is there any way to make US customer happy without having a subsidiary in the US?

You can spend a shitload on ip protection

Anyone has some experience with Schengen visa's? Asking for a friend, I don't need it myself.

\

Schengen visa is not for 90 days, validity is printed on the visa, I got Schengen visas for 15 and 30 days. Depends a lot on the nationality and visa history

Is there anyone in this channel who could help me understand a stock options agreement from an employer and possibly give me advice about it?

My general not helpful advice
1. Value it at 0, since that’s the most likely outcome, and if that’s not the case it’s all gravy
2. If it uses the word omnibus, you’re probably not going to to get it changed just for you

Haha ok, that's helpful actually. The salary offer is good enough, that I'm not worried about the stock options not being worth anything. I just don't want to be stupid/naive about taking advantage of the stock options as much as possible.

i am not a lawyer, but i guess the main things to check for are:
• when do you get them? if for example 4000 options vest quarterly over 4 years with a one year cliff, that means you get nothing for the first year, then 1000 and then 250 each quarter. related do they vest automatically in case of a qualifying event (ie acquisition? this would mean you get 4000 on day 2 if your company gets bought then)
• what's the current share price? if it's a publicly traded company this is easy, otherwise you can use the data from the last round of fundraising
• what is the strike price? you only make money if the share price goes above the strike price
• what is the expiration date? if the share price < strike price at this date, your options are worth 0
• what happens to your options if you leave the company? maybe you can exercise your vested options, mind you this costs $$$ and the shares you receive may end up being worth 0
• if you do end up winning to lottery ticket, don't forget you have to pay taxes

Is this a US company offering ISOs? Are you coming in as an early employee? For the latter, you should talk to a tax attorney.

Alright. I think I'm just going to count on them being worth nothing, since the offer is pretty good even without them. I don't really know how this works, but it seems like at some point after I start, the company would offer me the opportunity to buy shares at a preferred price. Does choosing not to buy any cause concern for the company?

Depends on the company but I think most likely not.

It does not matter. The option Pool will expire when you leave and go back into the company stock

kajywmhuu - assuming you want to exercise and might ever pay US taxes, please look into the 83(b) election and QSBS - both are time critical for you right now - you would file an 83(b) election if you plan on ever exercising (saves a lot in taxes in the short run) and you would ask for a letter from the company verifying their status as a qualified small business (can save millions in taxes if you hold for 5+ years).

also, please keep in mind that for a lot of silicon valley companies there exists a strong shadow secondary market for employees who can sell their shares through forward contracts / other derivatives. so the options are almost definitely not worth 0 unless you just hold them all to IPO (bad idea if you can avoid it). the strike price on your options will be the current “fair market value” according to the IRS, but that has nothing to do with how much you can sell the stock for on the secondary market for companies worth < $50M, it’ll be ~2-3x less than the preferred price (preferred price how much investors paid for special shares) in the last round, and for companies worth > $1b, it’ll be ~10-20% less than the preferred price (ballpark). the FMV tends to be 4-5x less than the preferred price so there’s almost always some arbitrage in exercising even if the company’s valuation does not increase.

happy to answer more specific questions since i’ve some personal experience here

Can anyone point me in the right direction on how to find out legalities and/or liabilites of working for a US company while traveling and working abroad?

Probably you’ll need to clarify if you’re a US resident/citizen or not, where your residency is and whether you’d be an actual employee versus independent contractor.

The US won’t care, but you may run afoul of local labor laws, but the question becomes whether anybody would ever find out.

So yesterday a company fired me on my first day of work for setting an "away from desk" Slack status... I had turned down a freelance opportunity that paid $4000/wk to take this job, and that opportunity may be permanently lost now. I feel that I've been injured and experienced a significant loss, but is there anything I can do about that? I had an "at-will" employment with this company that explicitly stated that either party could terminate the agreement at any time with or without cause. It's a shitty agreement, but pretty much the norm in the US. Just trying to figure out if there's any way to recover my losses here or if I should just focus my energy on finding a new job.

Name and shame

Talk to an employment attorney. At Will doesn’t mean they can’t ignore employment laws.

That was my gut feeling xxrogeusutrcg but I don't know if it's worth the time and money to pursue. I also don't really know how to find an employment attorney.

Worth a quick call to a few attorneys. I would look in the city where the company is located.

Does the US have some sort of labor board help line? In Canada we have a number you can call for free and ask questions about employment laws and get advice before contacting a lawyer.

Wow what a bunch of assholes

That's insane. Definetly invest some time to check if it's legal. Some social media shaming sounds appropriate too.

I’m not sure what kind of labor law they would have broken though, especially in the USA.

In eu it would be illegal. Or at minimum 1 month of work with 1 to 3 month salary severance.

Fired without cause?

You can fire ppl w/out cause in the great land of capitalism.

Yeah, US labor laws are shit in that sense

damn this sounds ridiculous

Sounds incredibly harsh. Almost feels like some other reason. Finding people is time consuming, and you don't just kick them after a single day.
Personally, I wouldn't bother pursuing it. You're unlikely to have any success, although it depends on which state they're located in. Each state has different labor laws.

Companies are dumping employees right now to conserve cash. Might just be a casualty of that, and them not wanting to worry existing employees

Anybody know a good trademark lawyer in the U.S.? A company has a trademark of the word “kudos” claim that my usage of the word in my app named “KudosBot” violates their trademarks. Mostly want to know what my options are.

Where have they trademarked the term and for what areas of business

i’m still new so i can’t post links but their company name is kudos, inc

I’m sorry I don’t have a lawyer recommendation. But from my past experiences I’d recommend researching this company thoroughly to understand their business. And also research their trademarks. Their trademark should only apply to certain products/areas of businesses. This information will be helpful when speaking with a lawyer

Thanks, unfortunately I paid $3k for my domain which is kudosbot^com :neutral_face:. I don’t think I’ll have the resources to go to court and fight them on this. They’ve raised $5mil and are operating mostly with enterprise contracts

I'm not a legal expert at all, but from what I remember, if you're not a competitor and there's no reasonable way someone could either confuse your business with theirs or mistake your product for being affiliated with them, you shouldn't have to worry too much. But definitely at least speak to a lawyer.

So in this case I am a direct competitor

Ah well, that might be more of an issue then.

they could also go after your domain. Would be a simple fight in a UDRP proceeding to take it from you.

Ok thanks guys. I'll probably just rename in that case 😑