Hello Rodinhooders !
First of all, I’d like to thank the community for the valuable advice on my earlier post. It gave me the confidence to go ahead with the deal – we have closed it now.
I have another relevant question which I’ve been putting off for far too long : where to incorporate my company.
When we started off, we did not want to incorporate in Sri Lanka, as obtaining funding would be a problem (when I visited India for Seedcamp Mumbai, the questions I asked from the VCs there confirmed this).
We considered incorporating in the USA and UK too, but then again the cost of doing so seemed to be a bit high at that time. We did not want to do a budget type of incorporation, i.e. a $300 Delaware LLC, as being cheap on legal matters tends to backfire later, in my experience.
Later on, we decided that we’d just launch the product and have all assets in my name. My team has worked together for 8+ years now and we have a strong bond of trust and friendship.
But now, circumstances are forcing my hand – I just have to incorporate now.
As our client base is mostly in the United States, I was considering incorporating in the USA – possibly as a Delaware LLC or C-Corporation. My problem is that the USA is geographically a bit far away and the tax rates are relatively high.
I’ve also considered incorporating in Dubai and Singapore – which have favorable tax regimes. But my worry is that doing so might impact my ability to obtain future angel / VC funding. I also have a concern that doing so might affect our ability to sell the company in the future or at least impact the selling price.
I would very much welcome advice from the community about this.