Set up LTD company in UK or no?

[brockharper]

Currently working an ai product that will aid in development, research and monitoring of AI.

I have got a few researchers/PhDs from my university interested and they want to try it when I get it complete. I will most likely be able to get a decent ammount of PhD students from a few top ranking uni's to try it (from my network). I will let them try it for free and get feedback.

Issue is, if I want to sell to businesses, I need to set up a limited company here in the UK. And YC don't fund LTD companies (w.o going thru making another one in america then declaring the UK one as a subsidary, they seem to heavily advised against this in their website)

Would saying I got "x" number of companies interested, and "y" number of researchers using the product, but zero revenue , be deterimental. Is the fact I havent incorperated justifyiable??

Its fundamentally very tricky, since being situated in SF & incorperted in the US opens up wayyy more potential customers and businesses interested, plus having a YC branding is a major bonus. Sure I can get VCs in the UK interested but the market is so much better in the states, just being the states would massively increse the chance of success.

 

[nickolasss]

@brockharper On my first SaaS I did all the sales through my company in the EU, once it came the time I transitioned everything to a US company, no subsidiary needed.

Stripe literally transferred all the clients from one account to the other.

I had a UK LTD it's pretty simple to run, you're not required to declare salary and you just pay corporation tax on profits at end of the accounting year but if you set up your US company before then, you can invoice the UK company for the amount and transfer the money, leaving the UK company with almost no profit.

You can then stop trading with the UK company and 3 months after you stop trading you deliver the tax return, pay taxes due to HMRC and apply to strike down the company. It's super simple just filling in a form... then few months later the company is gone, assuming of course you don't owe money to anyone. =)

 

[brockharper]

@nickolasss Great idea!! Are there any issues that may occur when transferring money from UK company to the US, i.e will I have to pay any extra taxes or fees?

 

[nickolasss]

@brockharper No issues it's just a bank transfer, very basic everyday operation.

Fees you pay to the bank, which is whatever fees they charge to send GBP to a foreign country.

It's probably best to send in GBP and let the receiving US bank convert to USD automatically as you will get a better rate than you'd get if it was converted in UK to USD.