From Seed to Business: How We Formed provide.io LLC, and Got a Business Bank Account, in Less Than a Day
Table Of Contents
Disclaimer
Introduction
Hi there! I’m Tim, and I had provide.llc setup in less than a day!
Granted, I’ve setup Limited Liability Companies before, I was prepared to do this, and between the filing fee, and the other details worked through to set this up, it hasn’t exactly cost $0.
Also, I’ve created some templates that have helped me dramatically speed up the legal entity provisioning process. I’ve done this before.
It’s really pretty easy to start a business…
The other operational details though…
Those can still be pretty complicated.
There was no Limited Liability Company (LLC) legal entity (business) called “provide.io llc ” on 2024-03-13.
By the end of 2024-03-14, not only did provide.io llc exist, we had the Articles of Organization , we had an Employer Identification Number(EIN) , and we had a business banking account open with Mercury .
Info
That I’m able to do this is one of the key elements that you must recognize as provide.io is formed.
Researching, and unearthing potential process improvements and streamlining. Embracing agility in forming, and organizational information management, before it becomes a pain in the ass.
I think there’s something about seeing, or hearing, or feeling, something with tea leaves that we’re working through.
🧐 provide.io is prioritizing a continuous, proactive alignment of culture, criteria, and objectives over the reactive resolution of clashes in culture, values, and goals after they have arisen. 🤔
ChatGPT
The fast setup of a legal business in under 24 hours is crucial to provide.io’s success. This ability proves that our Integrated Cooperative Network (ICN) is not just possible, but it’s also practical and efficient. At the heart of provide.io and the ICN’s strategy is our skill to quickly create a full business using a straightforward template and the involvement of member owners. This method makes starting new ventures quicker and gives the ICN a strong, flexible base for growth.
How We Did It
I’d like to stress, again, that I’m not a lawyer .
I’ve intentionally kept the How-To shared in this post vague. My thinking is that if you want do this then you need to do some very important research.
Prepare the Things
I had a lot of things setup, and information ready, prior to doing this.
Information Technology
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Registered domains - provide.io, provideio.com, and much more.
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Setup the core technical infrastructure - Google Workspace, Jira, Cloudflare, Web Analytics, etc.
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Troubleshooting skills for when I inevitably fuck something up. Stupid typos.
Legal Entity Formation - Business Creation
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Know about an Operating Agreement. It wasn’t written though… but, for provide.io, I wanted it to be stupid simple. Since… I’m not a lawyer. I’m just trying to find one, or some, to help!
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Know how, and what information is required, to file the paperwork with the Oregon Secretary of State . And what information was going to be required.
File the Paperwork
Around midnight. Because I knew that:
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Oregon is fast at filing and providing the Articles of Organizations within a day.
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Other states provide different protections. Such as Delware . I’m going for speed here though. Do your diligence here. It is very important to know the advantages/risks involved with starting a business in your location.
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What’s done can be undone. Contrary to what Shakespear thinks. He doesn’t live in 2024.
Wait for Oregon
Waiting is the hardest part. But, I had the Articles of Organization PDF land in my inbox at 14:34.
File for EIN
I immediately filed for an EIN after I had the Articles of Corporation. It is free. Even though I am not a lawyer, I would highly recommend you do just a little research before paying anyone to do this for you.
It took me 5 minutes.
Open the Bank Account
With the Articles of Organization in hand, and a fresh EIN, I was now ready to open a business bank account.
You’d think this would be difficult.
It is not.
At all.
There are now business banking options that are wholly online. You apply online, fund it online, and use it online. I’ve accounts for each of the following:
I’ve never needed to accept cash. I have no clue how that works with any of the banks above.
The Novo, Found, and Mercury links are referral links.
Why Mercury?
Even though I have accounts with Novo, Found, and Bluevine, and I can create a new account with any of those banks easily enough, because we have already formed a relationship, I wanted to do something different with provide.io.
And Mercury was the only bank that supported what I wanted - which is to make it easy to programmatically fetch account, and transaction, details.
I’m making an effort to build provide.io in the open. This includes funding, for now.
Once the leadership team is formed, and the strategy is deemed viable, then the financial disclosures will very likely become dramatically less detailed.
To the public - not to contributors, donators, investors, and people directly involved in setting up the Cells required to test provide.io’s polycentric governance strategy.
None of those other banks have Application Programming Interfaces (API) that I can use to scrape the account balances/transaction details.
Having an API available will allow us to update the provide.io site with accurate financial information without me having to do all this stuff manually. Eventually, the financial, and governance, will reside on provide.coop (depending a couple of things),
Setup Stripe
Not on the same day, but about a week later,. I setup Stripe. Mostly so we can use their Identity Verification service.
We’re forming a team - from stranger to strategy, and we need to make sure we are who we say we are.
Having Stripe setup will also us to more expeditiously take donations, and (potential) investments.
That’s all still in the works though. 🤔