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Ask HN: Setting up a US topco with a UK subco

by tomerds on 11/29/22, 1:52 PM with 4 comments

Hi,

My co-founder and I are currently raising a pre-seed from EF who can invest in either US or UK companies with ease. We need to set up our company in order to create a bank account to receive the funding within the next couple of weeks. We are citizens from the US and UK respectively.

Ideally we want to set up as a US topco as we suspect our seed (plan to close in April) will come from the US due to our network and industry (web3). However in order to employee myself (UK) longterm we want to set up a UK subco.

Is there any advice out there from seasoned entrepreneurs who may have gone through something similar?

Note: we will be operating remotely

  • by e1g on 11/29/22, 4:08 PM

    90% of US-based Seed-level investors will not invest in a foreign entity. 90% of investors also will consider a complex corporate setup (at pre-seed) to be a big red flag - questions of IP residency, financial/taxation obstacles, lack of alignment/prioritization among founders, etc. "U.S. only" is the right choice, especially after the crypto clown show of the last six months.

    There is no issue with a US entity employing a person in the UK - your citizenship is irrelevant.

  • by JumpCrisscross on 11/29/22, 1:54 PM

    U.S. only. Changing your legal structure for one person is a wild misallocation for a pre-seed start-up, and a stain not easily remedied down the road.

  • by seekingcharlie on 11/29/22, 10:27 PM

    You can have a US co and still employ yourself legally in the UK. Check out remote.com et al.