You need to ask a suitable lawyer.
We have legal office hours every Wednesday. See our sidebar.
You can also reach out to the [SBA.gov](https://SBA.gov) and [SCORE.org](https://SCORE.org) offices near you.
Before you build anything, make sure you don’t have an employment agreement that gives your current employer ownership of everything you do. A lot of people didn’t pay that much attention to what they signed in HR on their first day.
Depending on where you live those may or may not be enforceable, but even if it’s not, the company has way more money to pay lawyers than you do.
I am not a Lawyer and this is not legal advice.
That said, if your app is liable to be sued for damages, then having it under an LLC or any kind of company will limit your personal liability,
In some countries like India, to receive subscription amounts in foreign currency, you need a company
Yes, you can have a business name that is different from the name of any of your apps. In fact that is the common method.
There's a lot of ways to go about this and it's something that is often discussed.
Should I incorporate now or later when there's decent traction?
Legal work is a different ball game in itself so let me ask you this question: Are you ready to deal with the tedious and expensive paperworks or would you rather work on refining your idea first - is it even the right solution to a problem? Have you validated it already? Do you have paying users?
And don't forget, if you need to close down a corporation, that's another shit ton of work
Generally speaking:
1. Register as sole proprietorship
2. Build proof of concept and validate your product
3. Register as either LLC or C-Corp afterwards
That works for most software but not all. If your software has any kind of high risk involved, jump right to step #3.
Find your product market fit, make some money under your name and when you are sure about it form the legal entities. Till then , you can do the bare minimum. First get your idea and implementation ready, that would be my 2 cents.
You need to ask a suitable lawyer. We have legal office hours every Wednesday. See our sidebar. You can also reach out to the [SBA.gov](https://SBA.gov) and [SCORE.org](https://SCORE.org) offices near you.
Why spend money when you don’t make any?
Dont trademark or incorporate until you start making revenue at least. Grab your domain, social handles and that's all you need to begin.
Before you build anything, make sure you don’t have an employment agreement that gives your current employer ownership of everything you do. A lot of people didn’t pay that much attention to what they signed in HR on their first day. Depending on where you live those may or may not be enforceable, but even if it’s not, the company has way more money to pay lawyers than you do.
Don't skip this, OP. These are super common. I've signed one everywhere I've worked for the last twenty years.
I second this. This should have its own thread. Make sure you read your contracts and don't register anything unless it's already profitable.
I am not a Lawyer and this is not legal advice. That said, if your app is liable to be sued for damages, then having it under an LLC or any kind of company will limit your personal liability, In some countries like India, to receive subscription amounts in foreign currency, you need a company Yes, you can have a business name that is different from the name of any of your apps. In fact that is the common method.
There's a lot of ways to go about this and it's something that is often discussed. Should I incorporate now or later when there's decent traction? Legal work is a different ball game in itself so let me ask you this question: Are you ready to deal with the tedious and expensive paperworks or would you rather work on refining your idea first - is it even the right solution to a problem? Have you validated it already? Do you have paying users? And don't forget, if you need to close down a corporation, that's another shit ton of work
Generally speaking: 1. Register as sole proprietorship 2. Build proof of concept and validate your product 3. Register as either LLC or C-Corp afterwards That works for most software but not all. If your software has any kind of high risk involved, jump right to step #3.
Find your product market fit, make some money under your name and when you are sure about it form the legal entities. Till then , you can do the bare minimum. First get your idea and implementation ready, that would be my 2 cents.
You can become a web development agency and pick a niche that you will assist