Stripe is best known for providing payments infrastructure that allows startups to quickly get their checkouts up and running. But the company thinks about its mission more broadly: helping startups officially open for business, with all the minutia and legal paperwork that entails. Today Stripe took another step toward its long-term vision by making it possible for founding teams to issue stock through Stripe Atlas, an incorporation toolkit.
“Issuing stock is often a vital part of starting a company and tricky to get right,” Alex Kehayias, the company’s engineering manager, wrote in a blog post.
It’s also expensive, typically requiring a hefty legal fee. Founding teams that use Stripe Atlas will pay just $500, a one-time fee that covers both stock issuance and a variety of other incorporation functions, like opening a bank account and creating a tax ID.
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