What Nobody Told Me About Starting a US Company as a European

Dear reader,

Having a US company as a Dutch founder sounds pretty cool, right?

But if there is one thing I've learned over the years, it's that opening a company in America is actually the easy part. Understanding what you just opened... that's a whole different story.

My US journey actually started long before BYOU.

Just before COVID, I started The Luxury Beauty App. At that time I simply had a Dutch BV and we were doing really well in Amsterdam. We also started getting more and more attention from the US, and when COVID happened, experts suddenly wanted to offer virtual sessions because nobody could see their clients in person anymore.

So the platform became more virtual and something interesting happened. The more demand we got from the US, the more Americans told me they didn't want to work with an overseas company.

The demand was there. Big time.

So I thought... okay, then let's open an American company.

I asked someone I knew who already had a US company how he had done it. He recommended his lawyer and because I fully trusted him, I hired that lawyer without doing much research myself.

First lesson right there.

Even if it's your best friend recommending someone, always do your own research.

So there I was with this very expensive American lawyer setting up a Delaware Inc.

And I mean... expensive.

Every second felt like his payment clock was running. I basically treated my own lawyer like an emergency number. Only call when absolutely necessary. 😂

In the end, setting up my first US company cost me more than +$10,000.

Apparently my first lesson in American business was very American: everything had a price tag.

Don't get me wrong, as a startup founder it's incredibly important to set up your company properly. But especially in the beginning, you also need to be careful with your money. There are so many things you're going to need that money for and, knowing what I know today, there were much cheaper ways to do what I did.

But the money wasn't even the biggest problem.

The biggest problem was that after spending more than $10K, I still didn't really understand my own company.

Shares. Founder shares. Vesting. Option pools. EIN. IRS. Cap tables. Board approvals.

I honestly felt like everyone had received the American Founder Dictionary except me.

Nobody properly explained what kind of shares existed, how many shares I should own, what should be available for future team members, how the American banking system worked, how taxes worked as a foreign founder with an American company, what the IRS needed from me, what all those documents meant or what corporate compliance actually looked like.

I had no idea.

And back then we basically had Google.

So of course I Googled everything, but honestly... the more information I found, the more confused I became.

And calling my lawyer?

No thanks. 😂 💰

I knew asking a few innocent questions could turn into another invoice.

Looking back, that's actually crazy. Imagine spending more than $10,000 setting up your own company and then being scared to call the person who set it up because you don't understand how your own company works.

If you're reading this as a European founder thinking about opening a company in America, please learn one thing from my expensive little adventure:

Incorporation isn't the finish line. It's literally day one.

Over the years I learned more and more, but if I'm completely honest with you, I never had everything properly organized.

Sometimes it was just a mess.

Luckily, important filings were being handled for me, even though half the time I didn't really understand what all those documents were.

And then there were the documents...

Oh boy.

Please learn from me here.

YOUR EMAIL IS NOT YOUR DATA ROOM.

I thought, it's in my email, I'll always be able to find it.

Well...

Learned that one the hard way.

At one point I couldn't find my founder certificate anymore.

Yes.

I managed to lose the document proving I was actually the founder.

Very founder-like of me. 😂

Today, I would create a data room from day one. Incorporation documents, EIN documents, founder documents, cap table, board approvals, tax filings, contracts, banking documents... everything important goes there.

One organized place.

Not somewhere between an Uber receipt, a newsletter and 36,000 unread emails.

Another thing I never properly finished was changing the company name.

The company was still officially called Luxury Beauty Global Inc., while I had already been building BYOU.

So yes... I was building one company inside a company carrying the name of another company.

Very clear. 😂

All these little things together made everything unnecessarily complicated.

So when I decided to set up BYOU Global, Inc., I knew one thing.

This time I wanted to understand what I was doing.

And wow... what a difference.

This time I used a Delaware service focused on startups, and suddenly things were actually being explained to me.

I understand so much more about shares now. I understand why you need to think ahead about ownership, your future team and your cap table instead of blindly signing whatever is put in front of you.

This time we kept an option pool available for future team members, which I'm really happy about.

And there's another lesson in this for me.

Don't outsource the understanding of your own company.

You can have a lawyer.

You can have an accountant.

You can use AI.

You can have an agent.

But at the end of the day, it's your company.

You should understand what you're signing, what you own, where your documents are and which questions you need to ask.

That doesn't mean doing everything yourself.

Actually, one thing I would do differently now is being much more selective about what I pay professionals for.

I don't need to pay hundreds of dollars an hour to ask someone where I should store a document.

But will I pay a great US tax or legal specialist when something can have serious consequences for my company?

Absolutely.

There is a big difference between being cheap and being smart with your startup money.

The same goes for AI.

I LOVE AI.

I use it all the time.

But I don't blindly believe everything it tells me! You shouldn’t do either.

For me, AI is amazing for helping me understand something, preparing questions and figuring out what I don't know yet.

But when something can have serious tax or legal consequences, I want a real specialist to check my situation.

Especially because having an American company doesn't suddenly make your Dutch reality disappear.

If you're a Dutch or European founder operating through a US company, you can have responsibilities in more than one country. That's something I understand much better today and something I would always get proper cross-border advice on.

I also learned a lot about banking.

The first time, I used a traditional American bank and I was paying fees that, looking back, were completely unnecessary for what we needed.

Today I use Mercury for BYOU and I really love how startup-focused it feels. Wise can also be super useful when you're operating internationally.

And something as simple as banking makes a huge difference when you're building from another country.

This time everything just feels different.

Clean.

Clear.

And most importantly, I actually understand it.

For the first time, when I see BYOU Global, Inc. on our documents, it actually feels like the company we're building.

A fresh beginning.

Would I choose America again after everything I've learned?

Absolutely.

Actually... I already did.

The US is still where we see some of the biggest opportunities for BYOU. The first time around, the American market was already pulling us there before we even had an American company, and I still believe there is an incredible opportunity for us there.

America wasn't the mistake.

Thinking I could outsource the understanding of my own company was.

So if you're a founder reading this and you're thinking about opening a US company, my advice isn't don't do it.

Do it for the right reasons.

Do your own research.

Protect your startup money.

Build your data room from day one.

Understand your ownership.

Use technology where it makes sense and specialists where it actually matters.

And most importantly, don't get so lost in EINs, cap tables, tax forms, shares and corporate documents that you forget why you opened the company in the first place.

Because your Inc. isn't your business.

Your bank account isn't your business.

Your cap table isn't your business.

They're the foundation that allows you to build the actual business.

And this time, that's exactly where my focus is.

Building BYOU Global, Inc. into the company I always knew it could become.

Knowing everything I know today, would I still choose America?

Well...

I just did.

Only this time I actually understand my own company.

And yes...

I know where my founder certificate is. 😂

See you in the next Founder Letter,

Danique Motzheim