The following is a list of services that we use here at Elastic Byte and/or highly recommend related to the operation of a startup. Intentionally no technical or developer tools are included as this post focuses on business operations.

Full disclosure: Some of the links are referral links, but in most cases you'll also get a perk/discount.

Incorporation / Formation

Clerky - yCombinator company that focuses on legal paperwork for startups. They currently only support Delaware C-corporations.

Stripe Atlas - Delaware C-corporation or LLC (new). Includes $5,000 of Amazon AWS credits as well as other perks such as flat-rate lawyer partner consulting.

Banking

Azlo - No monthly fees. Free bank-to-bank transfers. Debit card. Technology and design focused. Recommended by Stripe.

Credit Cards

Capital One Spark Cash For Business - Unlimited 2% cash back on purchases. Cash is king! No annual fee. $500 cash bonus when you spend $5,000 in the first three months.

Accounting

Intuit QuickBooks Self-Employed - Tag all transactions (credit cards, bank accounts) by category for schedule-C. Exports to TurboTax which is a huge time saver at tax time. Estimates and electronically pay federal quarterly tax payments within the app using eftps.gov.

Payroll

Gusto - Focused on full-time employee payroll, HR, taxes, benefits.

Square Payroll - Pay employees or contractors (1099) via ACH. $5 per contractor per month and they automatically send out 1099 tax forms to contractors.

Taxes

Intuit TurboTax Self-Employed - Import all your transactions from QuickBooks (schedule-C). Electronically pay/receive federal and state taxes. Robust guided system for finding deductions and credits.

Payment processing

Stripe - Accept all major credit cards and supports ACH bank debits. Using Stripe Connect you can also do payouts and marketplace payments.

Invoicing

Simple Invoices - Send beautiful e-mail invoices to clients/customers as one-off or on a recurring schedule. Embedded form to securely collect credit card details with zero programming. ACH debit is currently not supported, but reportedly coming soon.

Time Tracking (consultant / freelancer)

Toggl - Create clients, projects, and tasks. Integrated timer and publicly exportable reports you can share with clients so can view hours and task descriptions.

Office Space

WeWork - Shared and dedicated office space. In 66 cities all over the world and membership includes access to all locations. Typically unlimited coffee and beer as well. Member perks includ discounts on services such GitHub, Stripe, Amazon AWS, and Slack.

Documents

HelloSign - Legally binding electronic signature documents. Import PDF's, add fields, and send.