Commenda reposted this
Why did we start Commenda? In late 2021, Yaacov Tarko and I found ourselves discussing my recent trip to India in my Green Lake, Seattle living room. Our conversation, informed by our experiences organizing for the Seattle New Liberals, turned to the challenges of conducting business across borders. We originally focused on the obstacles faced by startups in emerging markets. While US founders can establish their companies with ease using platforms like Firstbase or Stripe Atlas, their counterparts in countries like India struggle with intricate capital controls and myriad other regulations. The contrast is stark: an Indian startup with two co-founders might need to create four separate entities, compared to just one in the U.S. This process can cost up to $10,000 for fledgling entrepreneurs, who then face ongoing compliance issues, complex international money transfers, and exposure to numerous regulations. In this case, the burden of overregulation is a direct tax that hinders the ability of companies in one of the world’s largest tech markets to operate. This “tax” not only harms these businesses, but it also harms the ability of free countries to compete globally. This is why we started Commenda, to simplify this process and reduce the cost of doing business from anywhere on Earth.