Roadmap to Creating a Legal Entity

Overview:

This project will create a publicly available resource documenting critical areas that other entrepreneurs should explore in relation to legal entities and cryptocurrencies. It will also provide resources to professional and public sources of information.

The resource will not provide legal, tax, accounting, or financial advice but rather offer general guidance.

It will focus on Allison's personal journey in the USA and Switzerland as well as explore details relating to legal structures and the financial landscape of Australia, Philip's home country.

Relevance for Capital Raising and to the Campaign Brief (IMPACT):

The challenge brief states that "more needs to be done to accelerate… projects by providing pathways into professional business support, investment, and mentoring programmes." As entrepreneurs begin to have conversations with any investors, accelerators, or other programs, those entities will perform significant due diligence on the entrepreneur and their venture.

Risks they will explore include legal, accounting, tax, financial, and regulatory concerns. To have the smoothest path to accessing funding, or any other opportunities, an entrepreneur will need to demonstrate the existence of a legal entity, and that they have taken the proper steps to comply with the relevant local regulations and requirements. The Roadmap envisioned in this proposal will serve as an excellent resource to prepare entrepreneurs for the due diligence questions posed by investors and other supporters.

Any proposer receiving Catalyst funding would benefit from reviewing the Roadmap in order to learn about administrative issues that need to be dealt with in order to handle the Catalyst funding in legal and compliant manner.

Scalability is not an issue. A final document will be created that can be replicated and shared without limitations.

Distribution Plan:

Once created, the Roadmap will be provided to any community group that wants to include it in their resource materials. Target groups include Catalyst School, Lovelace Academy, Swarm, AIM, WADA, Cardano4Climate, Eastern Town Hall, and SPOCRA. To the extent permitted, the Team will distribute the Roadmap through official IOG and CF channels. It will also be available on the Crypto Alley website (which is currently under construction but will be finished well in advance of the envisioned publication date, details on Crypto Alley below). The Team will promote the document on their social media channels as well.

Team Background (FEASIBILITY):

Allison gained significant experience from working on the launch of two prior start-ups in Switzerland. She is currently launching Crypto Alley (www.cryptoalley.ch), her own Cardano & Catalyst focused business venture.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/crypto-alley

Prior to moving as Switzerland, Allison worked for almost twenty years in a variety of finance, accounting, and business development roles. As a corporate banker, Allison assisted a large number of firms with many administrative aspects of running their businesses.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonfromm/

https://twitter.com/Allison_Fromm

Philip has a Bachelor of Commerce, is an active community member

Regarding the identification of professional services firms willing to assist with this project, please see links in the Milestones section.

Budget (FEASIBILITY):

1. Legal Expenses – $2,500 (paid to legal firm)

2. Accounting Expenses – $1,500 (paid to accounting firm)

3. Team time meeting with experts - $1500

4. Team time writing the document - $3500

5. Team time researching public links and resources - $500

6. Team time promoting the document publicly and ensuring wide-spread availability - $1500

Document Contents (AUDITABILITY):

The document will address the following subjects:

1. Choosing and registering a legal entity name

2. Finding a physical location

3. Legal entity types -- sole-proprietorship, limited liability, corporation, etc,.

4. Capital requirements for forming the entity

5. Creating official legal documents to form the company (shareholder agreement, by-laws, etc.)

6. Opening a bank account – can be a particular challenge when crypto transactions are involved!

7. Accounting – contracts, invoicing, financial statements

8. Payroll – paying employees, navigating payroll taxes and social benefit obligations

9. Insurance – both for social benefits for employees and general business insurance

10. Taxes – registering and paying VAT and/or sales tax as well as income taxes

Jurisdictions:

Allison's particular experience has been in Zug, Switzerland, also known as The Crypto Valley (which was the birthplace of Ethereum, is home to the Cardano Foundation and many other crypto Unicorns, and employs over 5,000 people working in the crypto industry https://cvvc.com/top50).

While the Roadmap will be a particularly useful document for any entrepreneurs who would like to join Allison in the Crypto Valley, the objective is to provide general information. Each section will detail important points, pose questions, and describe the kind of professional experts needed to equip the entrepreneur to take the relevant steps in their own jurisdiction.

Where possible, additional focus will be provided on resources in the US, given Allison's business. 

Phil will provide relevant information about the same topics in Australia. 

Milestones and KPIs (AUDITABILITY):

1. Identify a legal firm willing to work with a blockchain business – DONE

https://lexcellence.swiss/en

2. Identify an accounting firm willing to work with a blockchain business – DONE

https://www.brag-zug.com/

3. Identify a bank willing to work with a blockchain business – In Progress

4. Identify an insurance broker willing to work with a blockchain business – In Progress

5. Write sections 1 through 4 – February 2022 (assuming funding announcements in January 2022)

6. Write sections 5 through 8 – March 2022

7. Write sections 9 through 10 – March 2022

8. Publish and promote the document – April 2022

Description of Success:

1. The creation of a thorough, professional, polished Roadmap document covering in detail all of the sections identified above with links to relevant public resources and information.

2. The publication of the document in a wide variety of places where it can be easily discovered and accessed by Catalyst entrepreneurs. The best researched document in the world won't do any good if no one reads it!

3. Catalyst entrepreneurs benefit from the Roadmap and find it useful as they form their own legal entities.