[Community] Incorporation

[Eugene Eric Kim]

Daniel Perry wrote:
> Followup emails to Mr. Kehl revealed that while they do not charge an
> annual retainer, they will bill at the USD280 rate for any and all work
> required. While their fee structure is likely competitive, whether we
> use Mr. Kehl's firm or First Law International, it appears that having a
> Swiss incorporation will necessitate a substantial upfront cost ($5,000
> minimum) and a large annual legal budget ($10,000 plus). Before we head
> down that road we best reevaluate what business model Identity Commons
> is going to use. While we can, to some limited extent, count upon the
> generosity of the initial sponsors, can we say that we will always be
> able to find such generous sponsors?

I think we've reached a gut check point.  At our last call, you suggested
U.S. incorporation would cost $2-5K up-front.  How much do you think the
legal costs would be?

We've also been talking about $15K infrastructure costs/year.  With the
Swiss incorporation, that means we would have about $25K in operational
costs alone.  That's not bad in the grand scheme of things, but it's also
not light, lightweight.

The question is, what's our business model?  If it's sponsorships, we
have to factor in the costs of getting those sponsorships.  At minimum, I
think that number is another $25K, which brings total operational costs
to $50K/year.  That's equivalent to half a reasonably compensated,
full-time executive director, which is pretty good considering the scope
of what we're discussing.  But it's still $50K/year.

If this scope is accurate, then the cost difference between Swiss and
U.S. incorporation is still worth it, given the expected benefits of
international incorporation.

The key question here (and the key topic of discussion for tomorrow's
call) is, what's the business model?

=Eugene

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Eugene Eric Kim ................................... http://xri.net/=eekim
Blue Oxen Associates ........................... http://www.blueoxen.com/
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