#startup
Essential accounting and finance guidance for startup founders
SBIR and STTR awards are cost-reimbursable federal funding governed by FAR 31.205 and 2 CFR 200 — DOE now caps indirect costs at 15% of total award value, NIH has tightened its F&A allowance, and undocumented labor costs are the most common clawback trigger.
A practical guide for U.S. SaaS founders, foundation model providers, and AI agent builders navigating the EU AI Act before the August 2, 2026 enforcement deadline — covering Article 22 representatives, Article 50 transparency disclosures, GPAI Code of Practice obligations, fine tiers up to 7% of global turnover, and procurement-questionnaire readiness.
A state-by-state operational playbook for SaaS founders in 2026 covering economic nexus thresholds, taxability maps (NY, TX, PA, WA taxable; CA non-taxable), Stripe Tax vs Anrok vs Avalara vs TaxJar trade-offs, true object test for bundled invoices, and VDA strategy for cleaning up historical exposure.
How the One Big Beautiful Bill Act rewrote Section 1202 QSBS — a tiered 50/75/100% gain exclusion at three, four, and five years; a $15 million per-issuer cap; a $75 million gross asset threshold at issuance; and non-grantor trust stacking that can lift a founder's combined exclusion well past the single-taxpayer limit.
Section 1202 lets founders, early employees, and angel investors exclude up to $15 million of capital gains from federal tax. This guide covers the OBBBA changes, the five eligibility gates, the new 3/4/5-year tiered holding period, Section 1045 rollovers, and stacking strategies that multiply the per-issuer cap across family members and non-grantor trusts.
OBBBA restored immediate Section 174 domestic R&E expensing in 2026 and gives small businesses until July 6, 2026 to amend 2022–2024 returns. A practical guide to the Section 41 four-part test, the 14% Alternative Simplified Credit, the Section 280C reduced-credit election, and the $500,000 payroll tax offset for qualified small businesses.
A practical tax playbook for startup employees holding ISOs or NSOs — covering AMT exposure via Form 6251 line 2i, the 30-day Section 83(b) deadline, the two-year-and-one-year qualifying disposition rule, the $100,000 first-exercisable ISO cap, and the 1099-B cost basis error that causes double taxation.
A SAFE usually lands in the liabilities column, not equity, because it promises a variable number of shares for a fixed dollar amount. This guide explains the classification debate, the conversion math, and the journal entries from closing to conversion.
Reg CF lets non-reporting U.S. companies sell securities to the public up to $5 million per rolling 12 months through an SEC-registered funding portal. This guide walks through the $124,000 investor limits, Form C disclosure, bad-actor checks, tombstone advertising, ongoing C-U and C-AR filings, and the bookkeeping for SAFEs, offering costs, and escrow that founders most often get wrong.
A 2026 reference for SaaS founders on calculating MRR and ARR, decomposing the five-bucket recurring-revenue waterfall, interpreting NRR/GRR, and reconciling subscription metrics to GAAP revenue under ASC 606.
The OBBBA raised the Section 1202 QSBS cap to $15 million, lifted the gross-asset ceiling to $75 million, and replaced the five-year cliff with a tiered 50/75/100 percent exclusion at three, four, and five years — but only for stock issued after July 4, 2025.
The Rule of 40 says a healthy SaaS company's revenue growth rate plus profit margin should clear 40%. This guide covers how to calculate it, which margin metric to use, 2026 benchmarks (median score around 12%), the Rule of X variant, and when the rule does not apply.
