30 days is realistic if you sequence things correctly. The bottleneck is always the EIN (4-8 weeks if done DIY) — but with a service you can have it in 48 hours and unblock everything else.
Day 1-3: Foundation
- Day 1: Buy your domain. Set up Cloudflare. Buy Notion or Linear for project management.
- Day 2: Form your US LLC. Wyoming (€429) if you want EIN included, or NM (€249) if you'll DIY EIN.
- Day 3: Write your business plan in one page (problem, solution, ICP, pricing, GTM). Pick a name for the company.
Day 4-7: Documentation
- Day 4-5: Build the marketing site. Pricing page, terms of service, privacy policy, contact email at your domain (founders@yourdomain.com). Use a real template (don't use Lorem Ipsum).
- Day 6: Sign up for Resend or SendGrid for transactional email. Verify your domain (SPF + DKIM).
- Day 7: Get your EIN (all our plans include this). LLCora.s Wyoming plan delivers Wyoming LLC + EIN in 48 hours.
Day 8-14: Banking & Payments
- Day 8-9: Open Mercury with your EIN + LLC docs + business URL. Approval in 2-5 days.
- Day 10-12: Once Mercury is approved, apply to Stripe. Use the Stripe approval playbook.
- Day 13: Add Stripe payment links to your marketing site. Set up Stripe webhooks for checkout.session.completed events.
- Day 14: Test the full payment flow end-to-end with a real $1 test charge (refund yourself).
24h LLC
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Day 15-21: Build & launch MVP
- Day 15-19: Build your MVP. Whatever you can ship in 5 focused days.
- Day 20: Internal QA. Edge cases. Mobile.
- Day 21: Soft launch to your network. Post in 2-3 Slack/Discord communities you're already part of.
Day 22-26: First customers
- Day 22: Launch on Indie Hackers + Hacker News (Show HN).
- Day 23: Email everyone in your network. 30-50 personalized messages.
- Day 24: Reddit launch (relevant subreddits, NOT spammy).
- Day 25: Tweet thread + LinkedIn.
- Day 26: First customer hits. Capture the moment.
Day 27-30: Iterate
- Day 27-28: Talk to first 5 customers. Iterate on the things they complain about.
- Day 29: Set up Form 5472 reminder in your calendar (March 15 every year).
- Day 30: Ship the first iteration. Plan month 2.
Common mistakes that blow this timeline
- Waiting on EIN: 4-8 weeks DIY. Use a service to get it in 48h.
- No Mercury before Stripe: Stripe requires a US bank account to verify. If you apply to Stripe before Mercury, you'll get manual review.
- Generic site: Stripe rejects sites that look thrown together. Spend the time on the marketing pages.
- Skipping Form 5472: Even with $0 revenue, you owe an information return next April.
When this plan slips
- If your home country has unusual tax classification of US LLCs (Germany, sometimes): add 2 weeks for accountant consultation.
- If Mercury or Stripe rejects on first try: add 1 week for appeal.
- If you don't have a marketing site ready by day 6: pause and build it first. Skipping = Stripe rejection.
Tools you'll use
- Domain + DNS: Cloudflare ($10/year)
- Marketing site: Next.js + Vercel (free)
- Database: Supabase (free for MVP)
- Email: Resend (free 3K/month)
- Payments: Stripe (2.9% + $0.30 per US card)
- Banking: Mercury (free)
- LLC + EIN: LLCora Wyoming €429
Get started with LLCora
The LLC + EIN is the first unblocking step. Our Wyoming plan (€429) delivers both in 48 hours. EIN Express adds a 1:1 call where we review your Mercury and Stripe applications before you submit them — Stripe approval rate is 95% with our help vs ~60% DIY.