By Jessica Gury, originally published on September 11, 2015.

Teuko was just an idea. And then, I wanted to put this idea online. And since the web is accessible to anyone, well, I followed a friend’s advice who told me it’s better if I incorporate, at least, for protecting myself and my family against any liabilities.

During summer I could meet some family members and as we mentioned my side project, I could feel that they were thinking all this was crazy stupid (for some, as long as you’re not a manager or a director in a well-recognized firm… well… you know, you’re a joke…) But, I don’t know. I started this. I want to keep on going with this.

If you have a project, like Teuko, if you feel it’s important, like a mission, keep on working on your project.

Here under the steps I took for incorporating Teuko, so that Teuko.com can be online and be shared with anyone. Of course, if you have any (legal) questions, I’m not the one for answering them. Ask a lawyer. I just write the milestones I had, sharing the useful links and tools I found. I just hope this will help you.</p>
<p>And, btw, now that Teuko, Inc. exists, I hope that Teuko.com will really do help you create healthy lunch boxes the easy and fast way 😉

There is this blog post I read and pushed me a little bit for incorporating Teuko: http://blog.mitchjlee.com/

Here the different steps I listed for Teuko, Inc., in order:

• Clerky: incorporation (they say it takes 2-3 days, it took 2 days). It was surprisingly pretty easy and they had a great example of a certain solo founder called Alice, who kept shares aside for a potential co-founder (what I did btw… yes, I’m looking for a technical co-founder! Will post a job description soon) I’ll just add that Clerky has a great support team!
• Clerky: Post-Incorporation (done as easily as the incorporation, 2 days after incorporating)
• Clerky: Qualify in California (foreign qualification filing). FYI, as I did this right after post-incorporation, Clerky refunded me 85$. When you bootstrap and stay low on expenses, that’s cool 🙂
• Form 83(b) you got at the Post-Incorporation step with Clerky, provided by Clerky (well, you still have to print 🙂 ). You have to fill and send to IRS within 30days with USPS Certified Mail with Return Receipt. Here few links I found interesting, about where to file my 83(b) election and “83(b) elections for dummies“.
• Get an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS (via the website of the IRS)
• Open a bank account.
• If you have one, don’t forget to put your accountant in the loop.
• Later also: Stock Plan Adoption (this can be taken care of now, but since it’s just me now, Clerky replied to me that I could wait on the Stock Plan Adoption until I have a better sense of the timing)