A CPA for Startups Who Has Seen Your Next Three Mistakes
Entity selection, founder equity elections, R&D expensing, and books your future investors (and the IRS) will actually respect — handled from day one.
(217) 788-0750
•1,500+ Clients Nationwide•Real Estate | Physicians | High-IncomeWhy Startups Outgrow Generalist Tax Help
A startup is not a small version of a mature business — it is a sequence of one-way doors. Entity choice, equity elections, R&D cost treatment, and your first payroll setup all harden quickly and cost real money to reverse. A generalist preparer sees these decisions once a year, after they have already been made. A CPA for startups is in the room before the door closes.
The stakes are concrete: an 83(b) election missed by a day cannot be filed late for any reason. An S-corp election filed after the window means another year of self-employment tax on every dollar of profit. Books that never reconciled become a diligence problem the week a term sheet or acquisition letter shows up. None of these are exotic — they are the standard first-three-years mistakes, and they are all preventable at a cost that rounds to zero next to what they save.
Whether you are bootstrapping toward profit or building toward a raise, the work is the same discipline: pick the structure that matches the destination, file the elections on time, keep books you can hand to anyone, and revisit all of it quarterly as the company changes. If your net income is already climbing, start with our S-corp savings calculator to see the size of the first decision.
What We Handle for Startup Founders
- Entity selection and elections — LLC vs. S-corp vs. C-corp mapped to your actual trajectory, with the paperwork filed on time.
- Founder equity tax — 83(b) elections, reasonable compensation once you are an S-corp, and QSBS (Section 1202) awareness if you are on the C-corp path.
- R&D and software development costs — immediate expensing under the restored rules, R&D credit eligibility, and the contemporaneous documentation both require.
- Books and runway — QuickBooks Online setup or cleanup, monthly bookkeeping, and financials that survive investor or acquirer diligence.
- Quarterly estimates and multi-state compliance — safe-harbor calculations, state registrations as you hire remotely, and nexus monitoring as revenue grows.
Our Process
Foundation Review
We review (or design) your entity structure, ownership records, payroll setup, and accounting stack. If elections or filings were missed, we identify what is fixable and in what order.
Tax Position Design
A written plan covering entity taxation, owner compensation, R&D cost treatment, startup cost deductions, and state registrations — matched to whether you are bootstrapping for profit or building toward outside investment.
Clean Books, Real Runway
QuickBooks Online setup or cleanup, monthly bookkeeping, and financials that show actual burn and runway — the numbers you make decisions with, not a shoebox you apologize for.
Quarterly Founder Check-ins
Estimated taxes, election deadlines, comp adjustments as revenue grows, and a re-check of entity fit every quarter. Startups change fast; a once-a-year tax appointment cannot keep up.
Case Study: Bootstrapped SaaS Founder, First Profitable Year (Illustrative Composite)
Client: Composite example (not an actual client) — solo technical founder, ~$240K net income in year two, no payroll, books kept in a spreadsheet
Problem: Operating as a default single-member LLC and paying self-employment tax on every dollar. No accounting system, no quarterly estimates (and a penalty notice to show for it), R&D costs treated inconsistently, and no records an acquirer or investor could diligence.
Strategy: S-corp election with a defensible salary, payroll and QBO setup, accountable plan for home office and equipment, R&D cost review under the restored expensing rules, and quarterly estimates calibrated to safe-harbor rules.
Result: Cut self-employment tax meaningfully, eliminated underpayment penalties going forward, and produced investor-ready financials — with the founder out of the bookkeeping business entirely.
$15K–$35K Year 1 (illustrative range)
Want results like this? Book a callFrequently Asked Questions
Related Resources
S-Corp Savings Calculator
Model whether an S-corp election beats your current structure — savings, payroll costs, and break-even, in two minutes.
Startup Costs Deduction Guide
What counts as a startup cost, the $5,000 first-year deduction, and how the amortization rules actually work.
S-Corp Election Guide
Deadlines, Form 2553 mechanics, and when the election makes sense (and when it backfires).
How Much Does a CPA Cost?
Real fee ranges for preparation, bookkeeping, and planning — and when the fee pays for itself.