[HN Gopher] Startup Finance for Founders - Part I, Accounting (2...
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       Startup Finance for Founders - Part I, Accounting (2016)
        
       Author : sebg
       Score  : 164 points
       Date   : 2024-07-25 22:20 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (rein.pk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (rein.pk)
        
       | Havoc wrote:
       | There is literally zero accounting happening in the article but
       | seems solid anyway on what it does cover.
       | 
       | One thing I'd suggest doing different - instead of trying to inch
       | up credit limits rather have that conversation at same time as
       | the investment. ie we're looking for a provider to park 15m but
       | we also need a credit line/cards/whatever. The sales team wanting
       | the 15m will push to make the line happen internally. It's the
       | key moment where you have leverage.
        
       | mcc1ane wrote:
       | (2016)
        
         | tickbw wrote:
         | SVB failed in March 2023. Are the points in the article
         | concerning venture funding still accurate in 2024?
        
       | AliCollins wrote:
       | And the link to the Part II, Strategic Finance:
       | https://rein.pk/startup-finance-for-founders-part-ii-strateg...
        
       | ckdarby wrote:
       | Small note that most credit cards allow you to artificially
       | increase the credit card limit by simply contributing the payment
       | on a zero balance.
       | 
       | Example, $0 balance, card limit $1k, pay onto the card $10k, card
       | limit is now $11k.
       | 
       | $10k of that is really prepaid and $1k is truly credit, but it
       | would have solved their problems given they had the cash on hand
       | and mostly wanted to avoid declines on their cards due to
       | draining the credit limit to $0.
       | 
       | The problem with other forms of payments is they're only usually
       | accepted on a contract annual basis and you're now vendor locked
       | for the remainder of the contract. You're also up fronting the
       | capital to that vendor.
        
         | berelig wrote:
         | Note that by doing this most (or maybe all) credit card
         | companies will only honour whatever protections and insurances
         | they offer on the original portion of the limit. So if you make
         | an $11k payment, $10k of that is like handing cash to the
         | vendor.
        
         | manishsharan wrote:
         | This boggles my brain. Why would you give credit card companies
         | extra money to hold for you?
         | 
         | Get an AmEx with the balance you need and use that . Much
         | better service and protections. Or apply for a new Business
         | Credit card with your bank.
        
           | rco8786 wrote:
           | > Why would you give credit card companies extra money to
           | hold for you?
           | 
           | "they had the cash on hand and mostly wanted to avoid
           | declines on their cards"
        
         | stpn wrote:
         | What banks has this worked with for you?
         | 
         | I just tried to do this with chase, capital one, and citi. The
         | first two only let you pay up to 10% more than your balance
         | (balance, not credit limit) and citi only 7.5% - nowhere near
         | 10x your credit limit.
        
       | codetrotter wrote:
       | > there are limitations to debit cards (e.g. you can't rent cars)
       | 
       | This sounds pretty specific to the USA. Here in Europe you
       | certainly can rent a car with a debit card.
        
         | r0s wrote:
         | You certainly can in the US too, they "pre-authorize" some
         | token amount to be sure you have the funds and off you go.
        
           | nh2 wrote:
           | This did not work for me in the USA and Canada, where the
           | pre-authorisation attempt failed with a debit card but worked
           | with a credit card (from the same bank) in 3 different places
           | when renting cars.
        
             | slackfan wrote:
             | Pre-auth amounts over hit over maximum withdrawal limits
             | for debit cards. Often times those are furiously low, like
             | 300-500 dollars a day. Call your bank and find out.
        
               | codetrotter wrote:
               | That's interesting. I suppose having an "old bank" also
               | affects things.
               | 
               | For example, some times in other situations my debit card
               | also rejects big purchases or new countries or some
               | reservations of funds from some new hotel when I check
               | in. But because they are pretty modern they also have an
               | app that notifies me of the rejection at the same time as
               | the terminal is told that it was rejected and so I can go
               | in to the app and say this is actually ok and then I try
               | again and then it goes through.
               | 
               | Maybe what people need is really this kind of thing like
               | what I have with my card and the app.
        
         | jbstack wrote:
         | I've traveled fairly extensively around Europe and you do
         | indeed need a credit card in the majority of cases. Some rental
         | agencies will accept a debit card but it's risky to just turn
         | up on the assumption that they will. You can find yourself
         | without a car or forced to take up very expensive excess
         | insurance. I've personally had this happen to me more than once
         | and I now travel with a credit card which I have just for car
         | rental purposes.
         | 
         | When you book a rental car through an online comparison site,
         | you will almost always see in the small print that bringing a
         | credit card with you is one of the requirements.
         | 
         | If you're taking out insurance by default then you may not
         | notice that this is an issue because you're effectively paying
         | to reduce the excess to PS0 instead of blocking a deposit on a
         | credit card for them to charge from in the event that you
         | damage the car.
        
       | 1st wrote:
       | Finance and accounting are my least favorite aspects of being in
       | a startup, yet absolutely crucial. Does anyone have any tips
       | helping my brain learn to enjoy these? Loaded question...
        
         | emeril wrote:
         | just hire some third party to do this for you, it shouldn't
         | cost too much
         | 
         | just ideally find someone who has done this sort of work for
         | people like you before
         | 
         | also, consider using ramp.com as your corp card if applicable,
         | def best tracking/rewards of all of them
        
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