A 12-Month Roadmap for Overseas SaaS — From Incorporation to First Paying Customers

TL;DR: The most common mistake at the 0-to-1 stage is wrong order. Founders register companies before launching websites, open Stripe before incorporating, stockpile LLCs before validating product. This breaks down a real cadence — built from 200+ ClouBay clients — where the first 3 months cost $0 and you collect your first USD by month 6.

Month 0 — Five decisions to make before writing code

Answer these five before opening your editor — it'll save you half the next 12 months:

1. MoR or self-operated?

• MoR (Paddle / Lemon Squeezy): No company needed. Live in 15 minutes. ~7.5% effective fee.
• Self-operated (Stripe + entity + bank): Front-loaded cost, 3-4 months to first payment. ~3-3.5% effective fee.

The decision: can you hit $50K/mo within 12 months? Yes → self-operated saves $24K/year on a $600K run-rate. No → MoR. Validate product-market fit first.

2. Where are your customers?

• EU-heavy → Paddle (auto VAT)
• US-heavy → Stripe + Stripe Tax
• Global retail → start LS, upgrade to Stripe later
• Middle East / high-compliance → evaluate separately

3. Product model?

• One-time → any channel
• Subscription → Stripe / Paddle / LS
• Multi-tenant payouts → Stripe Connect (mandatory)
• High-ticket consulting → Stripe + manual invoices

4. Up-front budget?

• $0-$500: MoR route, no entity
• $500-$2,000: LS to start + Wyoming LLC + Mercury (preparing for Stripe)
• $2,000+: Direct Stripe route, 4 weeks to live

5. Time available?

• Full-time: 4 weeks to first dollar
• Part-time (< 10 hrs/wk): 8-12 weeks; prefer MoR

Write the answers down. Stick them on your monitor. Every later decision flows from these five.

Months 1-2 — Product + landing page ($0 entry)

Month 1:

• ✅ Build MVP
• ✅ Register .com (~$10, Cloudflare Registrar is cheapest)
• ✅ Cloudflare DNS + Pages deployment (free)
• ✅ Domain email: Google Workspace ($6/user/mo) or free Cloudflare Email Routing → Gmail
• ✅ Plausible / Umami analytics (open-source, $5/mo VPS)

Month 2:

• ✅ MVP private beta with 5-10 design partners
• ✅ Collect feedback + WTP (willingness-to-pay) data
• ✅ Prep "English business description" — 1-line, 2-paragraph, 5-paragraph versions (Stripe / Paddle will all need these)
• ✅ Draft ToS / Privacy / Refund pages (GetTerms.io templates, $10/page)

Month 2 milestone: 5+ verbal commitments to pay. No actual money yet.

Month 3 — Pick a channel, launch on Lemon Squeezy

If you went the MoR route:

Week 1:

• ✅ Sign up Lemon Squeezy (15 min)
• ✅ Create Product → Variant → Price
• ✅ Paste LS Checkout link into landing-page CTA

Week 2:

• ✅ Test mode end-to-end: subscription + refund + upgrade
• ✅ Webhook to your backend (success / fail / renewal / cancel)

Week 3:

• ✅ Switch to Live mode; design partners can pay with real cards
• ✅ First order. Celebrate.

Week 4:

• ✅ 5-10 orders covering edge cases (VAT / refund / expired card / different countries)

Month 3 milestone: $500-$2,000 actual revenue.

Months 4-5 — Apply for an overseas entity in parallel

Start preparing for long-term self-operated payments. Run alongside LS revenue, not instead of.

Month 4 Week 1: Pick an entity country

• US LLC (70% of our clients — best overall)
• UK Ltd (EU customer focus + .co.uk trust)
• HK Limited (APAC focus + lower local tax)

Month 4 Week 2: LLC formation

• Delaware vs Wyoming: Wyoming is cheaper ($100 + $60/yr vs $90 + $300/yr) and more private
• Channels: Stripe Atlas ($500 all-in) / Firstbase / Doola / Mercury (free, you DIY)
• Recommendation: First LLC → Stripe Atlas (expensive but bundled). Second one DIY with Northwest

Month 4 Weeks 3-4: EIN application

• With SSN partner: 10 min online → instant EIN
• Without SSN: phone IRS at +1-267-941-1099, 4-6 weeks for the CP-575 letter
• You can open Mercury before the CP-575 arrives (they accept Pending)

Month 5 Weeks 1-2: Mercury onboarding

• All online, no US trip needed
• Documents: LLC Certificate, Operating Agreement, passport, EIN (or Pending)
• 5-15 business days

Month 5 Weeks 3-4: Mercury Plaid verification

• USD debit card arrives → use it for ChatGPT / Adobe / any USD subscription
• This is the moment you join the US SaaS economy

Month 5 milestone: US LLC + EIN + Mercury + USD debit card.

Month 6 — Apply for Stripe (the inflection)

Month 6 is when you apply for Stripe. All prior prep was for this moment.

Detailed steps: see Opening Stripe From China. Quick checklist:

• ✅ Business description doc — same content on /about and Stripe back-end
• ✅ ToS / Privacy / Refund / About — four pages live, all 200
• ✅ Stripe registration: US entity / EIN / Mercury Plaid direct link
• ✅ MCC code: 5734 (SaaS) / 7392 (consulting)
• ✅ Submit → 3-7 days for review

Month 6 milestone: Stripe approved. If rejected, supplement and resubmit; after 3 rejects, hire someone.

Months 7-8 — Dual-channel + gradual migration

New customers: Stripe Checkout — change landing-page CTA to point at Stripe. Existing customers: stay on LS until natural renewal.

Month 7:

• ✅ Stripe Checkout integration + Webhooks
• ✅ Customer Portal opened
• ✅ Refund / Dispute SOP prepared

Month 8:

• ✅ Email old LS customers: "Upgrade to Stripe for X% discount" (optional)
• ✅ ~80% migrate within 2 weeks
• ✅ Monitor Stripe Radar Performance, address any anomalies

Month 8 milestone: 50%+ of revenue on Stripe. Effective rate dropped 7.5% → 5% (mixed).

Months 9-10 — Tax + compliance hardening

Before this, on LS, you didn't think about tax. On Stripe, you have to.

US sales tax:

• Install Stripe Tax (free, auto nexus monitoring)
• Most states don't tax SaaS (CA / TX / NY all good)
• Some do (WA / OH / TX in some configs / IA) — Stripe Tax auto-collects

EU VAT:

• If EU-customer-heavy, register VAT-OSS through Ireland or Luxembourg (one registration covers all 27 EU countries)
• Stripe Tax auto-collects; you file quarterly (€500/quarter via tax agent)

Month 10 milestone: Tax systematized. No daily compliance worry.

Month 11 — Team + financial discipline

Team:

• First hire: customer support / designer (use Deel / Remote for global hiring)
• Add ChatGPT Team / Notion / Linear / GitHub / Slack — Mercury card pays direct

Financial:

• Monthly reconciliation (Stripe + Mercury + your business system, three-way)
• Bench / Pilot for US bookkeeping ($150-$300/mo)
• US year-end (W-9 / 1099 / Schedule K-1)

Month 11 milestone: Stable monthly P&L review.

Month 12 — Reflect + plan stage 2

Revenue < $5K MRR: Product-market fit not found yet. Keep iterating. Revenue $5K-$30K MRR: Scale customers + team carefully. Stay lean. Revenue > $30K MRR: Consider raising / expanding categories / staying independent.

Month 12 milestone: First complete fiscal year wrapped. Clear data to plan stage 2.

Cost waterfall

By month, in CNY:

Month	Spend	Cumulative
1-2	Domain + Pages + email ¥120	¥120
3	LS 7.5% on $1K revenue ¥545	¥665
4-5	LLC + EIN + Mercury ¥4,200	¥4,865
6	Stripe Atlas / DIY ¥3,500	¥8,365
7-8	Dual LS + Stripe on $5K revenue ¥1,800	¥10,165
9-10	Stripe Tax + accountant ¥3,000	¥13,165
11-12	Team SaaS + US accounting ¥4,000	¥17,165

12-month total: ¥17K ($2.4K). Expected 12-month revenue: $30K-$200K. Realistic overseas startup math.

Five most common mistakes

By client report frequency:

1. "Finish all compliance before product"

The most expensive mistake. We've seen 8-month preparations with 0 lines of code — opportunity cost = customers went to competitors.

Fix: First LS revenue by month 3. Compliance runs parallel.

2. "Stripe live → straight to high-ticket"

New Stripe accounts pushing $999/year subscriptions in week 1 = Stripe Risk freezes (anomalous order pattern).

Fix: First 30 days, keep orders in $20-$200 range. Scale up gradually.

3. "Stripe Webhook → didn't verify signature"

Newbie classic. Result: malicious calls inject fake orders → dirty database.

Fix: Use stripe.webhooks.constructEvent() to verify signatures, separate secret per endpoint.

4. "Cloudflare DNS but Stripe via raw IP"

Stripe Webhook hits your domain. With Cloudflare Proxy on, some configurations cause WAF to block Stripe webhook requests.

Fix: Use a separate subdomain for webhooks (webhooks.yourdomain.com), turn off Proxy (gray cloud) on that record.

5. "Forgot ToS / Refund pages"

Stripe review checks every page. Missing one = direct rejection.

Fix: Have all four pages live in month 2. Linked from footer site-wide.

FAQ

Q: Do I need a company at the 0-to-1 stage? A: No. Lemon Squeezy / Paddle don't require one. If you won't hit $20K/mo within 12 months, MoR is fine indefinitely.

Q: Must my LLC be in Delaware? A: No. Wyoming is 80% cheaper and more private. Pick Delaware C-Corp only if you plan to raise from VCs (they prefer it for stock options / preferred shares).

Q: Mercury rejected me — what now? A: Mercury rejection rate is ~5%. Common reasons: ① too-new registered address (use established providers) ② sensitive name (crypto / token / casino). Switch to Wise Business or Brex.

Q: How much US tax in year 1? A: LLC pass-through, default to your personal 1040. First $50K of self-employment ~15.3% SE tax (Social Security + Medicare) + federal income tax (15-32% tiered). $1,500-$3,000 for an accountant to file.

Q: Can I raise in month 12? A: Yes, but better to wait until ARR > $300K. VCs typically want 3 months of stable growth + Net Revenue Retention > 100%. First 12 months mainly bootstrap; consider raising months 13-24.

/incorporation

Incorporation

英 / 美 / 港 公司 + EIN + 银行户 · ¥3,888 起

Every step in overseas startup has pitfalls. ClouBay does Incorporation + Payments onboarding + Express start + Asset custody end-to-end. 30-min consult free; we cost it out and give you a plan.