April 4, 2026 | 9 min read
Every SaaS founder we have talked to says the same thing: the code was the easy part. Not because the code is simple -- building software is genuinely difficult. But compared to the maze of legal, financial, and administrative work required to turn a side project into a real business, writing code feels like the one thing you actually know how to do.
We are Obsidian Clad Labs, a small group of friends from Tennessee. We build SaaS products. When we decided to go from "a few projects on GitHub" to "an actual LLC that accepts real money from real people," we had no idea how much non-code work was ahead of us. Here is an honest timeline of what it took, so you know what to expect.
Forming the LLC (Week 1)
Filing an LLC is the easy part. You pick a state, fill out Articles of Organization, pay a filing fee (usually $50 to $200 depending on the state), and wait a few days for approval. We filed in New Mexico because the annual fees are low and the process is straightforward. The actual filing took about 30 minutes.
What nobody tells you is that the LLC formation is just the starting gun. After you have your entity, you need an EIN (Employer Identification Number) from the IRS. That is free but requires either a phone call or an online application that only works during business hours. You need a registered agent in your filing state if you do not live there. You need to decide on your tax classification -- single-member LLC, multi-member LLC, S-corp election -- and this decision has real financial consequences that are hard to undo later.
If you have co-founders, you need an operating agreement. This is the document that defines who owns what, how profits are split, what happens if someone leaves, and how decisions are made. You can use a template, but you should actually read it and customize it for your situation. This document will matter more than you think if things ever get complicated.
Opening a Business Bank Account (Weeks 2-5)
This was the single most frustrating part of our entire setup. We expected it to take a day. It took weeks. Traditional banks want to see your LLC documents, EIN confirmation letter, operating agreement, photo ID for all members, and sometimes proof of business address. Then they take 5 to 10 business days to review your application. And they might reject it.
Our first application was rejected because our LLC was too new and we had no revenue history. Our second was rejected because one of the documents did not match the exact entity name on file. Our third attempt finally succeeded with a fintech banking provider that specializes in startups and small businesses.
The lesson: do not assume a bank will take your money just because you have an LLC. Start the banking process the day your LLC is approved. Try multiple providers simultaneously. Online banking platforms that cater to startups are often faster and more accommodating than traditional banks, though they may have different fee structures. Having a business bank account is a prerequisite for almost everything else (Stripe, payroll, expenses), so any delay here cascades into delays on everything.
Stripe and Payment Processing (Week 3)
Setting up Stripe itself is quick -- maybe an hour for the basic integration. But thinking through your pricing, product structure, and billing lifecycle takes much longer. You need to decide on plan names, price points, billing intervals, free tier limits, trial periods, and what happens when a payment fails.
You also need to set up webhooks so your backend knows when a subscription changes state, configure customer portal settings so users can manage their own billing, handle edge cases like prorated upgrades and downgrades, and deal with tax collection (which is required in most states for SaaS products, though the rules vary wildly). We spent more time on Stripe configuration than on any single backend feature.
Domain Registration and DNS (Week 1-2)
Registering a domain takes two minutes. Configuring it properly takes surprisingly long, especially when you are running multiple products with custom API subdomains. For each product, you need the main domain pointing to your frontend host, an API subdomain pointing to your backend, MX records for email, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for email authentication, and sometimes additional TXT records for various service verifications.
With five products, that is five domains, each with 8 to 12 DNS records. Managing all of that through a single DNS provider helps, but it is still a lot of records to configure correctly and keep track of. One typo in an SPF record means your emails go to spam. One wrong CNAME means your API returns a 404. DNS is unforgiving.
Business Email (Week 2-3)
You need professional email addresses: support@, hello@, and individual team addresses. This means setting up a workspace email provider, configuring all the DNS records for each domain, verifying ownership, and setting up forwarding or shared inboxes for common addresses. If you have multiple products with different domains, each domain needs its own set of email DNS records.
The cost is modest (typically $6 to $8 per user per month for a business email suite), but the configuration time is not. Expect to spend half a day getting email DNS right across all your domains, and another half day testing to make sure nothing goes to spam.
Legal Documents (Ongoing)
Every SaaS product needs a Privacy Policy and Terms of Service at minimum. If you handle sensitive data (student data, financial data, health data), you may need additional compliance documentation. If you have contractors or employees, you need NDAs, IP assignment agreements, and contractor agreements. If you have co-founders, you need the operating agreement, equity documentation, and potentially vesting schedules.
You can start with templates for most of these, and many are available online for free. But you should actually read them, understand what they say, and customize them for your specific situation. A generic privacy policy that does not accurately describe how your product handles data is worse than no privacy policy at all, because it creates legal exposure. We spent more time on legal documents in our first month than we expected to spend in our first year.
The Real Timeline
Here is what our first month actually looked like. Day 1: filed the LLC. Day 2: applied for EIN, started bank applications, registered domains. Days 3 through 7: configured DNS, set up email, wrote privacy policies and terms of service. Days 7 through 14: waited for bank account approval (rejected twice, approved on third attempt). Days 14 through 21: set up Stripe, configured products and pricing, built webhook handlers. Days 21 through 30: operating agreement, IP assignment, contractor agreements, final legal review.
During all of that, we were also writing code, building features, and fixing bugs. But the non-code work consumed at least half of our available time in that first month. And it never fully goes away -- there is always another form to file, another account to verify, another compliance requirement to address.
Advice for First-Time Founders
Start the boring stuff early. File your LLC before your product is ready. Apply for banking the day your LLC is approved. Set up Stripe while you are still building features. The administrative work takes longer than you think, and none of it can be parallelized with code work because it requires different kinds of attention.
Keep a checklist. The number of accounts, credentials, records, and documents you need to track across a multi-product SaaS business is staggering. A simple spreadsheet tracking every account, every DNS record, every API key, and every legal document will save you hours of confusion later.
And accept that this work is real work. It is not a distraction from building your product. It is the foundation that makes your product a business. A great product with no bank account, no legal structure, and no payment processing is just a hobby project. The boring stuff is what makes it real.
Built by Obsidian Clad Labs -- a group of friends from Tennessee building software that protects people.
tags: saas, startup, webdev, beginners
Originally published at TeachShield Blog
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