Once Delaware accepts your certificate the company exists, but it cannot do much yet. Most of what follows takes days rather than months, and two items have hard deadlines.
The first week
Every founder should sign their restricted stock purchase agreement and pay for their shares. The board consent approving the sale is not the sale itself; a founder owns the shares once the agreement is signed and paid. Record each issuance in the stock ledger.
Then file the 83(b) elections, before anything else on this list. Each founder has 30 days from buying their stock to file an 83(b) election with the IRS, the deadline cannot be extended and a miss cannot be fixed. Corply files each founder's election for $70: it mails it to the IRS by USPS Certified Mail with a return receipt and keeps the proof and the IRS-stamped copy. A founder who files it themselves can file online through an IRS Online Account or mail it by Certified Mail, then keep the proof and give the company a copy.
The company also needs an EIN, its federal tax ID, to open a bank account, run payroll and file tax returns. If a founder has a Social Security number, the IRS issues one online in minutes. If not, the company files Form SS-4 by fax or mail, which takes days to weeks. Corply prepares the SS-4 for its customers.
The rest of the first month
Open a bank account in the company's name, using the EIN, the stamped certificate of incorporation and the board consent that authorizes the account. From then on every dollar the company spends or receives should go through it, and company expenses paid from a personal account should be documented as a reimbursement or a loan.
Set up bookkeeping at the same time and connect it to the account. Your first tax return and your first diligence request will both ask for financial statements, and rebuilding a year of transactions from bank statements is miserable.
Make sure all the intellectual property is in the company's hands. Each founder's stock agreement should assign their prior work. If anyone else contributed code, designs or content before formation, such as a friend, a contractor or a cofounder who left, get a written assignment from them now, while they are easy to reach and on good terms.
And put the company's records in one place: the stamped certificate, the action of incorporator, the bylaws, the initial board consent, the founder stock agreements and proof of payment, the 83(b) elections and proof of filing, the EIN letter and the bank documents. This is the beginning of the company's minute book.
Within 90 days
If the company has an office, employees or real operations in a state other than Delaware, register there as a foreign corporation; the state registrations chapter explains when that applies. Put the recurring deadlines on a calendar too: the Delaware annual report and franchise tax every March 1, the registered agent's renewal and the first federal tax return. The next chapter lists them all.
One filing you can skip. Until 2025, most new U.S. companies had to file a beneficial ownership report with FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act. In March 2025, FinCEN exempted companies formed in the United States from that requirement, so domestic startups no longer file one. If a letter tells you otherwise, it is very likely a scam; check FinCEN's website before paying anyone.