Stripe Atlas, Firstbase, doola: three traps for the same problem

In the previous piece I argued that for a founder living in Tbilisi, Yerevan, or Belgrade, a US LLC usually isn't necessary — the local sole-proprietor regime does the job better. But there are cases where it's still required: raising US VC, US clients with strict bookkeeping requirements, running a B2C product on Stripe with US payment rails. And that's where the next circus starts.

Three services dominate this niche: Stripe Atlas, Firstbase, doola. Each markets itself as turnkey LLC formation — company, bank, EIN, all included. Each one, in practice, breaks at a different step for a founder with a Russian or Belarusian passport.

Stripe Atlas — $500 one-time plus $100/year for registered agent. The fee covers Delaware C-Corp or LLC formation, EIN, 83(b) filing, $2,500 in Stripe credits, and over $50K in discounts on partner tools. Sounds like the best deal of the three. The catch: Atlas is Stripe, and Stripe's terms explicitly prohibit services to "persons located in, residents of, or citizens of" Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk; Russia and Belarus are covered under separate service-export restrictions. In practice, applications submitted with a Russian or Belarusian passport get declined at compliance review — before you ever reach the banking step. Not "bank rejected you," but "the formation itself didn't launch." The fee is non-refundable.

Firstbase — $399 one-time plus $349/year compliance. The package covers Wyoming or Delaware LLC, EIN, US address, and a "US bank account" — and that last item is where it gets interesting. Firstbase's banking partner is Mercury. In August 2024 Mercury closed accounts of founders with passports from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela in a single sweep; new applications with those passports now get auto-declined. Firstbase forms your LLC, hands you off to Mercury with a promise they've already broken, and Mercury says no. You're left with a $400 LLC and no bank account.

doola — $297 starter plan plus $1,999–2,999/year if you want compliance. The most honest of the three. The starter plan covers formation, EIN, registration. No banking promises. If you're a non-US resident, the starter rapidly becomes Total Compliance ($1,999/year) — because Form 5472 is mandatory for foreign-owned single-member LLCs, and you cannot file it correctly without help. So $297 turns into $2,000+ annually. But doola at least doesn't promise what it can't deliver: for non-US founders with problem passports, you find the bank yourself, and they say so upfront.

What actually works in this picture. If you genuinely need a US LLC and you hold a Russian or Belarusian passport, the cleanest combination looks like this. doola Starter at $297 for the formation, then Relay Financial at $0–30/month for the bank, separately. Relay in 2026 is the most active Mercury replacement for non-US founders, accepts most RU/BY passports with non-sanctioned residence, setup in one to two weeks.

That's $300 one-time plus ~$350/year compliance plus $0–360/year for banking. Cheaper and faster than the "complete" Atlas or Firstbase package, which simply won't close for you.

The rule that saves you two weeks and $500: before paying any of these three, check with two or three founders in your network with a similar profile — passport, residence, business type — and confirm what actually closed for them. In a founder Telegram chat this check takes an hour and costs nothing. None of the three service websites will give you the answer, because "not for you" doesn't sell.

Mercury, Wise, Relay, the UAE stack, the Estonian OÜ — each deserves its own piece. They're queued up.

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Disclosure: Unicorn Embassy is in active discussions with Firstbase and doola about affiliate partnerships; Stripe Atlas doesn't run an affiliate program at all. What I just wrote works against my own commercial interests on two of three. That's the whole point. Partnerships don't dictate the content.