u/SimpleClosure_Sam

At NY Tech Week, we asked founders what advice they’d give their past selves.

Felix, CTO at Eisen, said: don’t be scared.

In this clip, he talks about those early moments when you’re not fully sure what’s working yet, why the early reps still matter, and how learning different parts of the business can compound later as a founder.

Worth watching if you’re in that stage where you’re still figuring out the product, the market, or your role inside the company.

At NY Tech Week, we asked founders what they would tell an earlier version of themselves.

Nick from Marco said his answer was simple: pivot earlier.

Hey founders,

Sharing this because one of the easiest things to miss when closing a startup is the final tax return. A lot of people focus on the state dissolution filing and think that is the end of it, but the tax side is what can come back later if it is not handled properly. 

A few useful takeaways from this guide:

• If you dissolve mid-year, that usually creates a short tax year, which means your filing deadline may come up sooner than you expect. 
• If you are a corporation, you may need to file Form 966 within 30 days of the resolution to shut down. LLCs and partnerships generally do not file Form 966. 
• Your final return depends on entity type: Schedule C for sole props, Form 1065 for partnerships, Form 1120 for C-corps, and Form 1120-S for S-corps. 
• It is not just income tax either. Final payroll tax, sales tax, and state tax accounts often need to be dealt with too.
• After filing, you still want to close tax accounts and keep your records for several years in case questions come up later.

One part I think founders underestimate is that “we stopped operating” and “we finished the tax shutdown correctly” are not the same thing.

If you are in the middle of winding down and want a clearer breakdown, this article is a good resource:

https://simpleclosure.com/blog/posts/closing-startup-final-tax-return/

I’m with SimpleClosure, and one thing we see a lot is people assuming dissolving a Delaware corporation is just a state filing. In reality, there are usually a few different layers to get right: board and shareholder approval, franchise tax and annual report issues, the correct dissolution form, creditor and asset cleanup, and then the final federal tax side too

A couple details from the guide that are easy to miss:

• Delaware can require either a short form or standard form Certificate of Dissolution depending on the company’s situation
• Even after dissolution, the corporation can continue existing for up to 3 years just to wrap up remaining business like claims, debts, and distributions
• Founders often focus on the state filing and forget the rest of the shutdown work like creditors, bank accounts, out-of-state registrations, Form 966, and final tax returns

If you’re dealing with a Delaware C-corp shutdown, this guide walks through the process step by step:

https://simpleclosure.com/blog/posts/dissolve-delaware-corporation/