Continuing down the alphabet…

• “F” is for furniture. Once you move away from coffee shops and libraries, you need to sit somewhere. When on a budget, you have 2 choices. Used stuff at Craigslist or new from IKEA. We happened to find a craigslist ad for a charter school that was moving and getting rid of alot of stuff. So, it felt good to spare the landfill of a few desks, whiteboards and chairs. IKEA seems to be the popular route for many startups. You can find a decent desk in the $200 range.
• “G” is for Google. Who else? We signed up for Google Apps for your Domain real, real early. I just didn’t see why I should pay for an inferior email system from a hosting provider or one of those Exchange services. The very small downside is the lack of a 2-way sync with my blackberry, but everyone at Coupa has a 2GB mailbox, POP3 access, a shared company calendar, docs/spreadsheets, etc for FREE. Plus we use Google Analytics on our site.
• “H” is for health benefits. This could take up 5 blog postings on its own. In California, you can go to a benefits broker or to one of the PEO services like TriNet or AdminiStaff. The PEOs cover payroll, benefits, worker’s comp in one fee. 25% of my network recommended PEOs for believing that they were cheaper all-in b/c they could get better rates on health insurance. Another 25% went for PEOs saying it’s easier just to write a single check to a PEO versus dealing with different vendors for payroll, insurance, benefits. I sided with the remaining 50% and went a la carte. We’re saving money and providing better options for our employees by what we did (I’m confident of that). For health benefits, I learned that there’s some law in California that guarantees that companies can get health coverage (as long as they have a few months of operating experience) and that all brokers get the same price. So, I found a broker who was responsive. This is critical, because you’re going to have questions…so you want someone to return your call/email. We went with a couple PPO plans, a HSA plan, plus dental/vision. You don’t have many choices on dental and most of the options stink. PS. If you want to know who we chose for certain things, just contact me.
• “I” is for Incorporation. I’d recommend getting a lawyer to do this. There are a few options to choose from: S, C or LLC, plus you need to pick an incorporation state. You might want to hold off incorporating until it’s necessary, which is probably the earlier of having employees/stock/payroll or taking venture money. There are a million posts on the benefits of one model vs. the other. VCs typically won’t invest in LLCs, so we went for the C.
• I can’t think of anything for “J” and “K”