Incorporating in Delaware costs $1,250 flat through Elevate Law, plus a flat $229 filing fee — which also covers your first year of registered agent service. That's the whole answer: $1,479 total, no variables, no surprises. If you came here just for the number, you have it.
If you want to know what that actually buys you — and why most founders don't get a straight answer to this question — keep reading.
Why "how much does it cost" is usually the wrong question to ask a lawyer
Ask a typical firm what incorporation costs, and you'll get some version of "it depends" followed by an hourly rate. That's not the firm being difficult — it's genuinely how most legal billing works. The problem is that "it depends" isn't useful information when you're trying to budget for your company's first real expense.
We do it differently: the price is published, it's flat, and it doesn't change once we start. You see the number before you commit to anything.
What's actually included in $1,250
A lot of founders assume "incorporation" just means filing one document with the state. It doesn't. A properly incorporated startup — one that can actually take investment later without a cleanup project — needs several pieces working together:
- Certificate of Incorporation, filed with the State of Delaware
- Bylaws, governing how the company operates
- Founder stock purchase agreements, with vesting built in from day one
- IP assignment, making sure the company (not you personally) owns what you build
- Initial board consents, formally authorizing the company's first actions
- A clean cap table, so you and any co-founders know exactly who owns what
Skip any of these at formation, and you're paying to fix it later — usually at a worse time, like in the middle of a funding round when a VC's lawyers start asking questions.
What about vesting?
This one's worth calling out specifically, because it's the most common thing we see done wrong (or skipped entirely) by founders who incorporate themselves. The standard startup vesting schedule is four years, with a one-year cliff — meaning no shares vest at all until you've been with the company for a full year, then vesting continues monthly after that.
Investors expect to see this. If your founder stock doesn't have it, that's a red flag in diligence, and it's a much more awkward conversation to have with a co-founder after the company already has a valuation than it is to set up correctly on day one. It's included in our $1,250, structured this way by default.
When would incorporation cost more than $1,250?
Rarely, but it happens. If you have an unusual number of founders with heavily negotiated, non-standard terms, or a cap table that's already complicated before you've even incorporated (say, from a prior informal arrangement), that can mean more work than a standard formation. We'll always tell you up front if your situation falls outside the flat fee — not after the fact.
How long does it take?
Three to five business days from when we have what we need from you. If you're holding a term sheet or a deadline, say so — that's exactly the kind of situation flat-fee, fast-turnaround incorporation exists for.
Ready to incorporate?
Tell us what you're building and we'll walk you through exactly what happens next, at the price you already know.
