Hello, and welcome to today's edition of Founders International, your daily newsletter where we cover the stories, trends, and companies in tech and startups from outside of the US. That's right, as of today, we go live AND daily.

Here's what we're covering today:1. Why international companies are forming US companies2. An Indian company helping turn your everyday spending into gold, literally3. The place to be if you're starting a life sciences company

Average read time: 3 minutes and 21 seconds

International businesses are coming to the US, but not for why you may think.

One reason I decided to focus a newsletter on this niche of businesses, which is startups and tech internationally, is I work in this industry every day and get to see amazing businesses and trends because of it. But, a lot of these companies have obstacles to overcome that we wouldn't even think of as a problem in the US. Everyday I see companies coming to me, asking for help with taxes for their company, and I always ask them the same question, "Why did you form a US business?"

You may think it's for access to the US market, which sometimes is the case. You may also think it is for the imagery to their customers, that they have a US business so they are official. Also, not totally wrong, but not the main reason.

The main reason there is a wave of people forming Delaware C-corps or Wyoming LLCs is for one big thing: currency. And to be more specific, Stripe. Stripe is THE reason people want a US business. It's not that they want or need the US dollar, although they may prefer it, they just want to be able to accept money in a safe and easy way, and Stripe is that solution.

Often the payment rails, financial gateways, and payment processors in their own country can be unreliable, be limited in the amounts they can deal with and process, or at worst, be corrupt/run by corrupt governments, and the people do not want to keep their money there. If my money was at risk to be taken, or lost by a bank while being sent to me for payments, I would probably look for a better solution too.

So, a lot of times, these people are coming to form a US business so they can obtain an EIN, and open an account with Stripe, just so they can begin taking payments. They may never even do business in the US or with US customers, but it simply is the best way for them to get paid by their customers.

This is a trend that will be followed a lot in this newsletter, as a lot of solutions are starting to arise all over the world to combat this, and it's worth keeping up with.

Want to know how they are forming these US businesses, and a niche little ecosystem being built by US entrepreneurs to help these people run/operate too? Read tomorrows issue and find out all about it, and how it can even help you with your businesses too.

A-Company-a-Day

Today's cool business: GullakCrunchbase PageLinkedIn Page

At it's surface, Gullak looks like a new and hip company to do your investing with. It's catchphrase is simply "India's Savings App," which frankly speaking, is boring and doesn't seem that interesting. But, when you get past that first layer, it becomes much more clear how cool this company is.

You may be familiar with a company called Acorns. Acorns is a company that "invests your spare change." So, if you had a purchase for $5.50 at Starbucks, Acorns would say "Hey, round that transaction up to $6 and we will invest the 50 cents for you." And it worked! They now have 10 million people using their platform, one of which used to be me.

Gullak is taking that same approach, but with gold. Gold is seen very highly in India, and is a sign of wealth to many people. Because of this, people want to have it, and it has made India one of the largest markets for gold in the world.

What Gullak does is round your transaction to the nearest 10, and invests it in digital gold. You probably just read that and thought, "oh man, another person trying to do a scam with some digital currency." Not the case.

The investment is in digital gold, but you are actually investing it in "24k 999 pure gold" according to Gullak. This is real gold which has been stored in vaults, and is certified by the government which "assures purity and negates the chances of fraud." So, you get an IOU for a certain amount of gold equivalent to your investment, and then say that you own pure gold!

To take it one step further, you can even withdraw your investment and Gullak will send you a literal gold coin(s) if you want, although you can do it for cash too.

What a great idea! For young entrepreneurs out there, if there is ever anything you can do that makes things previously only available to the wealthy, available to all, there's a good chance of that business working. Examples? Black car service? Uber. Renting a house instead of a hotel on vacation? AirBnB. Low fee/no fee investing? Robinhood.

This is a perfect example, and a super cool company to follow as they work in a market of over a billion people.

Trend: The place to be for life sciences startups

I live in Minnesota, which is typically known as a place where a lot of people come to for health-tech and sciences due to our proximity with companies such as the Mayo, and even 3M. Other common places for this are Boston, as well as Cambridge.

But according to this LinkedIn post from Birgit Viktoria Huber, there may be a new sheriff in town if you are looking for a place to build a company in life sciences.

Basel, Switzerland.

Her reasons are pretty compelling too.

• Political/economic stability - fair enough for a country memed for being neutral

• Talent network, as there are a lot of interested people in the region

• Proximity to big pharma players (according to my deep research which definitely wasn't a quick google search, some companies in Basel already are Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Novartis and Roche)

This was even backed up Danish in the comments.

Speak it into existence my friend. We would love to see it happen.

And that's all for today, if you want to get more follow us @Founders_Intl, or respond to this email. Yes, we respond to all emails, including yours. Try us.

Have an interesting news story, person, company or other sweet topic you want us to cover? Respond to this email with a link, short description, any any other relevant information.

What did you think of today's issue?

Respond with one of these emojis and let us know what you thought!

💯 Freaking sick dude🤷‍♂️ Meh, do better next time😑 Bruh, I might unsubscribe after reading that