What to sort out before you register a limited company: the idea, the founding team, the name, the structure and the people you will need.
Registering a company takes minutes. Unpicking a rushed one can take months. Work through this list first, especially if you have co-founders or plan to raise investment.
With SkilledUp Life: Validate the idea with a team of skilled volunteers before you spend money on incorporation. How it helps ↓
Validate the problem before you spend money on a company. Ask what they do today and what it costs them, not whether they like your idea.
If you cannot name them, you are not ready to build. Real names, real organisations.
One page that forces clear answers on problem, customer, solution, channels and money.
Who leads product, sales and finance? Who is chief executive? Write it down while everyone is still friends.
Equal splits are common but not always fair. Vesting (often four years with a one-year cliff) protects everyone if a co-founder leaves early.
A few pages covering roles, equity, vesting, time commitment, decision-making and what happens if someone leaves. A solicitor turns it into the shareholders’ agreement after incorporation.
Many contracts give your employer rights over ideas or code you create, even in your own time, and restrict competing work. Check before you build anything.
Search the register and check the name is not the same as, or too like, an existing company.
A free company name does not mean a free brand. Search the UK trade mark register, and other markets you plan to sell in.
Buy the domain before you announce anything.
It is the standard structure for tech startups that may raise investment, offer share options or sell the business. Sole traders and partnerships cannot issue shares.
Issue enough ordinary shares at a low nominal value (for example 1,000,000 shares of £0.0001 each) so you can grant options and issue investor shares later without awkward fractions.
SEIS is only open to young companies, measured from when the company starts trading. If you plan to raise from angels, talk to your accountant about timing before you start trading, especially if you already trade through another business.
It must be an appropriate address in the same UK nation the company is registered in, where post can be received and acknowledged. It is public, so many tech founders use an accountant’s or a service address rather than home.
Companies House requires one for official correspondence. It is not made public.
Directors and people with significant control (PSCs) must verify their identity with Companies House. Do it before you incorporate so registration is not held up.
Directors’ service addresses appear on the public register. Your home address can stay private if you give a different service address.
Pick an accountant who knows tech startups, SEIS/EIS and R&D tax relief, and a solicitor for the shareholders’ agreement.
How many months can you work on this before you need an income? Plan for it taking longer than you think.
Savings, customer revenue, part-time work, grants or angels. Revenue first is the cheapest money there is.
Your ticks are saved in this browser only. This checklist is general information for UK private limited companies, not legal, tax or accounting advice; rules, fees and thresholds change, so check GOV.UK and take professional advice.
What is the point of a company if the idea has no market? Put an idea validation team of up to 15 SkilledUp Lifers on it first, then incorporate with evidence, or move on having lost very little.
Share the problem you think exists, who you think has it, and what you need to learn. A short brief and a shared folder are enough.
Volunteers map competitors and alternatives, size the market bottom-up and gather the data on customers, prices and channels.
Volunteers recruit and schedule remote interviews, take notes and run short surveys, so you hear from far more customers in less time.
The team summarises what customers said and did. You decide: incorporate and build, pivot, or stop.
Before the company exists, volunteers support you as the founder. Ask them to sign confidentiality and IP terms, and assign everything to the company once it is incorporated.
SkilledUp Life is exclusively for tech companies. Volunteers cannot be paid in any form, including stipends, gift vouchers or expenses. All volunteering is remote, and no promises of paid roles can be made.
Start with a validation team →Join tech founders who put execution before investment.