startuptax.io is a project I initiated. I am a tax advisor at Appelt & Wieland and have spent around 15 years advising startups, deep-tech companies and founders on tax and structural questions — from the first choice of legal form through to exit.
The most expensive mistakes happen
before anyone asks.
There is a phase in a startup's history where a tax advisor is typically not yet at the table. Founders are occupied with product, team and financing — tax questions feel abstract and distant. And yet it is precisely then that decisions are made which are difficult or expensive to reverse later.
In around 15 years of working with startups I have repeatedly seen how avoidable mistakes from this early phase turned into real problems later — sometimes just before a financing round, sometimes not until exit.
startuptax.io starts exactly there: making tax-relevant knowledge accessible before it is too late. Not as a substitute for individual advice — that remains irreplaceable — but as orientation for founders who want to form their own picture early on.
The content is deliberately simplified and typified. It does not cover every individual case. But it provides a framework — and helps in asking the right questions when it matters.