Thank you for this thoughtful response. You're raising legitimate concerns I may not fully understand.
Let me clarify my understanding (and please correct me if I'm wrong):
My assumption was that a structure like this would be legal:
- Partner in US/UK registers their own company
- Opens Stripe under their company name
- Hires me as a remote contractor (like any distributed team)
- I hold equity as a foreign shareholder (which I thought was legal for non-US persons)
Is your point that even this structure violates sanctions because I'm Iranian? Or that the risk/complexity makes it impractical for anyone without massive legal resources?
I genuinely don't want anyone to break the law. If what I'm proposing is illegal even in the structure above, I need to understand that.
Re: Russia/China/India - that's solid advice I hadn't seriously considered. Russia and China have their own complexities, but India makes a lot of sense. Do you know if Indian tech companies face similar restrictions when working with Iranians, or is it more open?
I appreciate you taking the time to explain this clearly rather than just dismissing it. If the Western partnership path is genuinely impossible (not just hard), I need to know that.
Let me clarify my understanding (and please correct me if I'm wrong):
My assumption was that a structure like this would be legal: - Partner in US/UK registers their own company - Opens Stripe under their company name - Hires me as a remote contractor (like any distributed team) - I hold equity as a foreign shareholder (which I thought was legal for non-US persons)
Is your point that even this structure violates sanctions because I'm Iranian? Or that the risk/complexity makes it impractical for anyone without massive legal resources?
I genuinely don't want anyone to break the law. If what I'm proposing is illegal even in the structure above, I need to understand that.
Re: Russia/China/India - that's solid advice I hadn't seriously considered. Russia and China have their own complexities, but India makes a lot of sense. Do you know if Indian tech companies face similar restrictions when working with Iranians, or is it more open?
I appreciate you taking the time to explain this clearly rather than just dismissing it. If the Western partnership path is genuinely impossible (not just hard), I need to know that.