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First 90 Days After Incorporating in Canada: Founder Checklist

Checklist for the first 90 days after incorporating a startup in Canada.

This guide is written for founders who have just incorporated a Canadian startup and want to avoid the most common early-stage failure mode: doing the wrong things first. The first 90 days set legal, financial, and operational patterns that are hard to unwind later. In Canada, these early decisions also affect eligibility for funding, investor readiness, and long-term tax efficiency.

This is not a growth checklist. It is a founder survival and credibility checklist.

Days 1–30: Legal, Ownership, and Control

The first month is about making the company real in the eyes of investors, banks, and the government. Most mistakes here are silent and only surface during fundraising or diligence.

Confirm incorporation and share issuance. Ensure shares are properly issued, documented, and reflected in a basic cap table. If there are multiple founders, equity should already be subject to vesting, even if no one plans to leave. Retroactive vesting is a red flag.

Finalize co-founder agreements. Roles, time commitment, IP assignment, and departure scenarios must be agreed to early. Waiting until traction or tension appears usually makes the conversation harder and more expensive.

Assign intellectual property to the company. All founder-created IP must belong to the corporation. This is critical for venture funding, acquisitions, and programs like SR&ED. If IP was created before incorporation, it must be formally assigned.

Open a corporate bank account. Separate personal and company finances immediately. Canadian banks move slowly, so start early. Investors expect clean financial separation from day one.

Register for required government accounts. Depending on activity, this may include CRA program accounts for corporate tax, payroll, and GST/HST. You do not need to activate everything immediately, but you must understand what will be required as soon as revenue or hiring begins.

Days 31–60: Finance, Compliance, and Operating Discipline

The second month is about building internal discipline before external pressure arrives. This is where many founders skip steps that later become painful.

Set up basic accounting. Choose an accounting system and track expenses properly from the start. You do not need complex reporting, but you do need accuracy. Clean books matter for grants, tax credits, and investor diligence.

Document founder compensation approach. Even if founders are unpaid, this should be explicit. Decide how and when salaries may start, and how expenses are reimbursed. Ambiguity here creates resentment later.

Understand tax obligations and credits. Learn how corporate tax works, how GST/HST applies to your business, and whether your development work may qualify for SR&ED. You do not need to file yet, but you need to design your activity with future eligibility in mind.

Establish data handling and privacy basics. Canadian customers and partners expect reasonable data protection early. You do not need enterprise-grade security, but you do need intentional handling of customer data and internal access.

Create a simple operating cadence. Regular founder check-ins, documented decisions, and clear ownership of priorities prevent drift. This is especially important if founders are part-time or distributed.

Days 61–90: External Readiness and Optionality

The third month is about preparing the company to engage the outside world without scrambling. Even if fundraising is months away, readiness compounds.

Build a clean narrative. You should be able to explain what the company does, who it serves, and why it exists in one clear paragraph. This is not marketing copy. It is internal clarity that investors and partners will test later.

Prepare basic investor hygiene. This includes a clean cap table, incorporation documents, IP assignment records, and founder agreements. You do not need a pitch deck yet, but you should be able to answer diligence questions without stress.

Map funding pathways. Understand which capital sources make sense for your stage: angels, accelerators, government programs, or early revenue. Canadian founders who plan blended capital early extend runway and reduce dilution.

Clarify hiring intent. Even if you are not hiring yet, decide which roles matter first and whether they will be employees, contractors, or founders. This affects tax, IP, and immigration considerations.

Revisit founder alignment. After 90 days of real work, expectations change. Reconfirm commitment, roles, and priorities. This is a preventive conversation, not a crisis response.

Common Early-Stage Mistakes to Avoid

Many Canadian startups fail quietly by accumulating small issues early. The most common include delaying legal cleanup, mixing personal and company finances, skipping IP assignment, and assuming “we’ll fix it later” during fundraising.

Later is always more expensive.

Another frequent mistake is over-optimizing for growth before building foundation. Speed without structure creates fragility, not momentum.

Final Perspective

The first 90 days after incorporating in Canada are not about scaling. They are about earning the right to scale. Founders who build clean legal, financial, and operational foundations move faster later because they do not have to stop and fix preventable issues.

In Canadian startups, credibility compounds early. This checklist is about compounding the right things.

Disclaimer

This checklist is for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, financial, or HR advice. It does not take into account your specific circumstances, industry, or provincial requirements. You should consult qualified Canadian legal, tax, and accounting professionals before making incorporation, structuring, hiring, or compliance decisions based on this information.

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