In our last post, we survived the bank and the Nova Scotia Registry of Joint Stocks. We assumed the hard part was over. We have a corporation and a bank account. Surely we can just log in and start building.
We were wrong. Welcome to the world of “Digital Plumbing,” where prove-you-exist bureaucracy meets 1990s banking tech.
The Developer Account Gauntlet
To put an app on a phone, you have to dance with the gatekeepers at Google and Apple. Both require a Dun & Bradstreet (D-U-N-S) Number to verify you as a legal entity, which took about 10 days to finally process. While Google’s onboarding was relatively smooth, Apple’s vetting process is a high-stakes waiting game taking another week or more.
Stripe, PayPal, and the Caffeine Connection
The vetting process didn’t stop with the App Store. To actually accept money, we had to run the gauntlet with Stripe and PayPal. They don’t just want a business ID; they want specific documents proving exactly who the owners are and their legal relationship to the company. It is an invasive level of vetting just to be allowed to pay an annual fee, acting as the final gatekeepers for our digital storefront.
Once those were finally approved, we were able to get Buy Me a Coffee live. It’s the last piece of the revenue puzzle, though so far, no caffeine aficionados have stepped up to fuel our late-night, or early morning sessions. Shakes fist at the internet.
When a Debit Card Fails
We learned a frustrating lesson about our Business Debit card. It works fine at a bank machine, and in a store, but it isn’t a Visa Debit.
In the world of modern SaaS, if a card doesn’t have 16-digit functionality for online payments, it’s useless for subscriptions. So we’re still paying for things with our own cards, and reimbursing ourselves….. from the money we took from ourselves to see the bank account in the first place!
To fix this, we have to apply for a business credit card. But even in 2026, we can’t just click a button. We have to make an actual phone call to the bank. In an age of AI and instant gratification, navigating a phone tree just to spend our own money creates a specific kind of telephone anxiety.
The Accounting Dilemma
With money moving out (not seen any in yet!), we need to track it. Since we don’t have inventory or payroll, we want the leanest solution possible.
We are looking at Wave because it’s free and handles simple expense tracking well. The alternative is biting the bullet for QuickBooks. When the goal is just breaking even, every monthly subscription feels like a tiny leak in the boat.
The Foundation is Poured
We are slowly getting the pipes connected. The water isn’t flowing yet, but the wrenches are out.
Next time, we actually talk about the products. We’ll cover Vercel, the struggle of publishing an app, using AI in our workflow, and how we might tackle multiple domains, emails and social media accounts!