I’m Julian Bleß, tax advisor for startups and SaaS companies. With the RUNWAY system I make sure your structure fits your financing round, your VAT is right for international customers, and you know what you owe the tax office.
Without having to explain to your advisor what a Liquidation Preference is first.
You send over the contract for your financing round. Back comes a question about what that is supposed to be. In the end you explain your own financing instrument to your advisor.
Your investors want quarterly reporting. The numbers arrive long after the Term Sheet has been signed.
Your shares are still held privately, there is no holding company. Before the round, that would have been an hour of advice. Afterwards, depending on the valuation, it can run to six figures.
Virtual shares were handed out long ago, and nobody looked at the tax side. It will surface at the exit. By then it’s too late for a clean solution.
Your invoices arrive by email, your receipts live in the cloud. Your firm still wants them sorted in a binder. So once a quarter you print everything out.
On Tuesday the investor asks for the numbers. Friday is signing. Your firm will get back to you next week.
Most SaaS companies end up with a tax advisor who does everything for everyone. Bakery, medical practice, trades business. Your case is one of many, and it’s the most complicated one in the pile.
The truth: a generalist tax advisor CAN’T know the specifics of a SaaS company. Not out of carelessness, but because it’s impossible to keep thirty industries up to date at the same time. Convertible loans, holding periods under the Reorganisation Tax Act (UmwStG), fund investments, exit taxation for founders moving abroad: these are topics that simply never come up in the day-to-day work of a generalist firm.
We see it with every client we take over: shares held privately where a holding company should have been set up long ago. Subscriptions not accrued, and the R&D tax allowance left on the table. Mistakes that cost you money, usually just when it hurts: at the exit or in a tax audit.
It isn’t malice. It’s a lack of industry knowledge. The only difference: you pay for it, not your advisor.
I look at what’s there: articles of association, Cap Table, equity programme, ongoing bookkeeping, open tax assessments. At the end there’s a list of what needs fixing right away and what should be decided strategically.
I look at what’s there: articles of association, Cap Table, equity programme, ongoing bookkeeping, open tax assessments. At the end there’s a list of what needs fixing right away and what should be decided strategically.
We set up bookkeeping, chart of accounts and VAT the way a SaaS company actually works. Not like a retailer.
We automate your bookkeeping. Snap your receipts, upload, done. No sorting, no shoebox. Everything a Due Diligence asks for is in place. In order. Not somewhere in a DATEV folder nobody can find.
Every quarter we talk through your numbers before they become a problem. Tax prepayments, reserves, upcoming decisions. I get in touch with you, not the other way round.
Before every round, every exit, every move abroad and every employee equity plan, we look at it first. That’s the part most firms don’t offer at all, and the part that moves the most money.
The five steps before concern your company. This one concerns you. Salary structure, your own holding company, holding periods on your shares, taxation at exit, moving abroad. In the end, what counts isn’t what the GmbH earns, but what reaches you.
Your bookkeeping runs digitally and automatically. You get regular reports – without having to ask for them.
The year-end isn’t an event, it’s the result of twelve clean months. Because everything is right during the year, there’s nothing left to fix at the reporting date.
The part you actually need a tax advisor for. Financing rounds, holding structures, fund investments, exit, moving abroad. Everything that gets very expensive later if it’s done wrong once.
For four years I advised startups exclusively. Two of those years on fund structures – the side your investors come from.
I passed the German tax advisor exam in 2023 on the first attempt. In 2026 I founded the firm. Not because the world needed another tax firm. But because SaaS founders need one that speaks their language.
RUNWAY is the system I use to turn that into clarity: structure, evidence, numbers. So you can focus on product and team.
Book a free intro callPick a free slot for your free intro call. Takes 2 minutes.
We go through your structure, your open issues and your ongoing support. You get an honest assessment, even if it’s that you can stay where you are.
We take care of everything organisational. You sit back. In 2–3 weeks everything is up and running.
You carry on as before. Same firm, same rhythm, same gut feeling.
You book a free intro call and find out what your current structure costs you every year.
Free and without obligation. No newsletter, no follow-up nonsense.
As soon as you have recurring revenue, international customers or employee equity, yes. That’s exactly where generalist firms make mistakes that cost you dearly in your next financing round.
Prepaid subscriptions have to be accrued over the right periods – revenue is spread over the contract term, not taxed when the payment comes in. We set up your bookkeeping so this happens correctly and automatically.
In most cases, yes. Software development often counts as eligible R&D. We review your projects, handle the application and documentation, and secure up to €3.5 million in funding per year.
It depends on the model – real shares, virtual options or the new Future Financing Act (Zukunftsfinanzierungsgesetz). We set up the most tax-efficient option for you and explain it clearly to your team.
If you’re looking for a firm that takes receipts in folders and gets back to you once a year, it’s not a fit. Nor if you work in an industry I don’t work with.
And frankly: if you’re only looking for the lowest price, you’ll find it elsewhere. I pay for myself through what I prevent and optimise, not through my hourly rate.
Yes. We take over your bookkeeping seamlessly, clean up legacy issues and coordinate directly with your previous firm – with no gaps.
That depends on scope and structure. In the free intro call we’ll give you a transparent, fair quote with no hidden costs.
Every quarter we go through your numbers, adjust tax prepayments and look at what’s coming up in the next few months. The difference shows when decisions come up: a financing round, a new employee equity programme, a move abroad. These things need to be discussed beforehand, not in the annual accounts.
