Terms

Last updated October 21, 2026

The Honest Founder is a brand of Sunstate Bay Ventures, LLC, a Florida limited liability company based in St. Petersburg, Florida. "I" and "we" below mean that company. These terms cover anything you buy at thehonestfounder.co.

What I sell

I occasionally sell a finished website outright to a single buyer. That is done by separate written agreement, not through these terms.

The I’ve got you plan

For a business with both a Florida LLC and a fictitious name (a DBA). I handle every filing Florida requires, when it is due, for as long as you keep the plan.

• What you pay. $360 to start, or $390 in Miami-Dade and select counties where the qualifying newspaper costs more. That forms your LLC and publishes and registers your fictitious name. Then $249 each January, which files your annual report; $138.75 of it is the state's filing fee. Your fictitious name renewal, due by December 31 of its fifth year, is included.
• The yearly charge is automatic. Your card is charged in early January, starting with the year your first annual report is due, which is the year after your LLC is formed. I email you in early December before every January charge, with the amount. It continues each year until you cancel.
• Each January. I email you the details the state has on file: your principal and mailing addresses, registered agent, and managers or members. You reply to confirm them or tell me what changed. The annual report certifies that this information is true, so I file only once you have confirmed it, within two business days of your reply.
• My promise on the deadline. If you confirm your details by March 31 and your payment has gone through, your report is filed before May 1. If it is not, and Florida charges the $400 late fee because of me, I pay it.
• If I do not hear back. I remind you in January, February and March. If you have not confirmed by April 1, I refund that year's $249 in full and filing that year's report is yours to do, with a month left before the May 1 deadline. I tell you exactly what is due. The plan carries on to the next year unless you cancel.
• If a payment fails. Stripe retries the card and I email you. I do not file until the payment goes through. If it has not by April 1, filing that year is yours, and I tell you so in writing.
• If prices change. If Florida changes its annual report or renewal fee, the yearly price changes by the same amount and I tell you in the December email. Any change to my own part of the price is announced at least 60 days before the January charge it applies to, so you can cancel first.
• Not included. A registered agent, which every Florida LLC must have and which is listed on every annual report; an EIN; tax filings; county or city business licenses; and filings the annual report cannot make, such as renaming or dissolving the LLC. The plan covers one fictitious name. Each additional name is $185 to publish and register, $215 in Miami-Dade and select counties, plus $25 a year to keep its renewal covered.
• If you already have an LLC or a DBA, the setup depends on what is already filed, so we agree your terms by email.
• Cancelling. Any time, by email. What is refundable is on the refunds page. Closing or selling the business ends the plan; dissolving the LLC is a separate filing and not part of it.

State fees are the state's, not mine

Where a price includes a government fee, I say so and I say how much. $125 of the $175 LLC price is the Division of Corporations' fee and goes to the state. The $50 Sunbiz fee for registering a fictitious name is yours to pay the state directly; it is not part of the publication price.

Timing

I do not set the clock on any of this, so I do not promise a date.

• Publication. Your notice runs in the next available edition of the qualifying paper in your county. I need your order 24 hours ahead of that newspaper's deadline to draft and submit it. Papers run anywhere from daily to weekly, so the print date depends on where your business is.
• LLC filing. I check your name and file, usually the same day. Approval is the Division of Corporations' to give, and its processing time moves daily. Their published processing dates are the authority, not anything I tell you.

Name availability

I check your requested name against the Division of Corporations before filing, which is why the form asks for a second and third choice. A check is not a guarantee: the state can still refuse a name, and names can be taken between the check and the filing.

What you are responsible for

I file what you give me. Names, addresses, the registered agent and the authorized persons are printed on your filing exactly as submitted, so they need to be correct. If something is incorrect, reply to your confirmation email the same day and I can usually still change it. Once a notice has gone to a newspaper or a filing has gone to the state, a correction means a new filing and a new fee. If what you submit doesn't match the public record on Sunbiz — a different owner name, a business already filed under another entity — I'll reach out to confirm before anything runs. That delay is not something I'm responsible for. Should a discrepancy exist between the information submitted on the order form and the public record maintained by the Florida Division of Corporations, additional verification may be required before your order can proceed, and any resulting delay shall extend the standard 24-hour processing window accordingly.

These filings are public

A fictitious-name notice is published in a newspaper, in print and usually online. An LLC filing is a public record on Sunbiz, including the principal address, the mailing address, the registered agent's name and street address, and each authorized person's name and address. If an address is one you would rather not have public, choose a different one before you order.

Payment

Payments are processed by Stripe. Card details never touch this site. Your statement shows THE HONEST FOUNDER. For LLC formation the card is authorized at checkout and charged only once your name is settled; see the refund and cancellation policy for what happens if it cannot be.

If I fail to deliver

If I do not deliver what you paid for, my responsibility is to correct it or refund you, up to what you paid. I am not responsible for delays or refusals by a newspaper or by the Division of Corporations, or for losses beyond the price of the service — a missed opening date, lost business, and the like. The one exception is the late-fee promise in the I’ve got you plan above: if your annual report is late because of me, I pay Florida's $400 late fee.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the law of the State of Florida.

Changes

If these terms change, the date at the top changes with them. The terms that apply to your order are the ones published when you placed it.

Contact

Questions about any of this: karen@thehonestfounder.co. More ways to reach me are on the contact page.