Virtual Addresses for Startups

TL;DR: A virtual address gives your startup a real, durable mailing address, without needing a physical office. It’s useful for privacy & organization — no mail to your home, no revealing your home address to random vendors.

Let’s say you’re a startup founder who knows you’re going to be moving around a fair bit. But you need to give various state agencies, vendors, and software providers a mailing address that they can reach you at.

What should you do? Use your parents’ address in Ohio¹ , or use a virtual address?

Hint: the latter.

What exactly is a virtual address?

A virtual address is a commercial mailing address you can use for your business—whether or not you work there physically. It's offered by services that receive your mail, scan it, forward it, or hold it for pickup.

It’s not a P.O. Box. It’s a real street address—often in a co-working space, business center, or mail hubs. There are a few situations where you won’t be able to use one, mostly “KYC” driven (banking & insurance), but generally you can use the virtual address anywhere that you are asked for your business’ address.

When Virtual Addresses Make Sense

1. You work from home (or anywhere else). If you don’t have a dedicated office, a virtual address lets you register your business with a professional, permanent location—without listing your apartment on public records.

2. You value privacy. Your home address doesn’t need to be public. A virtual address protects your personal info—especially important if you're a solo founder.

3. You dread handling mail. Even if you have an office that you know you’ll be in for a while, receiving, tracking, and disposing of mail can be overwhelming. Virtual mailboxes scan your mail in for you to a digital portal, and can forward or shred mail upon request.

How to Get One

There are a lot of services out there. PostScanMail is our go-to, as it’s the most affordable we’ve come across while still being reliable. We also see folks recommend Stable & Earth Class Mail, but both are pricier. A few common ones founders use:

Expect to pay anywhere from $10–$50/month depending on location and services (scanning, mail forwarding, storage, etc.).

There is one annoying piece to the set up: getting a notarized USPS Form 1583. This form tells the USPS that the virtual mailbox is allowed to receive and open mail on your behalf. You can use an online notary, but you’ll need to show your identity docs live & go through the notary process live.

1  if you’re reading this and you think I’m referencing you, I am