When you are two person startup with no revenues, you don't have luxury of going through arcane laws of each of 50 states. You are surviving on ramen in your parent's garage and you can't hire lawyers. As OP describes, there was nothing "minimal" in what CA demands including 40+ pages of forms you need to fill out.
If you’re a two person start up, you only need to worry about maybe 2 states, not 50. This page was all they needed to read: https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/business/doing-business-in-calif.... Doesn’t seem arcane to me. The 40+ pages is described as an annual tax return. I don’t know what to say to someone who wants to have a SaaS business but can’t get 40+ pages filled out annually.
