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I think you're missing the point here. He's coming at it from a sales perspective. I.e. if you're trying to sell into Romania then there's no point bragging abo

I think you're missing the point here. He's coming at it from a sales perspective. I.e. if you're trying to sell into Romania then there's no point bragging about being bootstrapped because that is a normal way of life for them. You also should recognise that they can produce the same products at a fraction of the cost, and so you may just be too expensive. On the R&D thing, of course there are issues with going international with development, but if you find the right people, you'll find that many are extremely competent and easy to communicate with.

nostrebored 11y ago
Articles like this completely ignore brain drain. "Extremely competent" becomes more of a rarity when high-quality developers in Eastern Europe move to Germany or the US. The reality is that nearly all of the time it's not "the same product." When it is, it's great for whoever made it, but when it's not, you're making the very serious decision to release a worse product to cut your costs. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it's not.
- LouisSayers 11y ago
  This is true - I've been told that Twitter has actively recruited university students in Romania. However, some people would simply prefer not to move to the US because of personal reasons. The cheaper clones may also be a lot worse in practice, but hey, it seems to be working for China ...
  - michaelmrose 11y ago
    The country that can't produce baby formula or pet food without plastic and or poison in it you mean.
  - vonmoltke 11y ago
    > This is true - I've been told that Twitter has actively recruited university students in Romania. This may be because Romanians seem to have a disproportionate interest in natural language processing.
- devy 11y ago
  Brain drain from Eastern Europe to the US are still few and far between because every year the H1B program for IT workforces are still predominately occupied by Chinese and Indian workers.[1] Also, keep in mind that in some of the fast growing developing countries and regions, reverse brain drain is happening [2]. With booming economic development in those places and the rising of Donald Trump alike politicians, reverse brain drains is only going to become more common. [1] https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/Reports%20and%20Studies/H-1B/h-1B-characteristics-report-14.pdf https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/Re... Section 3.2 Table 4A [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_brain_drain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_brain_drain
  - xyzzyz 11y ago
    If you want to move out of Eastern Europe, there's little reason and lots of hurdles when you want to move to the US. On the other hand, moving to UK or Germany is extremely easy, so that's what most people do.
    - JabavuAdams 11y ago
      Or Canada.

nostrebored 11y ago

Articles like this completely ignore brain drain. "Extremely competent" becomes more of a rarity when high-quality developers in Eastern Europe move to Germany or the US. The reality is that nearly all of the time it's not "the same product." When it is, it's great for whoever made it, but when it's not, you're making the very serious decision to release a worse product to cut your costs. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it's not.

LouisSayers 11y ago
This is true - I've been told that Twitter has actively recruited university students in Romania. However, some people would simply prefer not to move to the US because of personal reasons. The cheaper clones may also be a lot worse in practice, but hey, it seems to be working for China ...
- michaelmrose 11y ago
  The country that can't produce baby formula or pet food without plastic and or poison in it you mean.
- vonmoltke 11y ago
  > This is true - I've been told that Twitter has actively recruited university students in Romania. This may be because Romanians seem to have a disproportionate interest in natural language processing.
devy 11y ago
Brain drain from Eastern Europe to the US are still few and far between because every year the H1B program for IT workforces are still predominately occupied by Chinese and Indian workers.[1] Also, keep in mind that in some of the fast growing developing countries and regions, reverse brain drain is happening [2]. With booming economic development in those places and the rising of Donald Trump alike politicians, reverse brain drains is only going to become more common. [1] https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/Reports%20and%20Studies/H-1B/h-1B-characteristics-report-14.pdf https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/Re... Section 3.2 Table 4A [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_brain_drain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_brain_drain
- xyzzyz 11y ago
  If you want to move out of Eastern Europe, there's little reason and lots of hurdles when you want to move to the US. On the other hand, moving to UK or Germany is extremely easy, so that's what most people do.
  - JabavuAdams 11y ago
    Or Canada.