I run the US office of a German startup. I'd add the below: 1) Issuing employee equity across countries is difficult: There are good US solutions to prevent em

I run the US office of a German startup. I'd add the below: 1) Issuing employee equity across countries is difficult: There are good US solutions to prevent employee equity/ option holders from needing to pay taxes before liquidity, and similarly for good German solutions to the same problem. Getting these two systems to "play nice" with each other is challenging. 2) Time zones: If possible, I'd think about time zones when expanding internationally. SF->Europe is brutal (8-9 hours), which is a major reason we put our US office in NYC. I wake up at 6, check email, and have half a day to work with the Germans during their work day. If I were to be on the West Coast, even by starting at 6am it's already 3pm in Germany. 3) Visas: A good option for international companies expanding to the US is an E-2 "investor" visa- these make it easy for employees of the foreign HQ to come over to the US for a few years as long as the foreign company is investing substantial money in the US organization (I think over a couple hundred $K is enough)