4 ms·

As I posted somewhere else, this is THE time for EU to jumpstart their tech industry. It's a simple process: - Actively court American companies to set up sho

As I posted somewhere else, this is THE time for EU to jumpstart their tech industry. It's a simple process: - Actively court American companies to set up shop in EU - The global market is filled with tech workers who would otherwise be sucked in by the US. Give them visas. This is a great boost to GDP and bounce back from covid recession. Canada has capitalized on this for the past 4 years and the wages in Canada have only gone up and up. EU can have the pie too while the US shoots itself in the foot.

filoleg 6y ago
>Actively court American companies to set up shop in EU They have already been doing that pretty actively for quite a while. Doesn't seem to help much, if at all. Have you seen how much those American companies are paying to their employees in the EU? It is a joke compared to how much they pay in the US, and even with that in mind, their pay is still well above local equivalent companies. And it isn't due to differences in cost of living, just take a look at how much FB London pays (yes, I am aware that UK is not a part of EU, but the point still stands; I just simply picked one of the biggest "hub" cities in the are with very high COL). >The global market is filled with tech workers who would otherwise be sucked in by the US. Give them visas. EU doesn't suffer from a lack of talented individuals who have a desire and skills to start their own tech company. There have been countless discussions on this topic on HN, and the hard truth is that the governments in EU are simply not providing a conductive environment for those tech startups to flourish into internationally known giants. And the whole EU fragmentation due to wildly different legislations and language/culture barriers on a per-country basis isn't helping the matter either.
- Archit3ch 6y ago
  Another issue in the EU is that they try to generalise the term "startup" to non-tech ventures... and then try to apply the advice meant for 80% margin B2B SaaS companies.
- mFixman 6y ago
  Anecdotal data, but you are wrong. If you count total comp FB London pays waaaay more than British tech companies and pretty much anything outside of high finance. The salaries aren't that much lower from what you'll get in Silicon Valley.
  - angarg12 6y ago
    Data? From my experience, my colleagues in Seattle make about twice as much as I do in the UK. Raw numbers, not counting taxes, cost of living, etc. In general a new hire in US can make as much as a senior in EU. Comparing income between countries is very difficult due to a lot of factors (different currency, cost of living, taxes, social benefits like health and education...) but I don't think is hard to argue that tech workers are paid much better in the US than they are in the EU, factoring everything in.
    - nine_zeros 6y ago
      Why compare with Seattle? Also just because Seattle gets more, does that mean its not worthwhile to have higher wages in UK? What kind of reductionist point of view is this? It has been clearly observed that the standards of living and wages have gone up in countries that have invested in tech over last 20 years. These countries are USA, India, China and Canada recently. Don't you want higher than what you are getting now? Make it easy for industry to survive and operate there.
      - themacguffinman 6y ago
        > Why compare with Seattle? Because if Seattle has significantly higher wages, the best talent will move to Seattle.
        nine_zeros 6y ago
        > Because if Seattle has significantly higher wages, the best talent will move to Seattle. Not if the entry to Seattle is blocked. In which case, the employers have to move to where the best talent is.
angarg12 6y ago
Unless they make a serious commitment, open large offices (a la HQ2) and ensure proper employee career progression, workers overseas will still suffer from the "satellite office effect". Managers will deny it but from my experience and anectdata career opportunities are simply much better in the main offices. Colleagues in sister teams in the US work on more interesting projects, and get promoted 2-3 times more. Unless I'm convinced I'll have the same career opportunities here I could in the US, staying won't be a long term option.
phendrenad2 6y ago
>Actively court American companies to set up shop in EU Hate to say it, but you're wrong. American tech companies are American companies, run by Americans with American consumers in mind. What you need to do is figure out why Europeans are using American sites rather than European alternatives (where those exist).
throw_m239339 6y ago
Countries like Ireland, Germany, and co are already doing that. Obviously 2 issues: tech scenes aren't as big and neither are salaries... It's certainly a better opportunity for Canada on the other hand. Canada is the country that will profit from all this the most.

filoleg 6y ago

>Actively court American companies to set up shop in EU They have already been doing that pretty actively for quite a while. Doesn't seem to help much, if at all. Have you seen how much those American companies are paying to their employees in the EU? It is a joke compared to how much they pay in the US, and even with that in mind, their pay is still well above local equivalent companies. And it isn't due to differences in cost of living, just take a look at how much FB London pays (yes, I am aware that UK is not a part of EU, but the point still stands; I just simply picked one of the biggest "hub" cities in the are with very high COL). >The global market is filled with tech workers who would otherwise be sucked in by the US. Give them visas. EU doesn't suffer from a lack of talented individuals who have a desire and skills to start their own tech company. There have been countless discussions on this topic on HN, and the hard truth is that the governments in EU are simply not providing a conductive environment for those tech startups to flourish into internationally known giants. And the whole EU fragmentation due to wildly different legislations and language/culture barriers on a per-country basis isn't helping the matter either.

Archit3ch 6y ago
Another issue in the EU is that they try to generalise the term "startup" to non-tech ventures... and then try to apply the advice meant for 80% margin B2B SaaS companies.
mFixman 6y ago
Anecdotal data, but you are wrong. If you count total comp FB London pays waaaay more than British tech companies and pretty much anything outside of high finance. The salaries aren't that much lower from what you'll get in Silicon Valley.
- angarg12 6y ago
  Data? From my experience, my colleagues in Seattle make about twice as much as I do in the UK. Raw numbers, not counting taxes, cost of living, etc. In general a new hire in US can make as much as a senior in EU. Comparing income between countries is very difficult due to a lot of factors (different currency, cost of living, taxes, social benefits like health and education...) but I don't think is hard to argue that tech workers are paid much better in the US than they are in the EU, factoring everything in.
  - nine_zeros 6y ago
    Why compare with Seattle? Also just because Seattle gets more, does that mean its not worthwhile to have higher wages in UK? What kind of reductionist point of view is this? It has been clearly observed that the standards of living and wages have gone up in countries that have invested in tech over last 20 years. These countries are USA, India, China and Canada recently. Don't you want higher than what you are getting now? Make it easy for industry to survive and operate there.
    - themacguffinman 6y ago
      > Why compare with Seattle? Because if Seattle has significantly higher wages, the best talent will move to Seattle.
      - nine_zeros 6y ago
        > Because if Seattle has significantly higher wages, the best talent will move to Seattle. Not if the entry to Seattle is blocked. In which case, the employers have to move to where the best talent is.

angarg12 6y ago

Unless they make a serious commitment, open large offices (a la HQ2) and ensure proper employee career progression, workers overseas will still suffer from the "satellite office effect". Managers will deny it but from my experience and anectdata career opportunities are simply much better in the main offices. Colleagues in sister teams in the US work on more interesting projects, and get promoted 2-3 times more. Unless I'm convinced I'll have the same career opportunities here I could in the US, staying won't be a long term option.

phendrenad2 6y ago

>Actively court American companies to set up shop in EU Hate to say it, but you're wrong. American tech companies are American companies, run by Americans with American consumers in mind. What you need to do is figure out why Europeans are using American sites rather than European alternatives (where those exist).

throw_m239339 6y ago

Countries like Ireland, Germany, and co are already doing that. Obviously 2 issues: tech scenes aren't as big and neither are salaries... It's certainly a better opportunity for Canada on the other hand. Canada is the country that will profit from all this the most.