The taxes and employment are fine in practice, and in some ways setting up a company in Europe (or at least some parts of Europe) is easier and cheaper than the

The taxes and employment are fine in practice, and in some ways setting up a company in Europe (or at least some parts of Europe) is easier and cheaper than the US. For something like soup.io, it's loss-making, and has little revenue, so tax and employment are both irrelevant. What's harder is the investment culture. There isn't as much of a culture of investing in experimental startups that probably won't make a profit. But many parts of the US have the same issue - investment isn't readily available everywhere there either.