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Living in EU. Can only say, the main reason is in my perspective regulatory and taxes. Some points - It is difficult to issue equity and get equity (tax) - Ea

Living in EU. Can only say, the main reason is in my perspective regulatory and taxes. Some points - It is difficult to issue equity and get equity (tax) - Each EU country has different taxes. You are taxed lower in Netherlands than in Germany. - Each country has different regulation rules. If you do something exciting. Wow let's say a social network. You would be killed by regulation and data privacy rules. Autonomous driving the same. Blockchain forget it. - Ideology driven investments. Maybe just a feeling. But nearly on each event green energy seems to be the hot topic. It is kind of political driven. Like everyone should jump on the green energy train. It is harder to get funding for more exotic topics...

jahsis 5y ago
This! Companies from smaller countries even can't grow, just because local market is big as it is and if you want to grow, you need to sell goods/services in other countries, which means you need lawyers to get into all tax and other legal nuances. Just by fixing this issues for small companies would boom growth of tech and other companies.
- MichaelRazum 5y ago
  exactly and it gets hell of complex since every country has its own tax rules. Especially CFC rules and so on makes your life pretty difficult. Big companies can of course play the game very well.
raverbashing 5y ago
There are a couple of self-driving and blockchain companies in Europe, but curiously enough they don't find it as difficult as some random internet commenter "killed by regulation and data privacy rules" Funny to see the same people that bemoan the privacy rules being now forced to follow them due to Apple and Google. Seems like they'll have to actually sit and think how to do instead of complaining.
hocuspocus 5y ago
> Autonomous driving the same. Blockchain forget it. There's plenty of both in the EU. And blockchain is more useful as a counter-example of innovation than anything.
- MichaelRazum 5y ago
  Autonomous driving. Which company plays in the same field as Us and or even Chinese companies? Blockchain: IT is controversial about the usefulness. But it is far more easier to make (legal) money with it outside of EU or in some small crypto friendly EU countries.
pvaldes 5y ago
Not to mention the VAT (Value Added Tax) that is a big weapon of market selfdestruction.
- rad_gruchalski 5y ago
  How so? It only affects the end consumer. It’s deductible for businesses.
  - pvaldes 5y ago
    To start, YOU are the end consumer. Lets imagine that you wake up one day, and all is 21% more expensive, would be happy with it?
    - pvaldes 5y ago
      And your startup is now a company, but also a tax collecting office. You are forced also to be a tax collector, collect money from your clients, keep it safe and pay it to the mobs... to the government before 100 days, either you have it or not. Your customers, of course, hate it. Will hate YOU for that. And will try to press you to forget VAT all the time. This system introduces a incredible amount of anger and friction in the process of selling a product, that must to be as straightforward and easy as possible. And is a bless to the bigco competitors. That leads us to the parallel VAT-less market that will be created in no time.
      - rad_gruchalski 5y ago
        > You are forced also to be a tax collector, collect money from your clients, keep it safe and pay it to the mobs... to the government before 100 days, either you have it or not. Well, you raise an invoice with VAT on it, you get paid, you put the VAT money on the side because it is NOT YOUR money and you pay the VAT to the financial system. Your invoice goes into accounting only when it's paid. Can you explain what's wrong with that? > Your customers, of course, hate it. Will hate YOU for that. 160 countries around the world have VAT / GST. Haven't seen widespread "HATE" anywhere.

jahsis 5y ago

This! Companies from smaller countries even can't grow, just because local market is big as it is and if you want to grow, you need to sell goods/services in other countries, which means you need lawyers to get into all tax and other legal nuances. Just by fixing this issues for small companies would boom growth of tech and other companies.

MichaelRazum 5y ago
exactly and it gets hell of complex since every country has its own tax rules. Especially CFC rules and so on makes your life pretty difficult. Big companies can of course play the game very well.

raverbashing 5y ago

There are a couple of self-driving and blockchain companies in Europe, but curiously enough they don't find it as difficult as some random internet commenter "killed by regulation and data privacy rules" Funny to see the same people that bemoan the privacy rules being now forced to follow them due to Apple and Google. Seems like they'll have to actually sit and think how to do instead of complaining.

hocuspocus 5y ago

> Autonomous driving the same. Blockchain forget it. There's plenty of both in the EU. And blockchain is more useful as a counter-example of innovation than anything.

MichaelRazum 5y ago
Autonomous driving. Which company plays in the same field as Us and or even Chinese companies? Blockchain: IT is controversial about the usefulness. But it is far more easier to make (legal) money with it outside of EU or in some small crypto friendly EU countries.

pvaldes 5y ago

Not to mention the VAT (Value Added Tax) that is a big weapon of market selfdestruction.

rad_gruchalski 5y ago
How so? It only affects the end consumer. It’s deductible for businesses.
- pvaldes 5y ago
  To start, YOU are the end consumer. Lets imagine that you wake up one day, and all is 21% more expensive, would be happy with it?
  - pvaldes 5y ago
    And your startup is now a company, but also a tax collecting office. You are forced also to be a tax collector, collect money from your clients, keep it safe and pay it to the mobs... to the government before 100 days, either you have it or not. Your customers, of course, hate it. Will hate YOU for that. And will try to press you to forget VAT all the time. This system introduces a incredible amount of anger and friction in the process of selling a product, that must to be as straightforward and easy as possible. And is a bless to the bigco competitors. That leads us to the parallel VAT-less market that will be created in no time.
    - rad_gruchalski 5y ago
      > You are forced also to be a tax collector, collect money from your clients, keep it safe and pay it to the mobs... to the government before 100 days, either you have it or not. Well, you raise an invoice with VAT on it, you get paid, you put the VAT money on the side because it is NOT YOUR money and you pay the VAT to the financial system. Your invoice goes into accounting only when it's paid. Can you explain what's wrong with that? > Your customers, of course, hate it. Will hate YOU for that. 160 countries around the world have VAT / GST. Haven't seen widespread "HATE" anywhere.