3 ms·

It sure helps though. You can't just stroll into the US as a foreign entrepreneur (unless you are very wealthy already or well-connected) and sell your product.

wink 5y ago
Mhm, the last 2 German startups I worked for basically went to the US very quickly after originally targeting the German market and if you're "just" putting up a subsidy company while employing Americans for sales and keeping development where you started it doesn't seem too bad.
- TMWNN 5y ago
  >Mhm, the last 2 German startups I worked for basically went to the US very quickly after originally targeting the German market Same thing happens in video games. Consider French studio Dontnod; other than its first game Remember Me (set in a futuristic setting), five of its six other games (including the Life is Strange series) are set in contemporary US and the sixth in 1920s London. The US/English-speaking market is just too big to bypass unless there's a compelling reason. (A good example of a compelling reason is fellow French studio Asobo, which put out the widely praised A Plague Tale set in France during the Black Plague. A sequel is coming, but the main bread and butter of the studio nowadays is Flight Simulator 2020, which is "set" nowhere and everywhere.)
- suction 5y ago
  In most areas of the German economy, IT is still seen as a necessary evil to be able to run "real" businesses like auto manufacturing. With the success of big American social media companies like Facebook, the public mindset has started changing, but on a glacial timeline - too little, too late. German internet startups are comparable to their American counterparts nowadays. But the majority of IT jobs aren't at startups, but in other industries - and they still suffer from the image of being a necessary evil rather than an asset. One example is the desolate state of car-entertainment software even at the luxury brands. No German car manufacturer could come up with something like CarPlay or Android Auto. Not because they don't have the money to acquire the talent, but because of a "what we have is good enough" mindset.

wink 5y ago

Mhm, the last 2 German startups I worked for basically went to the US very quickly after originally targeting the German market and if you're "just" putting up a subsidy company while employing Americans for sales and keeping development where you started it doesn't seem too bad.

TMWNN 5y ago
>Mhm, the last 2 German startups I worked for basically went to the US very quickly after originally targeting the German market Same thing happens in video games. Consider French studio Dontnod; other than its first game Remember Me (set in a futuristic setting), five of its six other games (including the Life is Strange series) are set in contemporary US and the sixth in 1920s London. The US/English-speaking market is just too big to bypass unless there's a compelling reason. (A good example of a compelling reason is fellow French studio Asobo, which put out the widely praised A Plague Tale set in France during the Black Plague. A sequel is coming, but the main bread and butter of the studio nowadays is Flight Simulator 2020, which is "set" nowhere and everywhere.)
suction 5y ago
In most areas of the German economy, IT is still seen as a necessary evil to be able to run "real" businesses like auto manufacturing. With the success of big American social media companies like Facebook, the public mindset has started changing, but on a glacial timeline - too little, too late. German internet startups are comparable to their American counterparts nowadays. But the majority of IT jobs aren't at startups, but in other industries - and they still suffer from the image of being a necessary evil rather than an asset. One example is the desolate state of car-entertainment software even at the luxury brands. No German car manufacturer could come up with something like CarPlay or Android Auto. Not because they don't have the money to acquire the talent, but because of a "what we have is good enough" mindset.