3 ms·
Congrats on getting your green-card Swizec! I wouldn't generalize to Europe here. I think it's a common mistake that I often make myself is to compare the US t
by BasilPH 5y ago
Congrats on getting your green-card Swizec!
I wouldn't generalize to Europe here. I think it's a common mistake that I often make myself is to compare the US to Europe as if both were homogenous. San Francisco is different from Detroit, and Germany is different from Poland both economically and regarding people's mindset.
I've moved from Switzerland to NYC on an E-2 visa. I've worked multiple years for both a Swiss and a German startup and have been in contact with Swiss and German founders through an accelerator. I've never heard any founder or software engineer say that taxes, administration, or other people kept them from reaching for the stars. I've also learned that taxes in NYC are easily as high as in Germany and that paperwork in the US is just as burdensome as everywhere else I've had to do it.
I think the reason that so many ambitious people are drawn to Silicon Valley and NYC is that they know it's a place where other ambitious people are. That's precisely why I came, and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. And I went despite the high taxes (easily 3x of what I paid in Switzerland), higher rent, and burdensome immigration process because I want to be in this environment.
You allude to the fact that people are what matters, but I feel that a lot of the discussion about what makes a good startup ecosystem is about money, taxes, and other administrative side-shows. Those only matter if you have the right atmosphere to start with, and I think we should talk about this more. Especially now that most of us are working remotely and physical location will become less critical.
- Swizec 5y agoI agree, not all of Europe is the same and moving to London, Berlin, Amsterdam, or similar would’ve worked almost as well. Mainly you find that wherever people go to rather than being primarily born there is full of ambition. But the scale is different. The amount of capital in SFBA dwarfs all other markets combined. And while you can make great indie films anywhere and even have a runaway succes or two, blockbusters happen in Hollywood and Bollywood. There’s a whole industry and ecosystem that knows how to make them. Same with startups. If you want to be in a place with dozens, even hundreds, of people who know how to take an idea from $10mil to $100mil at every level of a company – that’s SFBA. Meanwhile Slovenia just announced an innovative new govt pre-seed startup fund investing up to a whopping $100k if you have strong revenue. Our entire GDP is less than Apple’s quarterly profits. And I figured if I’m moving out of country might as well go all the way to SFBA. I can always come back later with lessons learned.
- teekay 5y agoCongrats on moving to NYC on the E-2 visa! I am currently working on making the exact same move sometime in mid-2022, depending on embassy waiting times. I think the E-2 is not talked about very much in our community, which is too bad, as I would love to learn from other founders who took this route. It's not a green card but one can renew it indefinitely for as long as the business is operational. What's your business? If it's tech-related, did you have any trouble explaining it to the consulate? I read that the E-2 is geared more towards traditional "brick and mortar" type businesses like a gas station or a restaurant. I have lawyers who help me with the business plan etc. but I still wonder how I am going to explain SaaS / custom software to the consular officer.
- BasilPH 5y agoI agree. The E-2 is not talked about a lot and it has the mayor advantage that you can go through your local consulate instead of USCIS in Texas. It's tech related and I didn't have any issues with the consulate. My feeling was that they mostly cared about revenue and hiring targets and less about technical details. Feel free to reach out on Twitter, I'm happy to chat or share more details.