4 ms·

Founder of Encore here (on the list). Great to see so many wonderful companies represented. Sweden is a great place to start a startup these days.

• dijit 4y ago
  I'm starting a subsidiary of a start-up in Germany in Sweden. It's not my experience that Sweden is a great place for startups, the bureaucracy is extremely hit/miss. Setting up tax information for example is really difficult as a non-Swedish speaker and even tripped up my Swedish speaking friend (who is a project coordinator on the new Skane hospital: so she's somewhat aware of the tax system). How much of your daily work will be administration, how much will be selling services, how much money will you make do you estimate; you must give us an estimation: if it's too far off then we will fine you! Information in English is... scarce, but gives the illusion of being available. Hiring is also very complicated, you have to be very explicit in your contracts because anything not spelled out immediately falls in favour of the employed; which is nice, but as a novice employer that's very scary, because I don't know everything obviously. What in your mind makes you think it's a good place?
  • raverbashing 4y ago
    What makes you think that setting up a subsidiary is a "DIY" thing anywhere, especially if you don't speak the language? (Sweden is still probably easier than Germany, though that's a low barrier tbh) Edit: good to know about the UK
    • dijit 4y ago
      Because I did it in the UK and it was very much a DIY thing. 14GBP to Companies House, extra 10GBP to reserve the right to your name. File your books every year, expect to be audited randomly for a few years.
      • eandre 4y ago
        But you need a UK bank account, which requires a officer with a registered address in the UK. We were lucky our investors were UK-based otherwise it would have been a nightmare. Then you need to argue HMRC valuation discounts if you want to issue EMI options, which are only valid for 3 months, so you need to do it repeatedly. And then EMI option schemes are 15+ pages long contracts. Sweden has an equivalent stock option scheme that's ~2 pages, in comparison.
        • dijit 4y ago
          > But you need a UK bank account, Sure, I assumed this because you need that in any country you operate a legal entity. > which requires a officer with a registered address in the UK. This is the same in Sweden too > Then you need to argue HMRC valuation discounts if you want to issue EMI options, which are only valid for 3 months, so you need to do it repeatedly. And then EMI option schemes are 15+ pages long contracts. Sweden has an equivalent stock option scheme that's ~2 pages, in comparison. You have more experience than me there, I never had this as a problem to solve so you could be right.
          • eandre 4y ago
            AFAIK in Sweden you need a managing directory who is resident in the European Economic Area (EEA), not necessarily in Sweden.
            • dijit 4y ago
              You must have at least one legal representative, usually a director, in Sweden. You can apply for temporary exemptions, but they are temporary and you are supposed to have good reason. There’s no explicit requirements that any particular position must be held in Sweden, you can be a VD in the EEA for example, but you still need at least one legal responsible person to be domiciled.
              • pazx 4y ago
  • eandre 4y ago
    We've set up a UK subsidiary so I can relate, but the process in Sweden was approximately 10x simpler: more automated, less bureaucracy, less ongoing admin work when the company is up and running. As with all countries there are definitely things you need to learn. We relied on our lawyers to draft employment agreements because we were already using them as part of our seed fundraise. There are companies like Pocketlaw (https://pocketlaw.com https://pocketlaw.com) that provide solid, standard agreements that you could use.
  • idlehand 4y ago
    There is an abundance of experienced engineers who are willing to work for less than an entry-level engineer in the US. Wages are very low even in Stockholm. Great if you want to build a tech startup. Unfortunately the employment law is written in support of factory workers, not knowledge workers. So many employers are very cautious when hiring because a non-performing employee is very expensive to get rid of, as long as they have been employed for 6 months or more.
    • torginus 4y ago
  • erispoe 4y ago
    Do you have resources on the simplest way to establish a startup in Germany?
  • pazx 4y ago
    All of these things are easy if you know how to do them. But if you have never done them, it takes some time to learn. My advice is get an external accountant to do this for you, only takes a few hours and they can teach you everything you want to know.
• dudul 4y ago
  Can you explain why?
• idlehand 4y ago
  Unfortunately taxes are high. 20.6% corporation tax and 30% capital gains tax.
  • kzrdude 4y ago
    20.6% is lower than Denmark, Austria, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, etc. It's on the lower end, while not being lower than the UK and of course not Ireland (considered a semi tax haven).
    • ninjin 4y ago
      Starting 2023 it will be lower than the UK as well for any business above GBP 250,000 when HMRC bumps that rate to 25%. Heck, I would argue that even 20.6% is not that different to the current 19% across the board in the UK.
      • varispeed 4y ago
        If you are reinvesting money in the company (especially at a start up stage), Corporation Tax is the least important tax. More important is how much employees cost and UK is up there with the highest taxed countries in the world. If you want to pay workers more than peanuts, the tax take is more than 50% on a salary (when including Employer's NI).