4 ms·

> if you should have a high focus on data protection and privacy, it would fit greatly into your story if you had only local investors since some customers in E

> if you should have a high focus on data protection and privacy, it would fit greatly into your story if you had only local investors since some customers in Europe immediately see a red flag if US or Chinese people are involved. Yeah no. If you're going for a fundraise, you would be extremely foolish to rely on relatively inexperienced EU and local investors over investors from the US and elsewhere. It's an open truth that EU VCs are rather stingy with their pursestrings, and would rather undercut your valuation by a ton. There are risks around geopolitical issues though, so eg: having a bunch of Chinese/Russian investors may not be the best route for you. The optics can turn sour, and the value they can add is definitely questionable in the current hostile climate. You can guarantee compliance with EU rules as long as you provide an EU-based option. If some customers don't like that, trust me, you don't want such inflexible customers either. Eg.: PostHog recently launched EU based cloud hosting for GDPR compliance, and they are a successful privacy-centric product even though they're backed by largely American investors (and the founders are European).

beernet 4y ago
I never claimed it was a generally good idea to raise locally. It depends on the context of the bigger Story. > You can guarantee compliance with EU rules as long as you provide an EU-based option. Not true due to Patriot Act (if your HQ are in the US). I don't require my customers to be flexible either as long as they are good business and I can create something that helps them.
- fakedang 4y ago
  > Not true due to Patriot Act (if your HQ are in the US). I forgot about this, but then as Europeans starting a company in Europe, I guess the solution is pretty easy isn't it? VCs don't care where your HQ is located, and YC and the likes just want a Delaware C Corp for accepting investor money.

beernet 4y ago

I never claimed it was a generally good idea to raise locally. It depends on the context of the bigger Story. > You can guarantee compliance with EU rules as long as you provide an EU-based option. Not true due to Patriot Act (if your HQ are in the US). I don't require my customers to be flexible either as long as they are good business and I can create something that helps them.

fakedang 4y ago
> Not true due to Patriot Act (if your HQ are in the US). I forgot about this, but then as Europeans starting a company in Europe, I guess the solution is pretty easy isn't it? VCs don't care where your HQ is located, and YC and the likes just want a Delaware C Corp for accepting investor money.