well I'm not German and don't have experience running a business other that sole-proprietorship, but I often think about this as well. From my point of view the

well I'm not German and don't have experience running a business other that sole-proprietorship, but I often think about this as well. From my point of view the taxation, bureaucracy and cost of everything including hiring new people, the employee rights, hiring an accountant or lawyer, etc prohibits small businesses to start easily. mentality might play a role insofar as access to funding might be concerned. from the IT perspective unless you have a very good idea, specific market need, connections and lot of $$ the benefit of starting a company to do actual work in Germany vs Eastern Europe + branch office in Germany for "optics" is not obvious to me.