In Portugal we have this stamp thing as well. I remember being dumbfounded that we were stamping as a form of "signature" for the company. The whole process of

In Portugal we have this stamp thing as well. I remember being dumbfounded that we were stamping as a form of "signature" for the company. The whole process of company bureaucracy is really like being transported to the 60s. Don't get me started on making certain legal statements in a kind of commerce registry. It almost feels royal with handwritten stuff and a person helpfully dictating the correct legal incantation that properly changes the social capital. At least the workers were indeed helpful. To top it off we got Portuguese legalese letters from the tax authority that were unreadable to the founders. They were so convoluted, we thought we owed something but in fact we were being asked to withhold payment to another company which owed tax money. It was so convoluted I asked a lawyer. Regarding applying for money. We did apply for money and got granted but the money turned out to exclude wages or the founders so we rushed to have profitability otherwise we could just not support ourselves. We still did money but it was a miserable life and we earned far better being employed. This is the same in Poland, with some fellow aeronautics colleagues. That is the "VC" system in Europe. No trust, no understanding: everything stays the same except for the ones who know the system. A fellow startup-er made a demo to a bigger company proving the concept, the bigger company took the demo, and showed to another bigger company because the money they could ask for would be bigger. Of course the bigger partner had no experience and the project came up empty. Lastly, I tried to do business as a consultant to Portugal, while being a resident in Poland. Due to me being a citizen I needed to pay VAT even though I would not need to because I am not a tax resident there and would be double taxed. I canceled the contract as again I earn more employed and cannot be bothered. Finally, as it is not only a problem of VC, me and my business partner were engineers and we definitely were out of depth on running a company to the full potential. Looking back I would have liked to have paid for a professional manager that would understand doing business better.