10 ms·

For people downvoting may I ask why? Isn’t it common knowledge that Netherlands is not the most favourable place to run a company?

bilekas 1y ago
> I’m not an expert but from what I heard startups are moving away from Europe Where are you getting that info from ? There's more invesment that ever in EU startups. One I know of recently : https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/06/italian-publishing-house-zanichelli-editore-launches-e60-million-edtech-push-for-unlocking-human-potential/ https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/06/italian-publishing-house...
- simianwords 1y ago
  So too in India. But you won’t see startups moving to India (unless for ideological reasons). Simply proving that there are some startups is not useful. I still think it has to do with the founder’s personal ideology.
the-anarchist 1y ago
Precisely because the average participant of this platform has as much in-depth experience in actually incorporating and running a company in different parts of the world as the average person on the street. Netherlands, and the EU in general, are cumbersome to deal with regardless of all the "startup incentives" they've been pushing in the past few years. Compare the incorporation, maintenance and closure processes of a Delaware/Wyoming/New Mexico/Florida LLC with anything even remotely comparable in Europe (e.g. a BV/NV/SRL in the Netherlands) and you will quickly see why the US has become the world's center-stage for doing business. For SourceHut Estonia and Romania would have probably been a better choices, as from my understanding, they are not investor-driven and do not seem to head that way, they are fully digital/remote, and they require disproportionally more infrastructure than office workers to operate. However, when living in the EU one has to take into account various (frankly absurd) taxation laws that might ultimately prevent founders from incorporating their company in any of the neighboring countries. Hence it would be necessary to look at the details of the founder's circumstances to evaluate if incoporation in a different country would have made sense to begin with. That said, I agree with the top rated comment [1] as for the broader topic of where to incorporate. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44366032 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44366032
- simianwords 1y ago
  This is what I gathered too. Why then do you think he chose to move to Netherlands?
  - nemomarx 1y ago
    The benefits and practicality of living in a country are different than those of running a company in it, right? And he kept the company in the us for some time after the move from the sounds of it.
    - simianwords 1y ago
      Yes but moving to Netherlands was ideological. What follows is obviously practical.
  - the-anarchist 1y ago
    From the limited information that appears to be available I would assume that the reasons to move operations from the US to NL were largely personal. Reading through the other comments in this thread and some of the content on the founder's own website gives some clues. My theory is that they are eyeing to get rid of their US citizenship and naturalize in the Netherlands, which is possible after 5 years when certain criteria is met. Having economic ties to the country you're trying to get citizenship in helps immensely. The logical next step for them would be to open a physical location and employ Dutch citizens to further solidify their case. You have to remember: As long as the founder is still citizen of the United States, they will inevitably support the country and its policy with the taxes on their world income. After all, the US is one of only three countries in the world that taxes based on citizenship rather than residency. Having that said, there have been various attempts across Europe to change from residency-based taxation to citizenship-based taxation in the past decades. All of which have been unsuccessful so far.
    - gbear605 1y ago
      > After all, the US is one of only three countries in the world that taxes based on citizenship rather than residency. This is true, but only on taxable income over $130,000. Drew is probably not making over that from Sourcehut, so he’s not going to be paying any taxes to the US anyway.

bilekas 1y ago

> I’m not an expert but from what I heard startups are moving away from Europe Where are you getting that info from ? There's more invesment that ever in EU startups. One I know of recently : https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/06/italian-publishing-house-zanichelli-editore-launches-e60-million-edtech-push-for-unlocking-human-potential/ https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/06/italian-publishing-house...

simianwords 1y ago
So too in India. But you won’t see startups moving to India (unless for ideological reasons). Simply proving that there are some startups is not useful. I still think it has to do with the founder’s personal ideology.

the-anarchist 1y ago

Precisely because the average participant of this platform has as much in-depth experience in actually incorporating and running a company in different parts of the world as the average person on the street. Netherlands, and the EU in general, are cumbersome to deal with regardless of all the "startup incentives" they've been pushing in the past few years. Compare the incorporation, maintenance and closure processes of a Delaware/Wyoming/New Mexico/Florida LLC with anything even remotely comparable in Europe (e.g. a BV/NV/SRL in the Netherlands) and you will quickly see why the US has become the world's center-stage for doing business. For SourceHut Estonia and Romania would have probably been a better choices, as from my understanding, they are not investor-driven and do not seem to head that way, they are fully digital/remote, and they require disproportionally more infrastructure than office workers to operate. However, when living in the EU one has to take into account various (frankly absurd) taxation laws that might ultimately prevent founders from incorporating their company in any of the neighboring countries. Hence it would be necessary to look at the details of the founder's circumstances to evaluate if incoporation in a different country would have made sense to begin with. That said, I agree with the top rated comment [1] as for the broader topic of where to incorporate. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44366032 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44366032

simianwords 1y ago
This is what I gathered too. Why then do you think he chose to move to Netherlands?
- nemomarx 1y ago
  The benefits and practicality of living in a country are different than those of running a company in it, right? And he kept the company in the us for some time after the move from the sounds of it.
  - simianwords 1y ago
    Yes but moving to Netherlands was ideological. What follows is obviously practical.
- the-anarchist 1y ago
  From the limited information that appears to be available I would assume that the reasons to move operations from the US to NL were largely personal. Reading through the other comments in this thread and some of the content on the founder's own website gives some clues. My theory is that they are eyeing to get rid of their US citizenship and naturalize in the Netherlands, which is possible after 5 years when certain criteria is met. Having economic ties to the country you're trying to get citizenship in helps immensely. The logical next step for them would be to open a physical location and employ Dutch citizens to further solidify their case. You have to remember: As long as the founder is still citizen of the United States, they will inevitably support the country and its policy with the taxes on their world income. After all, the US is one of only three countries in the world that taxes based on citizenship rather than residency. Having that said, there have been various attempts across Europe to change from residency-based taxation to citizenship-based taxation in the past decades. All of which have been unsuccessful so far.
  - gbear605 1y ago
    > After all, the US is one of only three countries in the world that taxes based on citizenship rather than residency. This is true, but only on taxable income over $130,000. Drew is probably not making over that from Sourcehut, so he’s not going to be paying any taxes to the US anyway.