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Honestly my 1st choice : Canada : close to the US, business friendly especially in provinces like AB. Then in fact in my 2nd choice : South America. Chile +++

by guylhem 14y ago

Honestly my 1st choice : Canada : close to the US, business friendly especially in provinces like AB. Then in fact in my 2nd choice : South America. Chile +++ but I've never been there. I considered spending some time to check for myself if for some reason I don't follow my 1st choice. I considered Uruguay too. Both seem like good place to start a business, at least just as good as Europe in my line of work. I'm just concerned about the "distance" to fly to North America and Europe (clients, family, etc) and the added costs. [I'm considering India too in this 2nd choices] Brazil +, more violent crime than in France, but more opportunities. Argentina : unknown. Seems to go down in flames, just like France (sorry for any argentinian, I'm just casting an opinion based on gut feeling without much proofs)

estebank 14y ago
Argentina: it's going down in flames at an alarming pace, but has been doing so for the past decade. Every ten years there is an Earth shattering crisis in the country, and there has been a 25-30% inflation for the past 4 years, likely to grow. There is a pararel market for US dollars, as it is controlled and it's almost impossible to buy legally (unless you are travelling overseas, 60 USD per day with a top of 1000 USD per trip, 2 trip max per year). If you have international clients, you'll get ARS at the official rate (5 ARS == 1 USD) but will have to pay international providers with the parallel rate (8 ARS == 1 USD). That alone, coupled with rising insecurity, blocked imports and unpredictable government, makes starting a company there a very unsound decision. The good things about it is that you have relatively cheap workforce (30000 USD will pay a good engineer), there are many good engineers, it's in roughly the same timezone as the US (GMT-3) and culturally is much more similar to the US than, for example, India. Having said all of the above, I've moved to the Netherlands, and couldn't be happier so far. I've been in Silicon Valley for about 3 months total, and Amsterdam is as safe as Mountain View is, but without the heavy police presence and you can actually walk anywhere (the city feels like a town in that regard). The only downside is that I'm earning about half what I'd be earning in the USA. I've been to Paris, and although it didn't seem unsafe, the military in the streets did freak me out.

by guylhem 14y ago

estebank 14y ago

Argentina: it's going down in flames at an alarming pace, but has been doing so for the past decade. Every ten years there is an Earth shattering crisis in the country, and there has been a 25-30% inflation for the past 4 years, likely to grow. There is a pararel market for US dollars, as it is controlled and it's almost impossible to buy legally (unless you are travelling overseas, 60 USD per day with a top of 1000 USD per trip, 2 trip max per year). If you have international clients, you'll get ARS at the official rate (5 ARS == 1 USD) but will have to pay international providers with the parallel rate (8 ARS == 1 USD). That alone, coupled with rising insecurity, blocked imports and unpredictable government, makes starting a company there a very unsound decision. The good things about it is that you have relatively cheap workforce (30000 USD will pay a good engineer), there are many good engineers, it's in roughly the same timezone as the US (GMT-3) and culturally is much more similar to the US than, for example, India. Having said all of the above, I've moved to the Netherlands, and couldn't be happier so far. I've been in Silicon Valley for about 3 months total, and Amsterdam is as safe as Mountain View is, but without the heavy police presence and you can actually walk anywhere (the city feels like a town in that regard). The only downside is that I'm earning about half what I'd be earning in the USA. I've been to Paris, and although it didn't seem unsafe, the military in the streets did freak me out.