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Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV

nextrends.swissnexsanfrancisco.org

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Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV

#21

Post by timewarrior »

pkaye wrote: post #15
timewarrior wrote: post #3

I have been involved with Swissnex and been advising Swiss startups for some time. I also go to Switzerland every other year if not every year and meet with startups there. Things I noticed: 1. Incredibly smart people. 2. Behind Silicon Valley on best technology and product building practices by at least 2 years. 3. Great work ethic and social responsibility. 4. Do not have world conquering ambitions - which kinda wo…

> Not that US is any better for Indians. Based on current estimates, if someone from India applies for an employment based Green Card now, they might get it in 70 years. And life is a pain because you have to do a lot of paperwork throughout. I thought that is because so many Indians applying for green cards but there is a limit by country so it takes a long time?

Yes, that is one of the main factors. And the ground reality is that right now a new employment based Green Card petitioner from India would need to wait 70 years.

Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV

#22

Post by matte_black »

timewarrior wrote: post #12
sailingparrot wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do not have world conquering ambitions - which kinda works against them. Works against them towards what? Not wanting to conquer the world is legitimate, I don't see why everyone should absolutely want to become the next Bezos.

Imagine you build an AirBnb like solution limited to Switzerland market. AirBnb will eventually come and eat your lunch. In today's globalized world - if you are not one of the bigger players and do not have moat (govt contract, some other kind of exclusivity) - other bigger players will come after you.

So don't build an AirBnB-like solution.

Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV

#24

Post by electricslpnsld »

romanovcode wrote: post #5

Hey, but at least you get paid more in U.S., right?

Zurich pay can eclipse Valley pay. I have friends who went to ETH for grad school and were getting close to 100k CHF a year. This is grad school -- the pay goes up from there.

Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV

#25

Post by barrkel »

matte_black wrote: post #22
timewarrior wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine you build an AirBnb like solution limited to Switzerland market. AirBnb will eventually come and eat your lunch. In today's globalized world - if you are not one of the bigger players and do not have moat (govt contract, some other kind of exclusivity) - other bigger players will come after you.

So don't build an AirBnB-like solution.

This means you will never build anything with zero marginal cost. That cuts out a lot of opportunities - and with software eating the world, more and more opportunities over time.

Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV

#26

Post by timewarrior »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #14
timewarrior wrote: post #3

I have been involved with Swissnex and been advising Swiss startups for some time. I also go to Switzerland every other year if not every year and meet with startups there. Things I noticed: 1. Incredibly smart people. 2. Behind Silicon Valley on best technology and product building practices by at least 2 years. 3. Great work ethic and social responsibility. 4. Do not have world conquering ambitions - which kinda wo…

> Behind Silicon Valley on best technology and product building practices by at least 2 years. Can you elaborate on that? Are these "best practices" around technology or process? Are they found in books, or are the books out of date and you just have to 'be there' to discover them?

I used to be in SF and in South Bay. Recently moved to Seattle , closely associated to the India and Swiss tech ecosystem.

In my experience further away you are from SF, less cutting edge you are. In my experience even South Bay is 6 months behind SF.

SF is a big melting pot, where a huge amount of talent are trying out new things and they are open to sharing their experiences - be it about latest technologies or latest customer acquisition strategies. Because of this, you find out about the latest strategies and associate advantages and disadvantages much earlier. By the time these strategies turn in blog posts and capture popular mind share - it takes months and years.

Of course there are exceptions everywhere and some companies outside SF are great at being at cutting edge. However on an amortized basis, further away from SF you are, more likely you are to be behind the cutting edge.

Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV

#27

Post by matttproud »

romanovcode wrote: post #5

Hey, but at least you get paid more in U.S., right?

Hardly. The tax system in the United States and California is markedly inefficient in terms of price and what you get out of it. CH taxes are minimal, and the body politic and municipalities just work.

Source: I lived and worked in S.V. and live in Zürich for several years.

Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV

#28

Post by derriz »

The point that public transport can be more efficient than private does not necessarily reflect public investment although the Swiss do invest in subsidizing transport infrastructure. But what's suprising is that much of the public transport system is owned and operated by private (profit-motivated) companies. I think there are about 10 different companies operating what looks like a unified public transport system in Zürich for example. But you'd never know this because of the integrated ticketing.

Healthcare is very similar - a blend of private (mostly) and public provision but with government regulated insurance market. However it's not exactly efficient - I think an exceptional proportion of national income is spent on health care (i.e. close to US levels and way higher than European norms) even if it doesn't appear on your insurance bill every month.

But yes I love that "adjustable work schedules" are the norm here and I think Switzerland is fairly exceptional from what I know in that regard. I work 80% (4 days a week) as do some other collegues and there is no perception that this indicates a lack of dedication to the start-up or that we should be considered less than committed. It's difficult to describe how much this has improved my lifestyle.

Re: Forging a Swiss Lens: How Zurich's tech scene changed my view of SV

#29

Post by _nalply »

fludlight wrote: post #23

> Assigned laundry days are commonplace...My laundry would be done on Friday night at 6. This seems efficient but also very off-putting.

Usually Swiss people find a way around this limitation. Swap laundry time slots with neighbours, for example.
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