Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?
wearedevelopers.com
Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?
1–10 of 194 posts
Re: Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?
#2Betteridge's law of headlines applies.
I don't think I've heard of a single one of the "Top Tech Companies in Switzerland" on their chart.
Re: Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?
#3Not at all. Yes Switzerland is probably the best country if you want to follow the rules, have a good quality of life and good education for your children. Not much for developers who are looking for interesting challenges. This is due to the mentality of the population and the risk aversion of the investors. From a Swiss person.
Re: Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?
#4Not at all. Yes Switzerland is probably the best country if you want to follow the rules, have a good quality of life and good education for your children. Not much for developers who are looking for interesting challenges. This is due to the mentality of the population and the risk aversion of the investors. From a Swiss person.
>This is due to the mentality of the population and the risk aversion of the investors
Can you please expand on those two points?
Re: Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?
#5Betteridge's law of headlines applies. I don't think I've heard of a single one of the "Top Tech Companies in Switzerland" on their chart.
It isn't on the list but how about Logitech.
Re: Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?
#6I’m Swiss, did CS at the University of Geneva and work at AWS in New York.
“The lake is not burning” is my favorite way to describe Switzerland when it comes to software and startups. And everything else, in fact.
Re: Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?
#7Sadly, no. The bureaucracy of opening and running a business here is staggering (and the minimum starting capital for opening an analog of LLC is more than $20,000, and more than $100,000 for a corporation). Perhaps you have heard that there are few taxes in Switzerland; this is not true (and also a lot of obligatory social security payments for the each employee which are almost impossible to manage without a dedicated company to help running your accounting, which is quite expensive). There are many rich people and investments funds, but barely anyone understands how venture capital works. Switzerland is not a country which attracts risk takers. I tried to build startups here for the last 10 years, and I am exhausted.
Re: Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?
#8I wonder how much Google skews these statistics. They moved into an enormous new office spaces right in the center of Zurich. I am always surprised that their presence is so huge for a country and city that small.
Re: Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?
#9Sadly, no. The bureaucracy of opening and running a business here is staggering (and the minimum starting capital for opening an analog of LLC is more than $20,000, and more than $100,000 for a corporation). Perhaps you have heard that there are few taxes in Switzerland; this is not true (and also a lot of obligatory social security payments for the each employee which are almost impossible to manage without a dedica…
Very true. In 1996 I incorporated as a British Virgin Islands offshore exactly because of the upfront capital requirements. It was easier than doing it in Switzerland.
Re: Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?
#10I wonder why they don't mention Doodle, which is probably one of the best-known Swiss-made software solutions.
Personally I use Tresorit (end-to-end encrypted Dropbox alternative), which is also made in Switzerland. And then there's Protonmail of course.