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Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?

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Re: Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?

#31

Post by nairboon »

ThePhysicist wrote: post #15
atemerev wrote: post #7

Sadly, 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…

Starting a GmbH theoretically requires 25.000 € in Germany, but you only have to pay in half of that in the beginning. I think in Switzerland it's similar? If you don't want to invest 5-10 T€ to start a company you can look into Estland's eResidency programme, which enables you to start a limited liability company there, giving you access to the EEA market as well.

You have to fund only half of it in the case of an AG. For GmbH the 20k are the minimum, although it doesn't have to be cash.

Re: Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?

#32

Post by mkl95 »

Gwypaas wrote: post #30
mkl95 wrote: post #18

Trust me, there is no such thing as a European Silicon Valley, and there won't be one any time soon.

I wonder if Stockholm is the closest? At least in VC per capita. Also really easy to start a company.

My Swedish friend swears by Norway's job market, but then again Norwegian people may do the opposite.

Re: Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?

#35

Post by jokethrowaway »

atemerev wrote: post #16
jcfrei wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are very interesting software companies in Switzerland. And those companies are taking a lot of risks as well. Maybe your impression stems from the fact that it's not a very visible ecosystem and the funding is obviously much smaller than in bigger economies.

These companies were not financed by venture capital (except for some cryptocurrency companies, which are popular here indeed). Also, some of the software companies were moved here for tax reasons, but they were founded elsewhere.

That's an interesting claim! Is there a tax efficient way to structure a tech company in Switzerland?

Taxation doesn't look very good neither on the personal level (income tax / dividend tax / tax on deemed rental value of your property if you own a house!!!) nor the company one (corporate rate tax, high cost of personnel). They do have some good deductions and a lump sum income tax for foreigners relocating to Switzerland but it seems like you won't benefit from it unless your income is 7 times higher than your yearly rent (or deemed property rental value if you own).

Is there maybe some possible legal fiscal loophole with foreign entities?

Re: Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?

#36

Post by Abishek_Muthian »

fearface wrote: post #11
Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is due to the mentality of the population and the risk aversion of the investors Can you please expand on those two points?

Investors have very little risk appetite, enterprise makes big money, but innivation is usually pressured into low-cost as much as possible. It’s hard to find a developer job where you get decent pay and interesting work with a swiss company. Source, I’m a software developer since 20 years in Switzerand

>Investors have very little risk appetite

Are high profile investors in Swizterland interested only in retail investments?

Re: Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?

#37

Post by antoinealb »

johncena33 wrote: post #17
dblock wrote: post #6

I’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.

> The lake is not burning I am non-native, but fluent English speaker. Can you please explain what does this phrase mean?

Swiss French speaker here. This expression is usually used to mean "There is no rush", or "relax we have time". Switzerland is quite slow to change.

Re: Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?

#39

Post by kmonsen »

faebi wrote: post #8

I 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.

Zurich has a very good cs university and one of the early google vp’s are from Zurich. Also very good tax situation.
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