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Switzerland – Europe's Silicon Valley for Developers?

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

#51

Post by corty »

Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #4
aphroz wrote: post #3

Not 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?

In Germany, the southwest, especially Swabia, is more conservative than the north. More tidy-freaks, stingy pennypinchers, more-concerned-with-the-appearance holier-than-thou, "we have always done it like this" and "you didn't clean your sidewalk properly, I've found a leave". Maybe "Kehrwoche" and "schwäbische Hausfrau" will yield sone entertaining google results. Businesswise, it is the region of small to medium family businesses, where the father of course passes on a highly emphasized tradition to the eldest son.

Switzerland is like this, turned to eleven, plus a lot of nationalism and need to be separate from the bigger neighbours. You won't get money from a bank or investor down there unless you are solidly local, doing something they understand and looks like all the other medium family businesses making machines or parts down there.

Caveat: Of course this is full of personal impressions, stereotypes and things like that. And it is strictly a collection of more negative aspects, there is of course a positive side.

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

#52

Post by Abishek_Muthian »

bluetomcat wrote: post #27
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?

Swiss culture is all about safety, confidentiality and responsible spending of already earned money. Additionally, the prevailing business model is that of the Mittelstand small-to-medium enterprise. Small factories spread throughout the whole country, highly specialized in one thing (producing mostly bits of industrial equipment), co-dependent on other such companies to form the economic blood system of the country.…

That makes sense, thanks. So there's no dearth of entrepreneurship in CH, but it's concentrated in SMEs focussed on machinery rather than say Internet startups.

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

#53

Post by [deleted] »

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?

[deleted]

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

#54

Post by dirtnugget »

Nimitz14 wrote: post #24

Moved here recently, find it great so far. I didn't realize how many foreigners there are in Switzerland. Speaking three languages is normal!

Switzerland is inherently multi-lingual. They have four official languages and there are regions in Switzerland where each of them are predominantly spoken (except for Romansh I guess).

The German-speaking part just happens to be the largest and also where the capital is located.

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

#55

Post by ehvatum »

skratlo wrote: post #25
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 hope there won't be one, at the end, what good really came out of Silicon Valley anyway? The good parts can be equated to any other place where innovation takes place, be it in Europe or elsewhere. The rest is tons of crap and speculation.

Many of the items on this list seem questionable to me, but perhaps the ideas first nucleated there. From https://www.siliconvalleyhistorical.org/silicon-valley-achie... :

• Long distance high-voltage transmission

• Amplifying vacuum tube

• First commercial radio broadcast

• Long distance continuous-wave radio transmissions

• Mobile radio systems development

• Klystron tube and microwave

• Radar

• Electronic measuring devices

• Nuclear induction applications

• X-ray microscope

• Traveling-wave tube development

• Silicon crystal-growing

• Programmable hand-held calculators

• Videotape and VCRs

• Development of the junction transmitter

• Linear accelerators for particle physics research and cancer treatment

• Swept-back aircraft wings

• Nuclear magnetic resonance

• Random access computer storage

• Disk drives

• Integrated circuits

• Planar processes

• Lasers

• Semiconductor large-scale integrated memory

• Silicon gate arrays

• Microprocessors

• Light-emitting diodes (LEDs)

• Personal computers

• Open-heart surgery

• Ink-jet printing

• High resolution aerial photography

• Spacecraft heat shields

• Batch processing of micro-machined devices

• Gene-cloning and gene-splicing

• Video games

• Silicon compilers

• Automated semiconductor manufacturing equipment

• Field programmable gate arrays

• Prodigious advances in artificial limbs and sensory aids

• Robotics

• Genetic engineering

• Satellite technology

• 3-D computing

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

#56

Post by Bayart »

baloney1 wrote: post #40
Bayart wrote: post #33

Silicon Valley fetishism has to go away at some point.

Sorry! As long as the world's leading consumer and enterprise technology continues to be created there, it won't be going away any time soon.

Then I guess it won't be long until my local government makes bold claims about creating X's Shenzhen.

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

#57

Post by [deleted] »

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?

[deleted]

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

#60

Post by jcfrei »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #35
atemerev wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Switz…

The biggest advantage in Switzerland that I know of is no capital gains tax. So if you sell shares of your company you don't pay a tax on the sale.
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