Berlins new techno beat. why international tech startups should move to berlin.
1–10 of 43 posts
Re: Berlins new techno beat. why international tech startups should move to berlin.
#2glaring omissions from the article what are the personal and corp tax rates? (high!) and how easy is it to hire and fire employees (hard I hear).
No one doubts the nightlife and leafy suburbs of germany are nice
Re: Berlins new techno beat. why international tech startups should move to berlin.
#3glaring omissions from the article what are the personal and corp tax rates? (high!) and how easy is it to hire and fire employees (hard I hear). No one doubts the nightlife and leafy suburbs of germany are nice
And how easy is it to register a company?
Re: Berlins new techno beat. why international tech startups should move to berlin.
#4I thought it was Lond.. no Helsi.. I mean Amst... Oh, never mind.
There's only one thing remotely comparable to Silicon Valley in Europe and that's Ireland. It's where the laws are right for tech. companies and Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, and possibly even Twitter got together and are attracting a ton of engineers, which are creating a ton of start-ups, networking events, and even quite a bit of VC.
Re: Berlins new techno beat. why international tech startups should move to berlin.
#5glaring omissions from the article what are the personal and corp tax rates? (high!) and how easy is it to hire and fire employees (hard I hear). No one doubts the nightlife and leafy suburbs of germany are nice
Personal tax rates are higher, at the same time you get better (and cheaper) healthcare.
Corporate tax rates are indeed higher in Germany. At the same time, there are lots of funding opportunities for startups from communal, national and EU business development programs, that can be seen as sort of a tax break.
Hiring is probably harder, since programmers are generally less interested in startups and prefer safe corporate jobs (outside of Berlin). Wages are significantly lower in Berlin than in West German cities. Firing is much harder than in the U.S.
Re: Berlins new techno beat. why international tech startups should move to berlin.
#6glaring omissions from the article what are the personal and corp tax rates? (high!) and how easy is it to hire and fire employees (hard I hear). No one doubts the nightlife and leafy suburbs of germany are nice
And how easy is it to register a company?
Setting up an UG (sort of like a private partnership) has become relatively easy (couple days) and cheap (couple hundred bucks), while a GmbH (LLC) or an AG (corporation) is still a lot more complex and costly (min. 25K EUR capital brought in for a GmbH).
Re: Berlins new techno beat. why international tech startups should move to berlin.
#7I thought it was Lond.. no Helsi.. I mean Amst... Oh, never mind. There's only one thing remotely comparable to Silicon Valley in Europe and that's Ireland. It's where the laws are right for tech. companies and Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, and possibly even Twitter got together and are attracting a ton of engineers, which are creating a ton of start-ups, networking events, and even quite a bit of…
I think the main trigger for big corporations to set up their European subsidies in Ireland were the significant tax breaks offered.
Now that Ireland is getting bailed out with EU money, it'll be interesting to see if they can maintain the low tax rates.
Re: Berlins new techno beat. why international tech startups should move to berlin.
#8I thought it was Lond.. no Helsi.. I mean Amst... Oh, never mind. There's only one thing remotely comparable to Silicon Valley in Europe and that's Ireland. It's where the laws are right for tech. companies and Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, and possibly even Twitter got together and are attracting a ton of engineers, which are creating a ton of start-ups, networking events, and even quite a bit of…
Compared to Silicon Valley (or even the US east coast) Germany as is low-cost country. Developers earn only half the US salary - and can live well with it ("free" (well, tax paid) healthcare, schools, universities,...)
And since a few years, finally a decent immigration policy!
Re: Berlins new techno beat. why international tech startups should move to berlin.
#9Not to forget: Instant(!!!) green card for anyone earning more than 65000 Euros/year.
The only issue I still have is the "awful German language" ;-)
http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/awfgrmlg.html
(Mark Twain's 1880 book A Tramp Abroad.)
Re: Berlins new techno beat. why international tech startups should move to berlin.
#10The nice thing for europeans is that if you're part of the eurozone, you can live and work wherever you like. A business doesn't have to be domiciled in the same location as its headquarters or employees. In the US, many businesses are domiciled in Deleware with no employees in that state.
But I think the question for Hacker News, or at least for the Hackers who are interested in doing startups outside the USA is-- what's the international Delaware?
What's the place to domicile your business, with reasonable laws and taxes?
Some possibilities I can think of: Hong Kong, Singapore, Cyprus and some of the UK islands like the Isle of Mann might be good.
I love Berlin. It is a happening city, and I'm very happy to spend time there. It has a very nice mix of cutting edge modernism and the former east german sections which are still relatively inexpensive. And I just like germans.
I think startups can group employees wherever makes sense for their workforce. If its all EU people then berlin might be ideal. But the business doesn't have to be a german business. (Or does it?)
Edit to add: Obviously I'm writing this from the perspective of a self-started or bootstrapped business. This perspective isn't likely to be appropriate for people who plan to take outside investment.