Y Combinator’s European founder intake continues to grow • Hacker News Board

Re: Y Combinator’s European founder intake continues to grow

#201

Post by DandyDev » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 4:47 PM UTC

raverbashing wrote: post #148

pembrook wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we’re talking Zurich specifically, the difference would probably only be 2-3X less than FANMAG/ETC. London salaries are high too (not Zurich levels from what I’ve seen), but that market is now separate from the EU. But most places in Europe with tech scenes and outsized VC investment, eg. helsinki, stockholm, berlin, amsterdam, etc you’re talking 5X less salary than in Silicon Valley. Given the tech talent in thos…

> helsinki, stockholm, berlin, amsterdam, etc you’re talking 5X less salary than in Silicon Valley. Certainly not for the same seniority level (and not considering stocks, which people in those places do get) Or you're telling me that someone making 60kEUR in Berlin could be transferred to SV and their salary would immediately flip to $300k on the payslip? (no promotions/stock/etc) Realistically, more like 2x, 2.5x,…

And what kind of person you think we are talking about here for 60k in Amsterdam? Is that a senior Software Engineer? Or even an engineering lead (responsible for a bunch of other SEs)? Because 60k per year in Amsterdam equates around 4.6k per month + holiday pay. I can hire at most a medior - senior SE for that in AMS (let's say 4-5 years of experience) and I really don't believe a person with that kind of experience would earn 300k a year in SV.

Re: Y Combinator’s European founder intake continues to grow

#202

Post by isbvhodnvemrwvn » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 5:09 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #52

bserge wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're selling a technical solution, why would you even touch cultural differences? I bet you'd be successful if you could afford the extra costs of translation/marketing.

Cultural differences hugely affect the marketing, and in some cases the market; you couldn't sell a tipping management app to somewhere without a tipping culture, for example.

Another example - a friend of mine tried to expand to Poland and was surprised that using payment cards significantly reduced appeal of his solution.

eBay was also a spectacular failure because they disregarded local competition.

Re: Y Combinator’s European founder intake continues to grow

#203

Post by isbvhodnvemrwvn » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

bserge wrote: post #144

inglor_cz wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that is why Linux is successful around the planet. It really does not touch any soft cultural differences. Geeks and their needs are similar everywhere. Something like a food delivery corp. on the other hand must know precisely what to expect from which holidays etc. There is a fairly successful Czech startup called Rohlík that expanded to Hungary, Austria and Germany, but every added country is a challenge. htt…

Takeaway.com is a Dutch company operating in half of Europe including Romania and Poland.

The Polish one was an acquisition of a local company which knew the market, which further proves that penetrating new markets in the EU is difficult.

See this article:

https://www.pulshr.pl/wywiad/arkadiusz-krupicz-wspolzalozyci...

Re: Y Combinator’s European founder intake continues to grow

#204

Post by raverbashing » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

DandyDev wrote: post #201

raverbashing wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> helsinki, stockholm, berlin, amsterdam, etc you’re talking 5X less salary than in Silicon Valley. Certainly not for the same seniority level (and not considering stocks, which people in those places do get) Or you're telling me that someone making 60kEUR in Berlin could be transferred to SV and their salary would immediately flip to $300k on the payslip? (no promotions/stock/etc) Realistically, more like 2x, 2.5x,…

And what kind of person you think we are talking about here for 60k in Amsterdam? Is that a senior Software Engineer? Or even an engineering lead (responsible for a bunch of other SEs)? Because 60k per year in Amsterdam equates around 4.6k per month + holiday pay. I can hire at most a medior - senior SE for that in AMS (let's say 4-5 years of experience) and I really don't believe a person with that kind of experienc…

> you think we are talking about here for 60k in Amsterdam? Is that a senior Software Engineer? Or even an engineering lead (responsible for a bunch of other SEs)?

Yes, at most I'd say at that seniority level, that's why I'm questioning it. (300k is probably at a higher level AND with stocks, etc)

(Though I mentioned Berlin, not AMS, which has slightly higher salaries)

Re: Y Combinator’s European founder intake continues to grow

#205

Post by skrebbel » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 5:53 PM UTC

bserge wrote: post #144

inglor_cz wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that is why Linux is successful around the planet. It really does not touch any soft cultural differences. Geeks and their needs are similar everywhere. Something like a food delivery corp. on the other hand must know precisely what to expect from which holidays etc. There is a fairly successful Czech startup called Rohlík that expanded to Hungary, Austria and Germany, but every added country is a challenge. htt…

Takeaway.com is a Dutch company operating in half of Europe including Romania and Poland.

Much of their expansion was through mergers and acquisitions of locally founded companies.

Re: Y Combinator’s European founder intake continues to grow

#206

Post by tohmasu » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 8:36 PM UTC

missedthecue wrote: post #193

dgudkov wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly my thoughts recently. As it appears, American venture capital simply can't build a big social media company that doesn't end up being a surveillance-driven, ad-ladden, privacy-hostile, user-despising, fake virtue-signalling behemoth. So maybe it's time for Europe to shine.

Maybe what Americans have built is exactly what people who aren't HN users want. The numbers would seem to say that.

This is why social media ToS are typically concise and clear: "License agreement: We spy on you and sell your information to anyone that's interested, press accept to continue".

Re: Y Combinator’s European founder intake continues to grow

#207

Post by missedthecue » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 8:50 PM UTC

tohmasu wrote: post #206

missedthecue wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe what Americans have built is exactly what people who aren't HN users want. The numbers would seem to say that.

This is why social media ToS are typically concise and clear: "License agreement: We spy on you and sell your information to anyone that's interested, press accept to continue".

Say I want to buy information about you. How would I go about doing that? Where to I put in my credit card details?

Facebook doesn't sell data. They sell advertising space. They're a billboard company.

Re: Y Combinator’s European founder intake continues to grow

#208

Post by mod50ack » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 8:57 PM UTC

antupis wrote: post #86

mytailorisrich wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience the UK has a very simple and friendly system and, I believe, London has grown into an European centre for startups and funding. France makes things overly-complicated and costly for the sake of it, not just for entrepreneurs but for everyone, this is very puzzling (and I was born there!).

Yeah did not add UK because Brexit but I agree that UK and especially London is best location to start startup in Europe.

Wonder how Ireland will be affected due to their status as an English-speaking country with major business operations already there that's uniquely able to hire effortlessly from both the UK and EU.

Re: Y Combinator’s European founder intake continues to grow

#209

Post by mod50ack » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 9:06 PM UTC

biztos wrote: post #164

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is some though; there are little to no restrictions for one country to use a service in another european country, or traveling to visit it. No currency conversion needed either.

> or traveling to visit it Except during Covid, which might last forever. > No currency conversion needed either Except when you need to transact literally anything outside of the SEPA system, and then you have conversations and bank fees and very little control over either.

Travelling within the EU during Covid is very easy. Just be vaccinated and there are virtually zero barriers.

Re: Y Combinator’s European founder intake continues to grow

#210

Post by adventured » Tue, Aug 24, 2021, 9:09 PM UTC

j7ake wrote: post #175

pembrook wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we’re talking Zurich specifically, the difference would probably only be 2-3X less than FANMAG/ETC. London salaries are high too (not Zurich levels from what I’ve seen), but that market is now separate from the EU. But most places in Europe with tech scenes and outsized VC investment, eg. helsinki, stockholm, berlin, amsterdam, etc you’re talking 5X less salary than in Silicon Valley. Given the tech talent in thos…

Is it fair to compare salaries in one specific place in USA versus the average European city ? Seems like you are comparing max salary in USA vs average salary in Europe. Seems fair to consider max salary in Europe when comparing with SV. There should also be arbitrage opportunities for cities outside of SV in USA.

Just compare the median.

The median US software developer earns $110,000 (excluding any benefits).

The EU median is close to 1/3 that.