41–50 of 77 posts
the OP is full of shit, read this : http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/11/10/start-ups-an...
Italy does not suck at all at the startup game. You English-only speaking people simply don't often hear about us because we speak Italian on Italian Startup Scene ( http://www.facebook.com/groups/italianstartups/ ) so our plans to conquer the world with our startups remain hidden to you. ;) Antonio, come to our (why not yours yet?) group and see what 3248 Italian startuppers are currently doing to improve the situat…
I've actually been part of ISS for a while, and am familiar with the great minds that it attracts. I even talked about it on Stacktrace: http://stacktrace.it/2011/01/25/intervista-con-stefano-berna...
Unfortunately, it's still a group of 3000-4000 people only, from which you can't really draw conclusions about a country of 60M people.
On the bright side, it's a light in the dark and one of the most exciting communities I've seen in Italy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You blaming it on outside forces (money, burocracy and taxes) just validates one of the points in the article. I am German, working some years for FIAT, and did my PhD in Italy, but left right after graduation for the US. The article perfectly summarizes the reasons I didn't want to stay and start something in Italy.
You are right, but those outside forces are really strong. I had to fight only to study abroad, which is seen as a waste of time and possible drawback on your cv (because you spent time studying abroad instead of studying for real...). The only way not to sound like an Italian just complaining about outside forces is to leave the country. But than that is also not useful for Italy. So, you see the problem?
The only way not to sound like an Italian just complaining about outside forces is to leave the country.
I am italian, I have a full-time job in an IT private company, I own an house and I know why you can't create a startup in Italy: money, burocracy and taxes. In Italy banks or companies will never invest money in your startup if you can't cover at least all the money you need in 4/5 years. If you dare to found a new company and you fail then your life is destroyed. You are tagged as "cattivo pagatore" (bad payer) and…
Very good post. I am a dual citizen of the United States and Italy, and though I grew up in America and consider myself culturally more American than Italian, I lived, studied and worked (as a developer) in Italy. It's difficult to describe the situation to an outsider, but I found Italy a beautiful place to live but a frustrating and difficult place to work. 1) Italian bureaucracy is maddening. Simple things that ta…
On #2, €1800/mo rent including utilities sounds pretty absurd! Is that in a particularly desirable city center, or with some unusual arrangement (e.g. furnished short-term rentals?). The Italians I know here in Copenhagen have mentioned rent prices closer to €700-900 for a 1-bd back in Italy, when complaining about how expensive Copenhagen is in comparison (€1800 would even be high for Copenhagen, though; it's more l…
Italy does not suck at all at the startup game. You English-only speaking people simply don't often hear about us because we speak Italian on Italian Startup Scene ( http://www.facebook.com/groups/italianstartups/ ) so our plans to conquer the world with our startups remain hidden to you. ;) Antonio, come to our (why not yours yet?) group and see what 3248 Italian startuppers are currently doing to improve the situat…
Hi Vanni, I've actually been part of ISS for a while, and am familiar with the great minds that it attracts. I even talked about it on Stacktrace: http://stacktrace.it/2011/01/25/intervista-con-stefano-berna... Unfortunately, it's still a group of 3000-4000 people only, from which you can't really draw conclusions about a country of 60M people. On the bright side, it's a light in the dark and one of the most exciting…
the OP is full of shit, read this : http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/11/10/start-ups-an...
Seems a little fast and loose for that graph to equate new LLCs and startups. Beyond the general issue of getting any statistics like "number of startups" across dozens of countries.
Unfortunately this applies to Spain, Greece and my home country Portugal. South european countries have the same base mentality when it come to entrepreneurship, you either get mocked/ignored/stigmatized for failing or you get jealousy/ignored when you succeeded. Also, we don't have the mentality of "self-made man" and "go get it", most of our population expect everything from the government. They get a degree and ex…
I'm Spanish and my GF is Portuguese. I can vouch for everything you said. As an enterpreneur, I work really hard every day to meet my goals. 14 hours days are not unusual to me and working some 3-4 hours a day on weekends is the norm. When others know I work from home, they either assume that I just sit browsing Facebook all day and I'm really just collecting unemployment for the government or that I'm a lazy asshat…
Hats off to you if you are an entrepreneur in Spain. Some 20 years ago or so when I was in college and trying to be self-employed or create my own company I would go to the government offices in my hometown (with 40% or so unemployment rate) to know what to do and they would look at me like I was crazy.
In one office nobody knew anything and I had to come back later to talk to the guy who supposedly knew something but was out having coffee. In another office they pretty much kicked me out because my questions led them to believe I was trying to find some loophole in order to commit fraud or something. And these were the “Offices for Employment Creation” or whatever they called it back them.
Everybody in Spain just tells you to go work for the government (and there are 4 or 5 levels of government that exist in Spain), competing in the “oposiciones” or tests for a position, where the ratios are like one position for a thousand applicants. This is so because not only government employment is stable (they basically cannot ever fire you no matter what) and usually relaxed but they often make more money that their counterparts in the private sector.