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EU–INC – A new pan-European legal entity

eu-inc.org

101–110 of 761 posts

Re: EU–INC – A new pan-European legal entity

#102
post #88

It says "Pan-European" everywhere, but would this include the UK?

Its obviously EU - so not the UK, or Norway or Switzerland or Russia...

I agree it is Eu-wide or pan-EU rather than pan European.

Its probably not going to solve the problems it sets out to given all the differences between EU countries legal systems, tax, regulation etc.

Re: EU–INC – A new pan-European legal entity

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had my experience with bootstrapping a self founded UG (Unternehmergesellschaft), and the process was long (about 8 weeks), involving me getting support from a company (firma.de) to help me prepare all the documentation which involved a lot of physical paperwork, then there's the visit to the notary which is required. After you do that, you need to register with the Finanzamt, and then you start finding out about a…

> I had my experience with bootstrapping a self founded UG (Unternehmergesellschaft), and the process was long (about 8 weeks) It would have been significantly quicker if you used a well-connected law firm. I know a number of friends of friends in Germany who have all visited the lawyer, the notary and the bank all in the course of one morning. The whole experience was orchestrated by the lawyer because they knew the…

But that’s the thing, even though it took weeks I spent a non insignificant amount of euros to set it up, I think it was nearly 2k at the end; and to make it quick would probably be another K or so?

It’s crazy expensive, because of all the bureaucracy. The UG is supposed to be quick and easy to set up, requiring minimum capital… but the process proves expensive.

Re: EU–INC – A new pan-European legal entity

#104
post #83

I always heard that the issue with startup investment in Europe was the general lack of capital investors willing to take Hail Mary risks on founders with a wild idea and maybe little experience. The market is far too risk-averse for a grassroots early-stage startup scene. How would this organization address that fundamental psychological block?

How is that in the US right now though? Years ago there was a wacky startup of the week on HN raising X amount of funds, nowadays it feels like there's... nothing. Or it's just underreported on HN. Or the billions that funded a hundred startups have all gone down the AI drain.

Re: EU–INC – A new pan-European legal entity

#105
post #73

Local Taxes… the issue with EU is the taxes and cost of labour.

California’s taxes and cost of labor combined are surely up there.

Besides a fractured market with lots of different bureaucracies to deal with, the lack of at-will employment is a big labor cost when you need to be able to quickly spin up or spin down operations.

Welfare should always be a responsibility of the government, not businesses. Let businesses business and let government redistribute wealth.

Re: EU–INC – A new pan-European legal entity

#106
post #83

I always heard that the issue with startup investment in Europe was the general lack of capital investors willing to take Hail Mary risks on founders with a wild idea and maybe little experience. The market is far too risk-averse for a grassroots early-stage startup scene. How would this organization address that fundamental psychological block?

It wouldn't. I read this as "we gotta try something" but let's be honest, no amount of work on incorporation rules or employee options schemes or whatever they make up next, is going to meaningfully change the culture and attitude of European capital markets.

If the EU really wants to light the fire, they should invest all those suddenly available defense euros in European companies only. Keep that going for a decade and there'll be a whole new generation of angel investors and small funds run by recently exited entrepreneurs with a soft spot for proper innovation. The SV VC culture didn't pop into being magically. It happened because a sufficiently large % of VCs had been entrepreneurs in a previous life (and not bankers), and their attitudes rubbed off on the rest.

Re: EU–INC – A new pan-European legal entity

#107
post #88

It says "Pan-European" everywhere, but would this include the UK?

As the headline statements say “… EU-level …” rather than European, unless the smaller print explicitly mentions non-EU countries such as the UK I would assume that we aren't included.

Re: EU–INC – A new pan-European legal entity

#108
post #83

I always heard that the issue with startup investment in Europe was the general lack of capital investors willing to take Hail Mary risks on founders with a wild idea and maybe little experience. The market is far too risk-averse for a grassroots early-stage startup scene. How would this organization address that fundamental psychological block?

I think a big issue is that Europeans who want to invest in early stage VC do so in the States, because everything is geared towards entrepreneurial success there. Changing the business environment across the EU is necessary but definitely not sufficient to kick start the VC-backed startup scene in the EU.

I think the big issue is that this is what Americans want to believe because it reinforces their exceptionalism. And of course there are Europeans who would choose to believe it because it absolves them of failure.

Re: EU–INC – A new pan-European legal entity

#110
post #83

I always heard that the issue with startup investment in Europe was the general lack of capital investors willing to take Hail Mary risks on founders with a wild idea and maybe little experience. The market is far too risk-averse for a grassroots early-stage startup scene. How would this organization address that fundamental psychological block?

The incentives change once you get access to the entire EU market, either diminishing the risk or increasing the attractiveness of the the market to the point of that risk becoming acceptable
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