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Advice for US entrepreneurs who move to Europe

english.martinvarsavsky.net

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Re: Advice for US entrepreneurs who move to Europe

#31

Post by mkuhn »

skreech wrote: post #7

Article is ridden with errors, mostly based on a faulty premise. Europe is not a country. Europe isn't even the EU. Laws, regulations, attitudes and tax rates vary widely. If you want to do a startup in Europe, choose a country first and then read up.

There definitely are a lot of generalizations in the article but there also are a lot of valid points.

It is pretty insightful to see how a seasoned American Entrepreneur perceives Europe and the obstacles that can be found here. Not necessarily every obstacle applies everywhere. Some countries might even have different things hindering their competitiveness than those outlined by the article. But it definitely isn't all peachy for businesses over here (or there).

This article does provide a kind of road map on how Europe could improve its business environment. If it wants to is a completely different question.

Re: Advice for US entrepreneurs who move to Europe

#32

Post by venomsnake »

Firing is not hard. When my country telecom was privatized and the contract limited the amount of layoffs they could legally make - they just put every parasite in his own room with no internet, no pc-s, totally forbidden to use personal devices and gave them no tasks. They were also under strict monitoring for misusing the company time(reading on work), phones and being strict on arrival/departure. The ones that didn't left on their own out of boredom, soon accumulated enough "sins" to be fired.

Re: Advice for US entrepreneurs who move to Europe

#33

Post by krzyk »

raverbashing wrote: post #24
Svip wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the thing about lawyers being cheap is accurate, but this is because in Europe (except the UK and Ireland), we use a Civil Law system, whereas the US (whom borrowed it from the UK) uses a Common Law system. The basic difference is that in a Civil Law system 'the law is the law'; court rules cannot change law practice. In addition, you cannot use previous court decisions to argue in a court of law. You can use th…

Well, actually, in practice it's the other way round Because then the law (text) is usually more complicated, and the bureaucracy adds complexity to it.

But you don't have to have a list of all the previous verdicts, just the law book.

Re: Advice for US entrepreneurs who move to Europe

#34

Post by seanmcdirmid »

venomsnake wrote: post #32

Firing is not hard. When my country telecom was privatized and the contract limited the amount of layoffs they could legally make - they just put every parasite in his own room with no internet, no pc-s, totally forbidden to use personal devices and gave them no tasks. They were also under strict monitoring for misusing the company time(reading on work), phones and being strict on arrival/departure. The ones that did…

That isn't actually firing someone, but making their life so miserable that they quit. See NYC's teacher rubber rooms. Compared to firing someone, I find this approach quite inhumane, at least you could challenge the firing.

Re: Advice for US entrepreneurs who move to Europe

#35

Post by neumann_alfred »

davidw wrote: post #26
Svip wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also don't buy the notion that Europeans are generally resentful towards entrepreneurs.

A ... well, I'm not going to get specific, as he's probably not too hard to locate via facebook or something, but a person I know through my wife was ranting about how all entrepreneurs are dishonest thieves at dinner the other day. Granted, this was an after-a-few-bottles-of-wine chat at the table, not a serious, reasoned opinion from someone who I do respect, but still, it's not an uncommon opinion here in Italy.

Yeah well, and here we're looking at an article claiming "it's illegal to work hard in the EU", which wasn't even wrote by a random drunk and is just as bad.

Also: http://www.garann.com/dev/2012/what-the-fuck-is-an-entrepren...

Re: Advice for US entrepreneurs who move to Europe

#37

Post by stdbrouw »

davidw wrote: post #26
Svip wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also don't buy the notion that Europeans are generally resentful towards entrepreneurs.

A ... well, I'm not going to get specific, as he's probably not too hard to locate via facebook or something, but a person I know through my wife was ranting about how all entrepreneurs are dishonest thieves at dinner the other day. Granted, this was an after-a-few-bottles-of-wine chat at the table, not a serious, reasoned opinion from someone who I do respect, but still, it's not an uncommon opinion here in Italy.

It wouldn't be too hard to find someone holding the same views in the US, I should think.

Re: Advice for US entrepreneurs who move to Europe

#38

Post by k-mcgrady »

Svip wrote: post #15
RyanZAG wrote: post #14

I don't live in a country with the kind of employee protection rules as in Germany, but the article still comes off as a rant against employee protections. Can't afford to treat your employees like humans? Want to give them big bonuses and then fire them the following year so they can't pay the mortgage on that house they put a deposit down on with that bonus? Don't want to shell out a bit of money on decent offices,…

I also don't buy the notion that Europeans are generally resentful towards entrepreneurs.

Personally I don't think people are resentful to entrepreneurs but it isn't glorified the way it is elsewhere. If I told an American friend I ran my own business they would usually be very interested and tell me how great that is. Most of the people I know (Europeans) tend to think of it as 'not a real job' and regular tell me 'I should get a real job'. These aren't people trying to hurt me, they legitimately believe that I need a real job. I don't think entrepreneurship is celebrated less here, I think that is it only celebrated when you are either incredibly successful or have something to show for it i.e. you have a store you run. It's hard for a lot of people to understand software development and that I can work from my house with nothing but a laptop, meet clients online, and only talk with them via the internet.

Re: Advice for US entrepreneurs who move to Europe

#40

Post by neumann_alfred »

Swizec wrote: post #17
Svip wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also don't buy the notion that Europeans are generally resentful towards entrepreneurs.

In my experience the ex communist countries are still heavily resentful towards entrepreneurs. Especially because for the past 20 years being an entrepreneur has mostly meant legally stealing big corporations. At least in the eyes of many. There are a lot of decent entrepreneurs, but they don't get any press. However, the general mantra is "He has more than we do, he is obviously a scoundrel and a thief. You can't ge…

There isn't just one single general mantra. For example, the notion that success/money prove the value of what you're doing -- instead of your own rational reflection, nothing else -- is often heard, from big shots to wannabes. Just look at the crap Microsoft, Facebook, Intel, Google and Apple got/get away with. Yeah we bitch, sometimes, but generally it's a-okay because the ends justifies the means, they're household names, la-di-blah. If we're already that FUBAR with stuff that is out in the open, the full spectrum is probably not very flattering either.
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