Personally I'd go to Singapore -- low personal taxes, no capital gains tax, no tax on income from dividends, low regulation, lots of capital, close to both Australia and Asia and it's a global flight hub.
Why we are taking our startup to Hong Kong and other crazy stories of 2011
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Re: Why we are taking our startup to Hong Kong and other crazy stories of 2011
#32Re: Why we are taking our startup to Hong Kong and other crazy stories of 2011
#33Personally I'd go to Singapore -- low personal taxes, no capital gains tax, no tax on income from dividends, low regulation, lots of capital, close to both Australia and Asia and it's a global flight hub.
Singapore is a dictatorship, and I think one should always consider the political and legal frameworks of a country in case one runs afoul of the law. I don't know about Singapore, but in some countries merely criticizing the government can get you into trouble, e.g. Thailand.
Re: Why we are taking our startup to Hong Kong and other crazy stories of 2011
#34holy shit dude.. best of luck to you guys. Great story reflecting on 2011, and congrats with how far you've brought Buffer
thanks a ton man! :)
Re: Why we are taking our startup to Hong Kong and other crazy stories of 2011
#35Personally I'd go to Singapore -- low personal taxes, no capital gains tax, no tax on income from dividends, low regulation, lots of capital, close to both Australia and Asia and it's a global flight hub.
Singapore is a dictatorship, and I think one should always consider the political and legal frameworks of a country in case one runs afoul of the law. I don't know about Singapore, but in some countries merely criticizing the government can get you into trouble, e.g. Thailand.
"Dictatorship" is not strictly accurate.
The downside to Singapore is that they are authoritarians. Confucian capitalists, you might say. William Gibson famously called it "Disneyland with the Death Penalty" in a Wired article of that title.
Re: Why we are taking our startup to Hong Kong and other crazy stories of 2011
#36Personally I'd go to Singapore -- low personal taxes, no capital gains tax, no tax on income from dividends, low regulation, lots of capital, close to both Australia and Asia and it's a global flight hub.
Singapore is a dictatorship, and I think one should always consider the political and legal frameworks of a country in case one runs afoul of the law. I don't know about Singapore, but in some countries merely criticizing the government can get you into trouble, e.g. Thailand.
In this context, "dictatorship" is akin to an epithet, and using it risks short-circuiting rational discourse. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with personal rule: Napoleon wasn't Hitler, Queen Elizabeth I wasn't Stalin, and Marcus Aurelius wasn't Chairman Mao.
Singapore is a de facto single-party state with a strong prime minister. Is that good or bad? That depends on whether we're talking Aurelius or Mao. Having spent the better part of a week in Singapore this past summer, I can tell you that it was the only place on my itinerary where I thought, "I'd love to have a place here." (The other destinations were Thailand, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Ireland.) If I were to have a residence or business in Singapore, probably my biggest fear would be not government oppression, but rather the People's Action Party losing control, probably to the quasi-communist Workers' Party—i.e., a triumph of "democracy" over the highly effective government Singapore has today.
Re: Why we are taking our startup to Hong Kong and other crazy stories of 2011
#37I've been in Hong Kong for a year and a half. As a city, it's quite nice. Low taxes, extremely safe, vibrant culture. Pollution is really the biggest downside for me (you get used to the # of people quickly, and I'm from a small city and I hate people so...)
However, professionally speaking? Forget about it. It's a horrible place for programmers. In the last couple months I've met with 2 entrepreneurs looking to move to Hong Kong as well as 2 founders already in Hong Kong. I purposefully did not lead, but all four conversations immediately went to the lack of available talent. And, we weren't talking about the lack of talent the way it is in SF or NY (where there's talent, but it's working for someone else), we are talking about the fact that if you could pick a dream team of all programmers living in Hong Kong, it wouldn't be very dreamy.
Most of the senior programmers are long-time bank employees. Their X years of experience is the same year X times. They are risk adverse and creatively challenged. What's really troubling though is that the young programmers (interns, new graduates) have a strong desire to work for the bank. It's culture...working for the bank is what they want to do. Non CS students will take programming internships because "that's what was available at the bank".
Of course you can point to some small communities or some example company, but you really have to realize that hiring is going to be a challenge you might not be able to overcome. You'll almost certainly have to get your "senior" programmers from abroad, and recruiting your talent is going to be unlike anything you've seen state-side.
Re: Why we are taking our startup to Hong Kong and other crazy stories of 2011
#38Could people from the Hong Kong startup community please comment on HK vs Shanghai for doing a startup? I've lived in HK during my student exchange and loved every minute of it - I also have an employee working from Hong Kong. At some point I'll set up teams to target Asian markets with China as the most important one. What are pro's and con's of HK vs Shanghai? Edit: Thanks for all the answers! I really want to go b…
Why not Singapore?
Re: Why we are taking our startup to Hong Kong and other crazy stories of 2011
#39Personally I'd go to Singapore -- low personal taxes, no capital gains tax, no tax on income from dividends, low regulation, lots of capital, close to both Australia and Asia and it's a global flight hub.
Hong Kong is pretty much the same in those aspects, but larger population and more mountains. The government money for startups in Singapore has created an environment that is not entirely healthy or desirable in that there is little incentive to succeed or be that creative. Hong Kong has some government funding and space available, but tends to be in a matching funds arrangement.
Re: Why we are taking our startup to Hong Kong and other crazy stories of 2011
#40I've been in Hong Kong for a year and a half. As a city, it's quite nice. Low taxes, extremely safe, vibrant culture. Pollution is really the biggest downside for me (you get used to the # of people quickly, and I'm from a small city and I hate people so...) However, professionally speaking? Forget about it. It's a horrible place for programmers. In the last couple months I've met with 2 entrepreneurs looking to move…
Agree, hiring developers is going to currently be difficult, but I expect that this will steadily improve as demand grows. Coming here tends to be trivially easy, and there are a lot of things that being in either SF or NY would give a US focus to when there are a few other people globally that are potential customers.
Working in undeveloped markets tends to be both more difficult, but also can be much more rewarding.