Why I’m giving up on Europe and moving my startup to China
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Re: Why I’m giving up on Europe and moving my startup to China
#2It reads incredibly naive, but I wish the author the best of luck. He should however be prepared that drawbacks of Chinese way of doing business sometimes outweigh its advantages.
Re: Why I’m giving up on Europe and moving my startup to China
#3China's great until you have to go to court there and realize you're being totally screwed over because your opponent has an "in" with the government. There are countries like Australia and Canada that strike a nice middle ground between too much and too little regulation, have decent, stable economies right now, and solid relationships with China in the case you want to partner with a company there. But I've heard too many horror stories from entrepreneurs getting burned in China to want to put all my chips in that stack.
Re: Why I’m giving up on Europe and moving my startup to China
#4having been in all three places, you should leave europe to start your company. but move to silicon valley instead.
Re: Why I’m giving up on Europe and moving my startup to China
#5When in China, do as the Chinese do. If you want to really get off the ground there you'll need to partner with a local that knows the ways things are done, which is not always intuitive from a 'westerner' point of view.
A friend of mine is currently going this route and there are a few other HN'ers that are doing this, maybe you guys should get together somehow and compare notes. That might save everybody both hardship and time.
Re: Why I’m giving up on Europe and moving my startup to China
#6having been in all three places, you should leave europe to start your company. but move to silicon valley instead.
I wish this were possible, but the difficulty in doing this is massive. If you are not U.S born, it's QUITE difficult to simply walk in and start a company in the U.S. And you'd spend a lot of time just solving those problems, and have a lot less time to setup your company.
In comparison, I landed in china on thursday. Today is monday, and I have a fully furnished office (with furniture I selected myself), an assistant and 25 interviews with programmers scheduled for this week. The business papers have been submitted, bank accounts have been setup.
This all goes really, really fast.
Re: Why I’m giving up on Europe and moving my startup to China
#7When in China, do as the Chinese do. If you want to really get off the ground there you'll need to partner with a local that knows the ways things are done, which is not always intuitive from a 'westerner' point of view. A friend of mine is currently going this route and there are a few other HN'ers that are doing this, maybe you guys should get together somehow and compare notes. That might save everybody both hards…
I would certainly love to meet other HNers that are going this route, perhaps you could set me up. I've got two close and old friends of mine that are locals and are collaborating with me, so that's good.
Re: Why I’m giving up on Europe and moving my startup to China
#8China's great until you have to go to court there and realize you're being totally screwed over because your opponent has an "in" with the government. There are countries like Australia and Canada that strike a nice middle ground between too much and too little regulation, have decent, stable economies right now, and solid relationships with China in the case you want to partner with a company there. But I've heard t…
> But I've heard too many horror stories from entrepreneurs getting burned in China to want to put all my chips in that stack.
I had a girlfriend who was working at a Chinese media company five years ago, and her company said something unpleasant (true) things about an important company in the local province. The mayor called up the newspaper, and was pressuring them... it turned out alright in the end, but it was a minor headache.
If you're doing business somewhere where political influence plays in court, you should just factor that into the cost of doing business and take the mayor out to eat once in a while and do something nice for a local charity or university. The small time/money to be invested in that is still probably less than the costs of compliance in more regulated places (who also have corrupt laws, but the corruption is further upstream - see AirBNB... hotels don't pay off the judge, they pay off the governor).
Re: Why I’m giving up on Europe and moving my startup to China
#9I really applaud your bold move and wish you the best of luck. But there is a lot of "the grass is always greener on the other side" mentality in this post, especially regarding personal freedoms and the bureaucracy/legal-system. I wonder how the example of your friend (getting sued for defamation) would have played out in China. How hard is it to hire good programmers in China? Does anyone have experience about what to expect for 600$ a month?
Re: Why I’m giving up on Europe and moving my startup to China
#10When in China, do as the Chinese do. If you want to really get off the ground there you'll need to partner with a local that knows the ways things are done, which is not always intuitive from a 'westerner' point of view. A friend of mine is currently going this route and there are a few other HN'ers that are doing this, maybe you guys should get together somehow and compare notes. That might save everybody both hards…
I would certainly love to meet other HNers that are going this route, perhaps you could set me up. I've got two close and old friends of mine that are locals and are collaborating with me, so that's good.
I live in HK and have lived, studied and now spend time working in China. If you are ever in HK and fancy a beer, drop me an email... first round is on me.