Live data from Hacker News

At Spain’s Door, a Welcome Mat for Entrepreneurs

nytimes.com

1–10 of 50 posts

Re: At Spain’s Door, a Welcome Mat for Entrepreneurs

#4

That all sounds nice but then you have this: http://tech.eu/news/spain-government-startup-tax-reform/

.. provided that the taxpayer has been a Spanish resident for at least ten out of the fifteen tax periods before the last tax period.

While not amazing for people who have been living in Spain all their life, this isn't really a big deal for foreigners moving to Spain to set up a business?

Re: At Spain’s Door, a Welcome Mat for Entrepreneurs

#7
post #2

Despite I think that the new law is a huge step forward for Spain, the visas are nothing if there are not an infrastructure behind it. SV has a huge investors network that Spain just doesn't have.

True, but it is not as if there no VC available at all in Spain either:

http://startupxplore.com/blog/looking-funding-spain-active-v...

Re: At Spain’s Door, a Welcome Mat for Entrepreneurs

#8
I recall reading an article a few years ago where an entrepreneur was sued by the Spanish government after his company went under. Spain is, as is the rest of Europe, quite hostile to entrepreneurship. It seems like Spain is trying to attract people from outside rather than deal with the problems inside. If they could make it super easy to start a company, relax red tape for businesses under a certain size, and encourage Spaniards to start companies (not just in tech) and soften the blow of failure, I think only then is it time to start inviting in foreigners.

Re: At Spain’s Door, a Welcome Mat for Entrepreneurs

#9
post #2

Despite I think that the new law is a huge step forward for Spain, the visas are nothing if there are not an infrastructure behind it. SV has a huge investors network that Spain just doesn't have.

Actually this may improve soon as it looks that Google ventures is paying attention to the opportunity of investing in a country with great weather and high-qualified engineers: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/google-set-to-open-campu...

Re: At Spain’s Door, a Welcome Mat for Entrepreneurs

#10
The US has a similar deal, with E-1 and E-2 visas. You can buy your way into the US by investing $500K. This tends to be used more by people who made money outside the US and want to live there than by people doing startups. This is a treaty arrangement available only to citizens of countries which offer a reciprocal deal to Americans. Spain and most of the EU are is on the list; China (mainland) is not.
Post reply on HN