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Comment by matt_o | Hacker News Reader

> I suspect the community might become more Europe-oriented, because it’s more difficult to get funding here and there are more bootstrapped businesses as a result.

It's also a lot harder to set up any sort of business in most places in Europe, at least compared to doing it in the US. I wouldn't be surprised if this community will become centered on North/South America and Asia.

In the US, you could start selling widgets instantly (all legally, taxes taken care of). Getting an LLC (something like a GmbH/Ltd) set up takes around 1-2 weeks tops, securing a company credit card - a few days.

Source: Self-employed US expat in Germany.

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Granted, you can't start a company in most countries "instantly" but compared to the time it takes to write software?

For instance in Germany you have the "Unternehmergesellschaft" or Mini-GmbH which is really cheap to set up and should also be really cheap to run as long as you're not doing anything complex accounting-wise. From what I've heard it doesn't take more than a couple weeks.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unternehmergesellschaft_(haftu...

In certain industries there is a bias against that form as it shows you are bootstrapping without much cash, but I would hope it's not a problem in tech. Though it probably does suck to write "haftungsbeschränkt" (liability-limited) everywhere: there is no legal short version.

Germany's bureaucracy is more cumbersome than many in the EU I think. It's not the worst, and has the advantage that it does follow its own rules and is not corrupt. But they really like requiring many forms on paper, and in-person visits to a variety of offices. There are other EU countries with more streamlined processes.

In Denmark the situation is not that different from the US. You can legally operate as a sole proprietor simply by filling out an online form registering for a CVR number (a business tax ID). It's free and instant. Setting up an ApS or IVS (roughly equivalent to an LLC) is also pretty easy, and can be done online.

You could go the way of a UK Ltd company, 4 hours to set up via an incorporation website. I've used it to set up companies - US Ex-pat living in the Czech Rep. Works all across the EU.

(At least until the Brexit happens)

Thanks! I'll look into that!

I'll still have to take care of taxes locally here (tax residency, grumbles), which are the biggest time sink. Maybe I should hop the border into the Czech Rep. :)

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