From a employer's perspective there are advantages in Switzerland compared to the rest of Europe: Labour laws are not as strict, so it is possible to fire people (unlike in Germany or France where employees are like your children, you can't get rid of them). Although salaries are high, in Switzerland you pay 20% on top of the salary of the employee to the state, in Germany like 40%.
While it is true that is one of the most expensive European countries the cost of living is very close to the one in the bay area...
This is an expensive place to visit as an outsider but cheap place to live and work. Let's not forget tax efficiency, either.
But, hey, the Helvetic Confederation isn't for everyone, and I'm OK with that.
Currently, the swiss Franc is very strong, therefore making any Swiss product expensive to the exterior.
It can become a huge problem for an economy based on trading with neighbors.
A Swiss franc is traded at roughly 1.09 Euros, I would say significant, sure, but not a deal breaker in high-tech industries. If we were talking about commoditized products I would have to agree but in our industries this is just not the case.
[1]: http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=EUR&to=CHF&view=10Y
> [2011 to 2015] the Euro was exchanging [at] CHF1.20. [Then] the exchange rate stabilised to between CHF1.05 and CHF1.08 to the Euro, due in large part to further intervention from the SNB which discreetly set about buying up foreign currency to ensure the franc did [rise to] new heights
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/money--money--money_sw...
not really, no. the opposite, actually. while not an all time high, it is pretty high in the 10 year context and it did affect export industries.
According to Credit Suisse, "nearly all sectors of industry are affected", especially the Mechanical Engineering industry, but also Metals and Food Industries, Hotels, Catering and Retailing: https://www.credit-suisse.com/ch/en/articles/articles/news-a...
Exactly. Switzerland has just 8.5M people living there, while the US has 322M and Germany 82M. If Germany were expensive, for example, it'd still have a sizable inner-country market while Switzerland does not.
You use premium resources in Switzerland and try to sell German (or EU) resources back upon lower markets at a high enough volume and mark up to make the high market costs incidental.
The problem is that a startup is, eh, a start - up. You are using mainly your skills and as much resources you have to start. An expensive place should not be ideal for that, but hey, san francisco is super expensive and is still the startup hub.
So maybe there is something else...
In Zürich Google will make you a 250k offer, and if you aren't happy, too bad for you, nobody else is going to pay that in Europe :)
Cost of living in Switzerland is extremely high, which means a company has to pay huge salaries, and thus command bigger prices for its product. While that works fine when the product is luxury watches, diamonds or highest-quality cheese, it does not work out for "mass production goods" as any product (be it a physical product or a web service) can be cloned in the EU or in China for way less and then sold to Swiss people...