> Yeah but how is lower tech salaries bad for the startup?

The cream of the crop goes to US. There’re some other obvious disadvantages the EU has for the talent looking to immigrate, like having to learn a local language if you want to be part of the society.

This is not my experience. There's lots of extremely good programmers here. Sure, they're hard to recruit, but so are they in the US.

Cities like Amsterdam and Berlin have a huge crowd of great tech people and most don't speak the local language.

Of course people exist who move to wherever the salaries are the highest, but way more people want to be able to visit mom and dad every once in a while.

Or like to go visit Berghain once in a while.

I’m not saying that Berlin and Amsterdam only get stupid people. But it’s uncommon to meet a graduate from a top school there (which isn’t a 100% reliable metic, but anyway).

What helps Europe(and I mean mostly Germany) are more relaxed immigration rules. Like you can come looking for job without having a job offer, or get permanent residence quickly. Working visas also aren’t capped like H1B.

Top school? In which countries? My money is on you're just considering US schools