germainb
germainb on Hacker News
having access to a market of 355 million (US+Canada) who speak the same language helps immensely.
you need legal council in each country if you really want to expand (even without setting up there)
no, it doesn't. i'm not saying we should do away with the essence of regulation...i'm saying we have too much regulation.
Think NASA vs Space X.
If Switzerland Labor laws hold in a 100 page book, why do France's take volumes ? Surely we can trim them and still maintain their principles.
If you keep all the same principles (essential protection of people, equality, freedom of expression, redistribution...) and start from scratch...how many pages of law could you save and achieve the same result?
I'm not saying taxes don't play, I'm saying startups don't pay taxes because they make losses...so the tax rate doesn't affect startups. 50% tax ? Corporate tax rate in USA = 36% in France = 33.33%
VC question = lower valuations in France; when investment markets become inflated (US) the key to making a return is buying low (France). Return is also about opportunity cost.
Firing someone : I fired 7 people, some paper work, no court cases. Yes there are/can be court cases, but they mostly end in some small (1 month salary) arbitrage. If you're not a jerk about it, things usually work out. Also, remember French legal system is MUCH less costly than the US's.
"You would think they would have changed something by now." -- This I can only agree with but I think it also applies to the US.
France does have regulation, but so does the US - industrial nations are generally over-regulated today. France also does not have a legal system that is as costly as the US, so litigation risk is less important.
Taxes don't really play on this --> many startups don't make a profit ;-) . Social Security might, but a talented engineer in France still costs less overall than the same one in the Bay Area and employee loyalty is higher.
One issue is uncertainty over government intervention, there is a bad history of the French government weighing-in on M&A activity. But the real issue is raising funds - while Seed rounds are generally covered by, among other things, government loans/subsidies, the ecosystem is lacking funds financing Series A and B. Here the government tries to provide incentives but pension funds are not the right level of financing for these rounds...the VC ecosystem needs to grow and that is a challenge because of a risk-averse culture.
If I were a VC in the US, I would see France as an opportunity.