
Austria: The up-and-coming early-stage investment capital of europe - mherrmann
https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/08/austria-the-upcoming-early-stage-investment-capital-of-europe/
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the_mitsuhiko
Traditionally Austria has many problems with founding of startups. In
particular the culture does not embrace failure, the social security net is
ridiculously tight and rewards people who do not work a bit too much, the
taxes are high and the rules and regulations are strict. None of that is new
however.

What is new is that for the first time in a long time this has been
acknowledged as a problem and it would appear that the ones in charge are
genuine about wanting to change this.

Taxation wise I think it would be nice to improve things a bit but if you do
the math a fully insured person in California will have to deliver a similar
percentage of their income to the state so I think this is mostly a marketing
problem than an actual issue.

We will see how this goes. In the last few years many of my friends and
collegues when to the states and I really wish that some of that talent will
eventually come back. There is a lot that is wrong in Austria but the quality
of living is great and at one point in life this matters a lot.

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curiouslurker
Here's one of Austria's most famous exports.

Arnold's 6 Rules for Success:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RQO_OoNASU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RQO_OoNASU)

Surely it can't have been too bad for him!

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badlogic
Apart from missing venture capital, the biggest hurdle for a flurishing
startup ecosystem is of a cultural nature. Failure is still somewhat of a
taboo in Austria. Risk aversity is taught from an early age on in most
households.

That being said, things are starting to move a little. Small hubs develop
around universities in Vienna/Graz/Linz, with regular meetups for networking.
Much of it is in its infancy, and attending those events sometimes feels like
being in a badly acted version of Silicon Valley. But it's still better than
not having them.

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lazyjones
I live in Austria, founded (and sold) a company years ago and have invested in
2 startups (6 figure each) - and I believe this is a misleading PR article.
Austria has lackluster, under-funded universities, unattractive tax rules for
companies and higher-paid employees and the country is dropping in most
competitiveness, growth rankings that matter for startups. Infrastructure is
good, but hiring good developers e.g. is very difficult because salaries are
both low and burdened with high taxation, so they look elsewhere.

Personally, I wouldn't found another company in Austria. There are many better
places in the EU, Ireland is probably the best option right now.

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the_mitsuhiko
> Austria has lackluster, under-funded universities, unattractive tax rules
> for companies and higher-paid employees and the country is dropping in most
> competitiveness, growth rankings that matter for startups.

Correct. However I think the hope of many here is that it's going to change
now.

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nice__two
Not with this traditional socialist/conservative government keeping everything
it's always been.

And let's not hope the FPÖ takes over! They've fucked up good back when they
had a chance. With their corruption and strong association with the
industrial's association (Industriellenvereinigung), they are more interested
in not helping start-ups than any other party.

~~~
the_mitsuhiko
In case you missed it things are already changing. It would be nice if Neos
would get support but they will not largely because the population values
stability and conservatism. Politics can't change that.

~~~
lazyjones
Nothing at all has changed. The new chancellor is just trying a new spin to
attract younger voters again and part of it is positioning Austria somehow as
an attractive country for startups (while at the same time discussing a
"machine tax" to please marxist voters). I don't know if paid articles in
various magazines are part of the campaign.

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geff82
You don't want to pay the ultra-high taxes and social security in Austria.
While corporate taxes are ok, they went berserk with personal income.

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geff82
If you make a decent salary, expect a hard 50% to go to the state. No
reduction for marriage or children.

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pvitz
The 50% tax rate is a marginal tax rate. If you would earn e.g. 100.000 EUR
per year, you would pay about 39% (tax plus social security). 200.000 EUR per
year -> 42% (tax plus social security) totally. This calculation was done for
an employee, not for the employer.

Also, there are things like child support, tax credit and allowances as well
as social security benefits. In the best case, you will not need to pay for
health insurance for your children till the age of about 24 and so on...

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codecamper
Vienna! ha ha ha. You better have some VC if you want to afford that kaffe. I
was there for a few days earlier this year & felt like I was getting fleeced
at every turn.

What is the point? About 30 minutes drive you come to Bratislava. They have
the Euro, they have the more affordable everything.. including old slavic
roots who kick some serious butt at everything programming & math related.

Nice parks though.

~~~
smcl
Was it just garden-variety tourist fleecing, or did you head outside the city
centre? Vienna's definitely pricier than Bratislava and Brno, but I've never
found it to be outrageous. Also since both of those cities are so close I
don't think it's out of the question to be based in either and seek
funding/investment in Vienna is it?

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codecamper
It was just inside the center. A few others said this to me.

I've travelled to Morocco and felt insulted at being constantly ripped off
because I was a tourist. Well, now I know it doesn't happen just in Morocco.

~~~
smcl
Ok I think we are talking about different things. I'm just saying that in a
western city popular with tourists (think Paris, NY, London, Dublin) things
like accommodation, drinks and food will be pricier. Sounds like you're
meaning something different, which I haven't experienced

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kbody
So it's Austria this week? I thought it was Norway last week.

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ZenoArrow
I can't remember who said it, but I remember someone saying there was one
question you should ask yourself when reading any news story... Why am I
reading about this now? In other words, for what purposes is this story being
shared right now?

I'm not suggesting there's a conspiracy behind every story, and there are
often benign explanations that can coexist with dramatic ones. What I am
suggesting is that question is a vital one for seeing through media spin,
regardless of whether it's intentional or unintentional.

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jkot
It would be hard to attract talent in Austria. Brno is real startup hub in
that region.

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atmosx
Brno? Startup hub? A city where no one speaks English and foreigners are
treated bad by locals can not be compared to a multi-cultural city as Vienna.

I studied in Brno and I have friends working at AT&T and IBM. They even have a
ruby group meetup.. But a startup hub??? No.

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smcl
It's certainly not a startup hub yet, but you're absolutely wrong about nobody
speaking english and foreigners being treated badly by locals. I don't know
what problems you had when you were here, but I'd be willing to bet that
either you were extremely unlucky and had a couple of really bad experiences
(can happen _anywhere_ ) or you're overreacting.

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atmosx
hm, no. Most foreigners I know (and I knew a lot as I happened to organize
events among other things) have the exact same view.

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smcl
Agree to disagree. But what you describe is absolutely not what me (foreigner)
and my foreign friends and colleagues have experienced.

