
Ask HN: UK Entrepreneurs, how does a brexit/remain vote affect your start up? - harel
As someone who has been undecided until I stood in front of the ballot form, I would love to hear your views as to how a vote in or out will affect your tech company in the UK, directly or indirectly.
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icu
I too have felt conflicted about voting one way or the other. It has taken
months of research and discussion for me to come to the conclusion that what
is best for me in the short run is not what is best for my son and the country
in the long term.

The thing that tipped the scales in my decision to vote leave was coming to
the conclusion that democracy is the exercise of sovereignty.

The nature Sovereignty is binary, you either have it or you don't, and I felt
it is too valuable a thing to give up as it had been paid for by the ultimate
sacrifices of previous generations.

I also realised that leaving the EU doesn't preclude trade or special
immigration or visa arrangements to be negotiated between the UK and the EU.
So while there is the threat that the EU members would want to punish the UK
for leaving but they would also be hurting their own economies and since EU
economic growth has been low I don't think they would want to do that.

As a Fintech entrepreneur in London a Brexit might hurt new venture prospects
in the short run. It will be harder to raise money, possibly harder to recruit
and might be harder to grow into Europe.

Having said that, there is nothing to say that it isn't possible to overcome
these challenges, for example hiring devs to work remotely from Europe or from
anywhere in the world for that matter.

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thenomad
If we end up with worse trade deals and mobility in the event of a Leave -
which some rather extensive reading has convinced me is pretty likely (see
[https://medium.com/im-trying-to-fact-check-brexit](https://medium.com/im-
trying-to-fact-check-brexit) , which has been my hobby over the past few
weeks) - then that could directly affect me as most of my business is
international. Some of my clients are domestic, so that business will almost
certainly be affected as the UK's economy slows down or falls into recession.

The international stuff depends on the fine details, of course. Given the
pound's likely to take a kicking in both the short and the long term being
largely paid in dollars may have its upsides. But overall I'm not going to be
at all thrilled if we end up voting Leave.

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NetStrikeForce
In case of Brexit I might move my company outside the country (I'm an EU
national, not British) and me and my family probably follow suit shortly
after. It depends on whether there's visa drama (if there is, then I'll eff
off) or the UK remains as part of the free movement of people agreements (like
Switzerland or Norway).

It is a shame that fear, lies and racism (which is, again, fear) make people
consider leaving the EU, which is the single good thing that happened to
Europe since the end of WW2. It is not just about what's the EU (several
discussions including some in HN have shown once and again how the EU is
completely democratic), but about what the EU could be.

I do respect their sovereignty to choose kicking out EU citizens and requiring
them to go through the visa crap, but I can't help but feeling unwanted.

All the reasons to leave the EU seem naïve, as almost none of them will change
(immigration, adherence to EU regulations, trade agreements, free movement of
people) or, even worse, will be forced fed into Britain's mouth without the
chance to vote against them.

If I finally have to leave, I wish them all the best as I consider them my
friends, but I sincerely prefer to spend my time with friends that appreciate
me as much as I appreciate them.

~~~
icu
I'm sympathetic because I think both sided have gone to extremes and quite
frankly lied at times to gain votes which is why I did my own research and
came to my own conclusions after dwelling on it for a long time. I think if
the UK does leave it would be absolutely stupid to push out people who have
made the UK their home and contributed thus far. Most likely it would be
business as usual until the UK negotiates it's way out of the EU.

I sincerely hope that if a leave vote happens that your family and business
life doesn't get disrupted and please don't think that all the people who
voted to leave did so for xenophobic racist reasons.

~~~
glenndebacker
"please don't think that all the people who voted to leave did so for
xenophobic racist reasons."

But the whole premise of leaving is universally build on xenophobic racist
reasons or started with xenophobic arguments. The line between Euroscepticism
and Anti-Europeanism is very thin, there is a market for "Breaking point" ads.

The fact that 9/10 of most anti-European parties (even on the mainland or
those a Nigel Farage is dweeping with) is xenophobic/racist from nature is
extremely telling.

~~~
dawson
No, it's really not.

~~~
Myrmornis
Leave won due to the votes from non university-educated people in towns &
villages and white working class, and both groups are more xenophobic than the
university-educated generation under 40, who are furious. People were not
voting about economics or trade agreements or the ideals of multi-national
unions. It's not pretty to have this divide along socio-economic lines, and
it's not pretty for liberals to realize that they wish that the xenophobic
white working class didn't have such an influence in a vote, but that's how it
is.

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glenndebacker
I'm no Entrepreneur but speaking as a European consumer it would me effect me
in the sense that I would think twice of where to spend my money. I think it
would have the reflex of spending it rather within the EU than further
weakening it.

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ig1
Spotify. Just-Eat. King. Skype. Transferwise.

Everyone of them was founded in the EU but became a billion dollar startup
while headquartered in London.

Developers, product managers, founders - it's hard to find any startup of size
in London which doesn't draw 20-30%+ of it's staff from Europe (and beyond) -
London has hugely benefitted from the talent pool of Europe. It's hard to
imagine the startup scene existing without it.

(we also sponsor work visas for international staff, it's a nightmare compared
to hiring someone from the EU)

~~~
zxcvvcxz
Do you really think skilled labor that is qualified to work at any of
"Spotify. Just-Eat. King. Skype. Transferwise." will no longer be able to make
the pilgrimage to London, now that Brexit has occurred?

I doubt it. I think the real immigration issue is to control unchecked
migration from MENA countries. A lot of these migrants come from cultures and
religions that are incompatible with Western values, and so it's important to
be able to screen who comes into your country more carefully.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
The problem is there is an expectation from a lot of voters that immigration
is going to fall dramatically in the UK.

~~~
J_Darnley
Isn't the thinking behind that is that _unskilled_ labour will be
discouraged/prohibited? Unskilled Brits being displaced by cheaper labour from
eastern Europe is usually cited as a reason for dissatisfaction with the EU.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
I don't think there was much thinking behind it at all, people saw headlines
that there were 350,000 people coming to the UK and didn't like it.

