

Best countries for startups - amrithk
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/smallbusiness/0809/gallery.best_countries_for_business.smb/index.html

======
brk
This is interesting, but I think it is missing some key points for technology
startups (it seems to be more "new business" focused):

1) Availability of talent 2) Labor laws overall 3) Availability of ready
market and spending power

I may be biased, but IMO the US is the #1 place in the world for technology
startups when you factor all these things in.

~~~
noodle
i think you are biased, if you read a sufficient number of them you'll see
that they do consider things like the available workforce and labor laws. the
market thing is kind of dependent upon what type of startup you want to
create, but if you're working on a web startup, it doesn't really matter where
the company itself is located.

the article is referring to startups in general, not necessarily tech
startups.

~~~
davidw
What other kinds of startups are there? Biotech... Still "tech" though. What
else? "Clean tech". Almost all of them are some kind of "tech", even though
those might be quite far from the sorts of web things we talk about here for
the most part. I guess you could talk about computer-based tech and "other".
Or "new businesses" (like, a new restaurant), and that's certainly worthwhile,
but not really "startups".

Still, it's not a bad list. I wonder how much money you have to have to start
a Danish company though. Places like Italy and Austria are nowhere near the
cheap fees that exist in the US.

Edit: Georgia?!? Might be ok in terms of regulations, but has a significant
"being blown up by the Russians" risk factor.

~~~
noodle
all of the business definitions for "startup" i see don't restrict the
definition to any specific field. just because we talk about tech startups
here to the point where it is implied doesn't mean that CNN money also implies
"tech startup" when they say "startup".

[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=define...](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=define%3A+startup&btnG=Search)

------
pchristensen
Also 10 worst:
[http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/smallbusiness/0809/galle...](http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/smallbusiness/0809/gallery.20_worst_countries_for_smallbiz.smb/index.html)

Congrats to Venezuela for being the only non-African country to make the list!

------
axod
"It only takes 24 hours to set up a business in New Zealand, the speediest
start-up time in the world."

How many companies do you need to setup???

~~~
tom_rath
Only one, but if it takes a filing cabinet of paperwork, three bribes, a $20k
processing fee and a four-month wait after personally visiting the application
centre 200 miles away, you'll be unlikely to start that business.

The time and resources required for incorporation are a good metric, but since
the difference in the top-ten is only a matter of hours it looks trivial. In
far too many nations, it's not.

~~~
CFS
That's is not true that NZ is the fastest. In Australia it is about 5 mins to
get a 'business' and about 40 mins to complete tax registration.

1\. You do not require _ANYTHING_ to start a business in Australia

2\. There are three main types of 'business structures' in Australia

a) Sole Trader - NO PAPERWORK IS REQUIRED but most people register a name so
they can get a bank account in their business name eg Fred's Flowers

Time: 5 mins Cost: $142 About half of all businesses are sole traders.

b)Proprietary Limited company Fred's Flowers Pty Ltd (similar to a US Inc)

To create a Proprietary Limited requires at least 1 shareholder and 1 share
and 1 director.

Pty Ltd are legal entities that account for about half of all business in
Australia.

Time: 5 mins Cost: $400

3\. Limited companies. Fred's Flowers Ltd These are large companies, often
listed on the stock exchange. I own and control an unlisted public company but
we will be listed in a few months.

As much as I like our Kiwi cousins, it is not the 2nd best place to start a
business in the world.

The methodology is deeply flawed to the point of nonsense.

------
cesther
Don't rely on the CNN piece, they have paraphrased the bugger out of the
original report. [ <http://www.doingbusiness.org> ]

For instance there there significant differences between the US and NZ on
labour issues, within the report US is rated 1, NZ - 14.

Whereas CNN says:

"As in the U.S. and Hong Kong, hiring and firing is relatively easy to do in
New Zealand, with no mandated penalties, notice or severance payments for
fired workers"

If yr really keen to discover more: <http://www.ers.dol.govt.nz/>

------
furiouslol
You should base your startup where your market is.

If your business is tech related, it would be best to do it in the US since
they have the largest spending power for tech-related services.

If you are a mining contractor, you should do it in Australia as they are rich
in resources.

Follow the market.

------
erictobia
Any (non U.S.) folks with startups in the countries on this list? Is the
article consistent with your experience?

~~~
run4yourlives
Canada here and yes.

I'm not sure what their definition of "Starting a business" is though, since
technically in Canada all you need for that is a GST number, which you can
apply for online for free and comes in the mail as soon as they can get it to
you. You get a temporary number that you can use prior to that.

Trade is about right though, especially from the US. Where this free trade
that we're supposed to have is I have no idea.

~~~
davidw
> I'm not sure what their definition of "Starting a business"

Starting some sort of limited liability company that is its own legal entity,
is my guess.

~~~
tom_rath
And that's a breeze in Canada. Starting from a position of complete ignorance,
I had everything finalized in a day and only had to leave my home to get a
document notarized by a lawyer around the corner. Total out-of-pocket was
around $200.

If you are Canadian and want to start a business, you can find everything you
need on starting (and running) a corporation here: [http://www.ic.gc.ca/cgi-
bin/sc_mrksv/corpdir/corpFiling/regi...](http://www.ic.gc.ca/cgi-
bin/sc_mrksv/corpdir/corpFiling/register.cgi?lang=e)

~~~
run4yourlives
See, that's my issue. You started a corporation, which of course is a
business, but a business in Canada is not always a corporation. A sole
proprietorship is a perfectly valid legal entity, although without the limited
liability aspect.

------
mojuba
A curious fact: all English-speaking countries are in top 10. It would be
interesting to speculate why.

~~~
rglovejoy
Denmark is an English-speaking country? A lot of Danes speak English, to be
sure, but their first language is still Danish.

~~~
fp
He said "All English-speaking countries are in top 10", not "All countries in
the top 10 are english-speaking".

