Just like everything else, it depends. I moved from the US to Europe mostly because I didn’t have the patience to deal with the H1B visa nonsense. However, Europe feels kind of dead compared to the US. For instance, I had more job opportunities in Columbus, Ohio, than in Berlin, Germany, and there’s no way around that.
People often overlook the advantage of having a universal language. One reason Europe struggles to attract top talent is language fragmentation. I don’t know anyone excited about learning French just to get a tech job in Paris. But I do know plenty of folks who’ve moved to North America simply because there’s no language snobbery there.
Beyond that, the level of investment in the US is on another scale—the comparison isn’t even close. You’ve got to live and work there to fully understand it. So when I hear my European colleagues talking out of their asses, I can’t help but find it hilarious. That said, San Francisco wouldn’t be my first choice. Personally, I’d go for New Jersey or Atlanta—East Coast, but not the insanely expensive parts of it.
> One reason Europe struggles to attract top talent is language fragmentation.
And regulatory fragmentation on top of overregulation. We build billing and just invoicing alone is crazy with different taxes in each country, different compliance requirements for invoices etc.
And then you're only talking about invoicing, not actual innovation and stuff. So being in Europe just massively increases your overhead in terms of paperwork and compliance.
Maybe there's bureaucracy in the U.S. too, but you mostly need to figure it out once, not 27 times.
> the level of investment in the US is on another scale—the comparison isn’t even close.
If I could, I'd make it mandatory for every tech founder to spend a week in the Bay Area once, just to see the scale of what tech can be like.
Even in Berlin, which is often touted as a "tech hub", working at a startup is still this novel little thing and I'd bet half the people in them couldn't tell you who Paul Graham is.
> Even in Berlin, which is often touted as a "tech hub", working at a startup is still this novel little thing and I'd bet half the people in them couldn't tell you who Paul Graham is.
Oh, absolutely. There’s also plenty of anti-US propaganda nonsense. Berlin is a tiny island compared to cities like Raleigh, NC, let alone SF, and they often don’t attract the cream of the crop due to language requirements in many tech jobs. My life is hard enough as it is—don’t force German on me.
> Oh, absolutely. There’s also plenty of anti-US propaganda nonsense.
Language requirements, crazy bureaucracy and 50% tax rate. I wouldn't be surprised if a well-paid SWE in Bangalore has more purchasing power after taxes than the same engineer in Germany.
Are you categorizing the article as a brain drain advertisement?
I think the objective truth is that the United States is currently the very best place to run a tech company from almost every angle (maybe excl. cost of living, but that's mostly driven by high salaries in tech, so...).
So if you want to give your company the best odds of venture-scale success, you should at least have some presence in the U.S.
People often overlook the advantage of having a universal language. One reason Europe struggles to attract top talent is language fragmentation. I don’t know anyone excited about learning French just to get a tech job in Paris. But I do know plenty of folks who’ve moved to North America simply because there’s no language snobbery there.
Beyond that, the level of investment in the US is on another scale—the comparison isn’t even close. You’ve got to live and work there to fully understand it. So when I hear my European colleagues talking out of their asses, I can’t help but find it hilarious. That said, San Francisco wouldn’t be my first choice. Personally, I’d go for New Jersey or Atlanta—East Coast, but not the insanely expensive parts of it.