Funding is a big concern – and startups are especially vulnerable since they don't have existing customers to help ride out almost everyone being hesitant about new costs at the same time – but one other factor I'd consider: for the entire history of computing, the world has generally been comfortable using American products. Almost everyone trusted Intel, AMD, Motorola, etc. to make their processors, trusted IBM, Microsoft, Apple, etc. to build their operating systems, gave Google the ability to automatically ship code updates to their desktops, and the U.S. tech industry has seen trillions in profits because of that. People didn't think the U.S. was perfect by any means but most people would have used terms like “rule of law” or “democracy” when describing us, and very few people worried about trusting American tech products (yes, there were some but they've been ).
Now _everyone_ else in the world is asking what happens if the Trump administration leans on an American company, or whether they even have to lean when the CEO is sharing a stage. Does an attack on Canada start with a Windows or Chrome update? Will CrowdStrike agree to ignore the NSA's exploit codes? Can a politically-connected insider get the CIA to help them beat a competitor? Will AWS turn off service if it's deemed strategically necessary, similar to how Ukraine's military capabilities were threatened to force them to accept a worse deal?
None of those questions have an affirmative answer so far, but everyone has to weigh the odds of something previously unthinkable actually happening and that is a new and quite disturbing place to be for someone launching a startup if you expect to have customers in other countries. Canadians appear to be taking the lead right now but there are many people in many countries who are not going out of their way to help the U.S. economy and startups are going to have to deal with that without an existing reputation or referrals to balance it out.
Now _everyone_ else in the world is asking what happens if the Trump administration leans on an American company, or whether they even have to lean when the CEO is sharing a stage. Does an attack on Canada start with a Windows or Chrome update? Will CrowdStrike agree to ignore the NSA's exploit codes? Can a politically-connected insider get the CIA to help them beat a competitor? Will AWS turn off service if it's deemed strategically necessary, similar to how Ukraine's military capabilities were threatened to force them to accept a worse deal?
None of those questions have an affirmative answer so far, but everyone has to weigh the odds of something previously unthinkable actually happening and that is a new and quite disturbing place to be for someone launching a startup if you expect to have customers in other countries. Canadians appear to be taking the lead right now but there are many people in many countries who are not going out of their way to help the U.S. economy and startups are going to have to deal with that without an existing reputation or referrals to balance it out.