[msiebuhr]

(Hej; fellow Dane here!)

> Zendesk is also Danish originally, Tradeshift is, Podio.. they all end up leaving because the market opportunity in Denmark is very small (6mio) and there isn't easy enough access to talent when you need to scale up

Podio mostly had a sales-office in SF; most development was in Copenhagen (until Citrix moved most of it to North Carolina half a year back or so)

While I'm not aware of their legal statuses, both Zendesk and Tradeshift has non-trivial amounts of development in Copenhagen.

Realm moved (and was part of Ycombinator, even) and then moved back to Copenhagen.

Falcon.io always had most of their development in Copenhagen and only really moved sales elsewhere.

It generally seem to me that they take a few semesters stateside to get known/funding/... and them move back. I've heard access to talent, employee mentality and "founders' wanted kids to grow up sane" amongst reasons for moving wholly/partially back.

[ThomPete]

Of course there are examples of starups who keep their HQ in Denmark.

But the fact remains that most who go big aren't.

Podio is now a US company not a Danish one.

Tradeshift CEO has a kid and live in SF.

Zendesk is US.

Skype was never even Danish and was bought by US company twice.

And when Danish startups gets bought it's mostly by US companies.

Universal Robot got sold to a US company.

Even Rocket Internet mostly successful deals was selling to US companies.

The idea that they just take a few semesters is wrong and it's missing the point. Where are all the European companies who buy american startups? Where are the Danish companies who buy Danish or European startups?

There is a general lack of activity in the European startup scene. It's not that it's not possible it's just that it's very unlikely to make it.