[jb1991]

These kinds of apples to oranges comparisons are a little ridiculous. Estonia is a tiny country compared to Belgium, which is also small, but is obviously going to have a much different set of trade-offs. There are so many other factors to consider besides those listed in this article. And ultimately, being an entrepreneur is not really about where you live, it’s what you choose to do. People who think that if they move somewhere it’ll suddenly make them into the person they want to be are usually in for a disappointment. The example of a place to find standard contracts is also frankly trivial. Anyone who wants to start a company quickly figures out what they need to do in the environment in which they live, and ideally they will involve locals who understand the system very well. Just hiring a good local accountant who understands the laws is going to be of benefit regardless of any websites that make your research easy.

Far more important is living in a place that inspires you to do your best work, that’s ultimately the most important ingredient.

[Dracophoenix]

> And ultimately, being an entrepreneur is not really about where you live, it’s what you choose to do. People who think that if they move somewhere it’ll suddenly make them into the person they want to be are usually in for a disappointment.

Where you live dictates the laws, culture, and tax policies that you're expected to follow and will be punished for breaking. There are many entrepreneurs in Africa but one rarely hears of any successful ones internationally that don't come from South Africa. Obvious reasons for this would be ethnopolitical turmoil, lack of personal liberties, and kleptocratic dictatorships.

While Belgium is a far cry from a failed state, policies that interfere with one's personal goals will require a change in geography, at least for the foreseeable future. It would be great if entrepreneurs could be residents of the moon for tax purposes while stating put, but no such e-citizenship program exist.

The example of a place to find standard contracts is also frankly trivial. Anyone who wants to start a company quickly figures out what they need to do in the environment in which they live, and ideally they will involve locals who understand the system very well. Just hiring a good local accountant who understands the laws is going to be of benefit regardless of any websites that make your research easy. Far more important is living in a place that inspires you to do your best work, that’s ultimately the most important ingredient.

[jb1991]

But we’re not talking about an arbitrary African nation in comparison to South Africa, we are talking about two countries within the European Union. Your analogy is a bit hyperbolic.

[Dracophoenix]

I used Africa as an example to provide the clearest demonstration of how location and associated factors impact business. With the exception of defense contracting, warfare, strife, illiberalism are pretty obvious barriers to starting a business, much less a tech business. I didn't however suggest that these were only factors or suggest that Europe is comparable in that regard. What I'm trying to demonstrate is that policies applied over a certain jurisdiction will cause people to vote with their feet and their wallets. Being in a state with lower taxes even mattered to Jeff Bezos, now the second richest person in the world, when he started Amazon. You can read it from the man himself:

You moved from New York to Seattle to start this business. Why?

"It sounds counterintuitive, but physical location is very important for the success of a virtual business. We could have started Amazon.com anywhere. We chose Seattle because it met a rigorous set of criteria. It had to be a place with lots of technical talent. It had to be near a place with large numbers of books. It had to be a nice place to live — great people won’t work in places they don’t want to live. Finally, it had to be in a small state. In the mail-order business, you have to charge sales tax to customers who live in any state where you have a business presence. It made no sense for us to be in California or New York.

Obviously Seattle has a great programming culture. And it’s close to Roseburg, Oregon, which has one of the biggest book warehouses in the world. We thought about the Bay Area, which is the single best source for technical talent. But it didn’t pass the small-state test. I even investigated whether we could set up Amazon.com on an Indian reservation near San Francisco. This way we could have access to talent without all the tax consequences. Unfortunately, the government thought of that first."

https://www.fastcompany.com/27309/whos-writing-book-web-busi...

[em-bee]

the last paragraph is a quote without a response. hit the reply button to early?

[Dracophoenix]

My mistake

[em-bee]

never mind, i was hoping you'd see that early enough to fix it.