Be so good they can’t ignore you – Steve Martin
In the discussion about the challenges of building startups in Europe (see: EU Inc, eu/acc, Not Optional, higher taxes in the UK and the Norwegian exit tax on unrealized capital gains etc), I believe that for 99 % of startups it is not national tax laws or European business regulation that decide if a startup becomes a global winner.
It is about assembling great teams than can build and sell world-class products that solve important problems for customers.
That is very difficult to do. But there are multiple great examples of such startups both in Sweden and across Europe. The conditions to build a very large technology company in Europe is significantly better today than 15-20 years ago across every dimension (with the exception of GDPR).
Founders should spend some time on tax planning and regulatory setup, but to succeed the most important thing is to be so good they can’t ignore you.
