Why Greece is a great place to start a company

http://drachmastartup.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/the-good-guys-win-in-the-end/

by gtzi • 14 years ago

11 7 14 years ago

drachmastartup.wordpress.com

qweeeee• 14 years ago

lol

rdl2• 14 years ago

This is amazingly bad advice, based on all the Greek people I've talked to. The best thing to do as a young, entrepreneurial Greek is to do a startup in another country. Berlin is nearly as inexpensive as Greece, still in the EU, and a viable place for an actual business. Or, Silicon Valley and raising more money more cheaply if that is what you want to do.

Greece is all risk and downside, zero startup culture, no professional services, expensive capital, and not actually terribly cheap.

PanosJee2• 14 years ago

Mixture of both is the key. Inc/business in the Valley, R&D in Gr

rdl2• 14 years ago

It is just as cheap to put my R&D in Berlin as Greece (especially somewhere like Athens). It is cheaper to put my R&D in a place like Albania. Hybrid developed/developing is a great model, but you want your dev center to be cheap for opex, have a large number of skilled people available, probably a place where you have a personal connection, and such. University towns in the midwestern USA, Eastern Europe, Israel, India all make sense for people for that.

Greece has high unemployment, undeniably, but also has both high costs and high risk, and a really small technical workforce. That's not great for a startup.

I don't disagree that if I were Greek and in Greece, a startup would be a lot more attractive than remaining unemployed or trying to get a government job, but it's inaccurate and unhelpful to say Greece is objectively a good place to do startups vs. practically anywhere else. One of the keys to doing a startup successfully is to be honest with yourself about unpleasant things.

rozap• 14 years ago

One could make the same argument about Detroit.

Why Greece is a great place to start a company

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