nish1500

"...notaries, historically the highest-paid freelancers in the country. On average, they earn €356,000 per year. Or, put another way: the equivalent of 37.4 years' salary for a childcare worker."

https://www.wiwo.de/erfolg/beruf/grosse-einkommensunterschie...

A German notary handling a €1 million residential purchase typically earns 3 to 6 times as much in fees as a Dutch notary handling an equivalent transaction and assuming the same legal responsibility.

High initial capital requirements have repeatedly proven to be more detrimental than beneficial (https://mariusring.github.io/web/BacherFagerengRingWold_Sele...). Germany is an outlier in wanting to keep the barriers high.

Running a business in Germany is for a closed inner circle. The apparatus is not meant for broke college students turning their weekend project into a company.

I incorporated a GmbH with Musterprotokolle and it still look me longer than OP.

I've run a tech business on three continents, and nothing comes close to the Kafkaesque labyrinth of the German world.

Everything is unbelievably complicated and over-engineered, and every layer is immune to change. Every rule was rational when it was added, and now everyone has a financial stake in continued complexity. The German notary is the highest-paid notary in the world, and the highest-earning professional in the country.

That said, I think a lot of the frustration comes from a mismatch of expectations. Germany wasn't designed for randos to start companies and thrust change on society. All the bureaucracy is a filter, and what it filters out is change itself.

You were never supposed to incorporate a company. You were supposed to get a job at Volkswagen.

I am in the process of moving my startup from Canada to Germany. I started in India, so I have experience running a bootstrapped business on three continents. I am not looking for funding, and in fact use the business profits to invest in other companies.

Dealing with German bureaucracy is the hardest thing I have done in my life, perhaps second only to bootstrapping my business. Bureaucracy isn't a side effect of poor planning; it's tool to control individual liberties and capital, without going full communist.

For the first time, I am considering selling my business. I want Europe to succeed, but I see no way how. Any little faith I have in EU actually resides in a handful of underdogs like Estonia and Poland.

Most of that €70B is going in the pockets of bureaucrats and consultants, assuming any startup sees a dime within 3 years.

I updated the text. The official link doesn't give out the numbers but they were included in the email.

This is the cycle of JavaScript frameworks. You create something deceivingly simple that tramples upon idiomatic usage but looks great for a todo app. Beginners realize the hard way that this doesn't scale because deep reactivity shouldn't be a default, they no longer know what a vanilla JS variable should behave like, and code is un-readable.

Let the bundler minify your JavaScript. Less characters !== simple.

I used 2.9% + 30cent for each transaction

Salaries for what? Marketing? Obscene bonuses? Downtown office buildings? It is a manufactured need.

I am simplifying things but if we had a public owned payments system that wasn't a profit centre the costs would be far less.

Even within the developed world the costs are very different between Europe and the US. Your fees are paying for someone's hefty bonus and lobbying expenses.

Again, it has been proven. UPI works.

When you pay a merchant $100 with your card they get about $97. When this $100 has exchanged hands 50 times only $15 remains. The bank owns the other $85.

Cash is a hassle but it cuts out the middlemen. We need a unified payment system in western countries, but it's almost impossible given how much of a chokehold big banks have over our economy.

Capitalism at its finest.

This is the only correct answer here.

You'd honestly rather tell people to not have babies rather than swap out their beef burger for a Beyond burger?

There are some rare individuals whose diet needs ingredients found only in animal products. I have come across exactly 2 in my lifetime. That said, these people would still be vegan if they ate animal products. Veganism, by definition, seeks to exclude animal products "as far as is possible and practicable".

I don't know enough about your father's case but this might be more co-relation than causation, based on your facts. If going vegan was causing heart issues in people, we'd really know by now.

Stone age humans are hardly the standard we should be aspiring for. The biggest two arguments for veganism are:

1. The horrific practises of the animal agriculture industry, which looks nothing like a chiseled hunter holding a bow

2. The devastating impact of the above on the environment

Cavemen had neither of these issues.

Exactly! Which is why my comment talks about 'Trading' not 'Investing'.

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/12/difference-inves...

Trading on the stock market (by and large) doesn't create value. If someone makes a killing, it's because someone lost it. You hear about those who make money - because it's the story you 'want' to hear.

People don't understand how money comes from value created, in the long run. People think they can game the system. Everyone feels they are not a part of the average.

People want to believe in get-rick-quick schemes, and will go by the flimsiest evidence they can find.

I think the trick is to realize those glamorous selfies are mostly a mirage. If you were having the best day of your life on the beach, maybe, just maybe, you wouldn't be on your phone trying to get the perfect selfie.

I have done little to no marketing, and spent less than $100 in the last 7 years.

Initially, I relied on integration listings with our partners (Stripe, MailChimp, Zendesk). Overtime customers started talking about us. People would post an odd review. We also rely on 'powered by' links under forms on free accounts.

We don't have one strong acquisition source.

Thank you.

I often use the words startup / business / company interchangeably. I don't know enough about the nomenclature to have strong opinions on it.

Yes, I would like to sell FormCrafts in the next 3 - 5 years. I don't have a strategy for it at the moment.

Oddly, having residency in one of the more developed countries does little to mitigate the ill-fated effects of a weak passport.

I am a Canadian resident with an Indian passport.

A 10-day trip to Iceland involved me having to submit 6 - 12 types of personal and financial documents, and showing hotel bookings for everyday of my visit.

I need to wait for 2 weeks to submit my application (in-person of course). The processing takes 2 - 6 weeks, not including the time they take to actually parcel your application to the embassy.

I am 16 days into waiting and my application tracking status is stuck on the message it showed on the first day. I contacted their support, and their response was, "Oh year we didn't update that. I don't know what stage your application is at, and this is the most information I can give you." I paid more than $100 in visa and courier fees.

I have travelled to over 15 countries and the above experience is, by far, one of the easiest processes I have been through.

I have been with quite a few relating groups spanning a few countries. The author's experience reflects what most newcomers feel.

However, I find the demographic very surprising. The relating groups I frequent had more women than men, and very few people under 30.

I haven't incorporated and don't intend to. I don't need limited liability, and I am not working with companies that require me to incorporate.

Incorporation would mean a ton of paper work, more taxes (in Canada at least), more complications, and 3x the accountant's fees.

For what it's worth, my project nets 200k, is 3 year-old, and I have a degree in accounting and taxation.

I was in the same position sometime back.

I was convinced that chasing startup money and fame was some objective form of happiness. The chase never made me happy.

Luckily, I woke up before I made any hires. My startup is still profitable, but it's more of a lifestyle business now. I work enough to make sure the profits don't fall.

I use my time to travel the world, live out of a backpack, make friends, do shit that scares me. Still struggling with the last part.

Last month I volunteered at a not-for-profit pay-as-you-go restaurant taking orders and cleaning tables and it made me the happiest I have been in almost a year.

I am also exploring my other passions - fitness, food, nutrition.

You know best what you need to do. I thought I'd share what I did.

I am in Thailand now, where the amount you see on the menu is exactly what you pay.

I just spent 10 days in New Delhi, India, where they add between 25% and 33% to your bill, before tips, in the name of VAT, Service Tax and Service Charge.

It's a world of difference. So much trust is lost.

Technically, it isn't required for the Netherlands. Germany requires a degree for work visa, but makes an exception for tech industry, so it's not required there either, if you go by the rules.

However, a friend got his visa for Germany turned down because he didn't have a degree.

As someone who has been living that life for 2 years, and can retire today, at 24, it isn't the utopia people think.

I got in touch with an incubator and a prominent immigration law firm last week. The incubator told me they are no longer associated with the Startup Visa program, and the law firm told me that most VC and incubators have withdrawn.

Very few visas have been issued, but I don't know if that is owing to high rejections, or just low applications.

28 of the latter make up an average Indian's monthly income. It's more significant than $100 is for Americans.

I grew up in a tier-2 city in India, and the amount of black money rich people hoard around here is of ginormous proportions. Easily > 50% of the income for most rich folks.

Can't wait to see how this unfolds.

Not trying to get out sooner. Moving to a different country, and building a life there is a long, arduous, and lonely process, and I'm not even remotely close.

I'm 24 already, and I regret having to spend the best years of my life looking for a home, when people my age are making friends, finding relationships, and building memories.

I regret not having the same starting point.