Why It’s Hard for Startups to Create Wealth in Europe
Paperwork is just an excuse, the issue is cultural. People in Europe are simply less entrepreneurial than in the US, maybe because the employer-employee relationship comes with more perks, like several weeks of vacation so people take less risks.<p>It's considered risky to start a company and generally not that well looked upon, when compared to staying as an employee all your life and getting a higher position in a company, even though your revenue would probably be lower.<p>There is much more social status associated to being a higher level employee than to being an owner of a small to medium sized company.<p>Paperwork is not a problem, a few phone calls and meetings and its done. You can start a company with the help of your accountant in Europe, the accountant will take care of everything. The accountant will schedule the appointment with the notary, do all the paperwork, etc.<p>Developer freelances are asked nowadays to have their own limited responsibility company, that can be used later for an online enterprise as well, that's what I did.<p>There is even an option of paying a very small amount and setting up a quick limited responsibility unipersonal company, that then can graduate to a regular company later on.<p>There are of course other factors, but I think 90 to 95% is purely cultural.