What is the safest country to run an IT startup?

Question

I regularly come to think of what would be the best place to create and run a small IT company say a start-up. By safe I mean:

1. Not bothered by criminals collecting money from all businesses in the neighbourhood

2. Not bothered by the army of lawyers trying every single hole in legislation system on every single little company (like it is in Germany)

3. No software patents and endless suits about every single little feature or color piece in your software

4. Free from responsibility for user-generated content, well as long as you remove all generally considered "illegal" content after a request to do so or after you yourself notice it

5. The local court system does not welcome such attacks from local and foreign lawyers and "protects" their homegrown companies

6. Reasonable taxes not killing a private entrepreneur from the very start of his adventure

7. Low bureaucracy and paperwork

8. Private data protection for your company (not like giving out your state of affairs to whoever asks)

9. Well developed communication infrastructure (not like sitting over dial-up as the latest technology breakthrough)

P.S. Will here be a better location for such a question?

Answer 1

I'm liking Canada. Less litigious than the US. Better crypto export laws; OpenBSD is homed from Canada in part because of that. Low crime rates.

The taxes aren't the lowest, though.

Answer 2

The United Kingdom doesn't seem to be that bad. Can't really comment on the bureaucracy, but it doesn't seem overly onerous. Communications are getting better, especially in larger cities.

Answer 3

I'm doing it in Singapore. Startup company taxes are non-existent for the first few years. Personal taxes are low low (I paid less than S$2K in my first year!). Government hands out startup cash and consulting help to companies.

Moving countries just to start a company is a big step tho.

Answer 4

Delaware in the US is the most common choice for start-ups, primarily due to it's advanced fair and effective corporation laws.

USA isn't a good answer because corporation law differs dramatically from one state to another.

Here's a really good forum thread on the topic.

Answer 5

Singapore meets most of your criteria. I'm not sure about the patent lawsuits -- never heard of any but... I've been here in Singapore for 5 years now, working in my 3rd start-up. The government, via the EDB (economic development board) and other agencies has tried to make the country start-up friendly, though they are more focused on BioTech than silicon valley types. Staffing is one concern, there are lots of entry level and mid-level technical people here at reasonable costs, but senior technical people are very hard to find, that's just not the typical career path. But all-in-all; if you can stand the heat then Singapore is a great place to be.

Answer 6

I would say the UK for the following reasons (Corresponding with your points in your question):

1. Doesn't happen in the UK.
2. UK is not too bad for this
3. Software Patents are not granted as much in the EU as they are in the US. Also, >90% of this granted software patents in the EU would fail in a court of law. From what I gather, there isn't a lot of software-patent litagation in the UK
4. EU has a good law on this and the UK has some good case law which says that as long as you didn't have any knowledge of the content, and you remove it ASAP, you are in the clear. Additionally, libel laws are going to be reformed soon in the UK.
5. Not sure about local but the EU likes "home grown" businesses
6. Again, UK is OK for this. Not the best, but nothing too bad
7. I started when I was 17 without an accountant...
8. EU has strict Data Protection laws. The case in the EU is actaully the opposite to this question (not always a good thing!)
9. Co-location is cheap in the UK. £45/month for 1U of Rackspace with 100Mbit internet connection. Very cheap!

Answer 7

The only place I can think of is LaLa Land. Actually, such a place doesn't exist. Even if local conditions meet your "requirements" it will still be affected by laws and actions originating from other places. Dream on.

Answer 8

Deeply odd question - but my first instinct is that one of the small European 'tax-havens' such as Monaco, Liechtenstein, Jersey etc. may be the closest you'll get to meeting these requirements.

Answer 9

Traditionally, "California" has been the answer to that question, which is one of the reasons Silicon Valley happened here.

The US is slipping down the desirability scale on several of your points, but I wouldn't personally consider taking a startup anywhere else.

Answer 10

I will say ShenZheng, China. is the best.

1. IT belongs to high-tech sector, that means you will be highly regarded by local government. Their achievement is largely determined by how quick their regional GDP grows, and recently it changes into how much review comes from high-tech sector. Being a high-tech company means you will get tax deduction, friendly government relationship(this is extremely important in this country since government has lot of power) and so on.

2. Lot of highly educated graduates and experienced individuates. To be sure there is sigh of labor shortage in China, but the amount of college graduates are enormous. Only laborer numbers are shrinking and their salary is going up as well.

3. Chinese government is working very hard to emulate India in IT service. Since you are in this sector, I believe you will get lot of goodies form government. It is quite secure in China and Shenzheng as well. Army of lawyers trying every single hole in legislation system on every single little company. Even heard of it here.

4. Benefits listed above may not good enough to convince you that Shenzheng is better than Singapore, but one thing is more important, that is market. China has a very promising domestic marketing, and it is growing every day.

Answer 11

China. specifically- Shenzen. beats the pants off everyone else on every count in your list.

just go there once, and see for yourself. I accidently went there with a friend, and came bak thunderstruck.

as a COBOL coolie, i've worked in Denver, Atlanta, Chicago, Frankfurt, HK and Sydney nothing like shenzen exists anywhere.

av. new delhi. india

Answer 12

The Philippines is a good location. Cebu in particular. Good talent at a good price. Taxes are low, cost of living is low.

Answer 13

You may find this report my KPMG useful.

I am Ukrainian, naturally I would recommend Kyiv (Kiev) or especially Lviv as good places for running IT company. They are both included in the report above.