Moving your startup to the USA from Europe
•
1 like•1,600 views
"Coming to America" presented at Technopol March 2011 - on moving your startup from Europe or the UK to the USA, particularly the West Coast and Silicon Valley or San Francisco. Hat-tip to @BAndrew for some contributions from his own presentation on the topic.
Recommended
More Related Content
Similar to Moving your startup to the USA from Europe
Similar to Moving your startup to the USA from Europe (20)
More from Andrew Scott
More from Andrew Scott (9)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Moving your startup to the USA from Europe
- 1. @andrewjscott for Taking your start-up to the west coast March 2011
- 8. Missions are great because • Introductions • Familiarity of SV • Builds a foundation • PR easier • Trusted Peers www.andrewjscott.com
- 9. Time spent • Average x5 trips a year • 4 months in 2010 • San Francisco – NYC – LA – Austin, Texas – Boston • Pay your offset!
- 10. 1. Why be there? • Size of domestic market • Funding • Cluster of skills • Partners • Great for consumer services – Early adopters – “McDonalds” effect • Not afraid to scale • OK to fail
- 11. 2. Where?
- 12. www.andrewjscott.com • Palo Alto – Posh – Everyone drives – Everyone is in tech – No-one drinks at parties – Everyone talks shop • San Francisco – Funkier, grittier (a bit) – Everyone drives, or taxis – More people drink at parties – Everyone talks shop http://paulgraham.com/seesv.html 3. What’s it like?
- 16. • Office rent is cheap • Co-working space even better • Mobiles – CDMA (no SIM) – T-mobile or Rebtel • Learn the tricks –eg. Take BART from SFO • Taxis are expensive, but buses slow • Rent a car to visit VCs etc 5. Ops www.andrewjscott.com
- 18. 5. Ops
- 19. 5. Ops
- 20. 6. Funding • VCs are very product focused • Mostly straight talking • Ask for contacts • Open door if you have a good story • Ideally, get intros ..but do research www.andrewjscott.com
- 22. 7. On-the-cheap • 180 days total • 90 days at a time – Have a return flight – Say meetings & conference – DON’T say • You are planning to work here • Might be moving • Anything about VISA applications or real plans – Have answers ready! www.andrewjscott.com
- 23. • Delaware corporation – Tax efficient – Clearest laws – SV lawyers may defer costs until VC financing • You can do it yourself ..but don’t 8a. Doing It “Officially” www.andrewjscott.com
- 24. • Staff in London & Europe • Set up from outside US • Very connected in SV • Active Networking events • Personal banking – Credit card difficult since 9/11 – Open an account in person – Use UK/Euro bank (e.g. HSBC) 8b. Banking www.andrewjscott.com
- 25. • Working without VISA v.serious • Many types (L1-A, H1-B, O1) – Takes time – US Embassy in person – Outside the US – Can go in but frowned upon – One mistake will mess it up – use a lawyer – Get what you pay for, get a recommendation 8c. VISAs
- 26. 8d. Team • More expensive – but more entrepreneurial – the good ones know their value • Competition higher – but more people • Benefits – Share Options, Snacks, Health Care, Gym – IRS (tax) etc is complicated! Use High Street Partners www.hsp.com www.andrewjscott.com
- 27. • Culture of business – frankness, no shame – in Europe no one will say its good – in USA no one will say its bad! • Scale – think BIG, be the next big thing • Don’t undersell yourself • PR – sell yourself in advance – If it is not news, find a way to make it news – Sell the momentum, not the reality 9. Cultural Differences
- 28. • Flights are cheap, so go! • Plan Ahead – Know why you’re going – Sign up to events – Reach out and use your network – Fix your deck! – Make your pitch perfect – Take lots of business cards – Don’t forget the PR – Have fun & be proud! www.andrewjscott.com
- 29. Not got a perfect deck? Buy this:
- 30. @andrewjscott www.andrewjscott.com thanks also to @bandrew of Huddle.net for contribution to this deck