by michal-frackowiak on 01 Apr 2013 07:50
Some recent events made us think seriously about relocating our headquarters. Six years ago, starting a business within the European Union in one of the economically rising and most promising countries seemed like a great idea. During the last few years however EU suffered from numerous issues and lost all its credibility in our eyes: economical instability, growing unemployment, critical economical situation in Greece, Spain, now Cyprus, probably with other countries next on the list.
The Great Recession that started in 2007 had both economical and social impact. Despite the promising 2013 US employment statistics, we might see the recession in some EU countries for a few more years. We are afraid that EU is entering a very difficult period and will suffer from another, much deeper recession dip.
We are seriously thinking about relocating to another country. We have studied numerous "Best Places to Live" lists and found them highly biased. After long debates we constructed a list of requirements:
#1 Economically stable
A few years back Cyprus was one of our favorites. Not any more. Given the economical downturn we would be looking outside of European Union.
#2 No winter
This is a picture I have taken this very morning. April. It is Spring and Eastern already, but it is still snowing damn it!
#3 Stable, but independent legal system
Do you know how much time we spend reading all DMCA takedown requests? In a perfect independent system we could just drop them to Trash like the PirateBay does ;-)
No, just kidding. But seriously, have you heard about EU cookie regulations, ACTA or software patents issues? It is not only ridiculous, but frightening as well.
#4 Low and fair taxes
This is obvious. But at the same time "tax heaven" countries like Bahama, Cyprus, Monaco do not satisfy condition #1.
#5 Geographical location
New headquarters should be conveniently located and allow us to reach "rest of the world" in reasonable time. Right now we need 18 hours to reach east coast of USA, which is far too much.
#6 Politically stable
There is no way we would look into China or Middle East countries. Obviously the risk of being involved in a military conflict should be literally zero.
#7 Broadband internet
This is a must. We are spoiled with our multi-GB uplink and anything lower than that would be a serious drawback. This rules out lonely islands on Pacific Ocean with a satellite uplink only :-(
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