[HN Gopher] I'm leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup
___________________________________________________________________
I'm leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup
Author : cesarosum
Score : 57 points
Date : 2021-11-23 10:43 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (sifted.eu)
(TXT) w3m dump (sifted.eu)
| black_13 wrote:
| Well awe shucks.
| NetBeck wrote:
| There's EU draft regulation regarding AI utilization. Prohibited
| AI would be described as, "...systems or applications that
| manipulate human behaviour in order to circumvent the free will
| of the users."[0]
|
| [0] https://www.ey.com/en_ch/ai/eu-draft-regulation-on-
| artificia...
| someonewhocar3s wrote:
| Because you started off an apolitical asshole, but it turns out
| 'marine blue' matches your eyes, and you can say 'I love how the
| King stretches me' because the commonwealth fits your ideals like
| a glove. Now you're absolutely down with the peculiarchie and
| Celtic subject laws.
|
| Of course, you couldn't phantom not to have to pick a partner
| military - that was just a little bit too adventerious for you.
|
| Oh, ok, I got it the wrong way around. ("Why I'm leaving,
| (trading) London for NYC, (and getting a tax break works
| anyway)") he's wrong to go to NYC. Their earlier Bitcoin
| regulations state it well enough. Incapable.
| [deleted]
| xyzzy123 wrote:
| My 2c theory for the difference in investor outlook is "old
| money" vs "new money". Old money is more risk averse - avoiding
| capital loss is more important than making the biggest gains.
| It's probably not possible to preserve a fortune for hundreds or
| thousands of years without this kind of attitude.
|
| There are a LOT of really old money families in Europe (and they
| are a big part of the ruling class) and I believe this colours
| the entire investment outlook.
|
| In China the money is even newer than the US (practically no
| billionaires by inheritance for fairly obvious reasons), so would
| expect them to be even more aggressive and this seems to play
| out.
|
| One place I see the cracks in this idea are former Soviet states.
| It seems like their billionaires should be more willing to back
| moonshot investments than they actually are. Perhaps it is
| because many of their billionaires are politically connected
| oligarchs and don't back growth plays in the same way (more about
| gaining and keeping control of existing pie).
|
| An alternative would be that it's cultural in some more complex
| way and proportion of inherited wealth is either a factor or
| actually a consequence of other things going on.
| drumhead wrote:
| I dont understand, does he want the technical staff to sell
| because he doesnt have a sales team or is it that the staff were
| not creating a commercial project? If thats was the case then why
| didnt he or other management step in and do something about it?
| If Brexit was a problem why didnt they just relocate to Berlin,
| Paris or Stockholm?
|
| Or is this all to do with the much higher ratings tech companies
| receive in the US?
| DocTomoe wrote:
| As an European, I am quite happy with a less aggressive sales
| tactic - it makes companies focus on quality over whoever gets
| the loudest sales guy.
| matthewmorgan wrote:
| It's pretty common in Europe for people to get a socially-funded
| education then go off to the USA. It's called brain drain and has
| been happening for a while, not sure why this guy needs to write
| an article pretending that's not what's happening here.
| oh_sigh wrote:
| You don't really have a choice do you? Is he supposed to refuse
| to go to college for free/low cost because he pays taxes to be
| able to do that?
| raverbashing wrote:
| It's not too trivial to go from an European country to the US.
| An H1-B is a hassle, as are the other types of visa available.
|
| Can't imagine what is the process of "taking your startup"
| (with you) entails.
| dbolgheroni wrote:
| I also see a lot of brain drain in Brazil. Most are from public
| colleges, and they go mostly to Europe.
| stayfrosty420 wrote:
| I thought this was because lots of Brazilians are eligible
| for Portuguese passports
| aigo wrote:
| > Almost my entire R&D team who received PhDs from British
| universities had them funded by the European Union
|
| Well, there you go.
| SassyThrowaway wrote:
| I did not understand that point at all. The author writes: "The
| loss of this funding and scientific exchange is a major loss
| for British and European academia -- and innovative companies
| who need to hire the best scientific and technical talent." But
| what is it exactly that the UK lost [funding-wise, science-
| wise] due to Brexit?
| aigo wrote:
| The quote in my post about funding can no longer happen. The
| EU only funds research at EU universities, and UK
| universities aren't that any more.
| SassyThrowaway wrote:
| Historically, Israeli computer scientists have been able to
| apply and win ERC grants. That said, I have not checked if
| anything has changed for the UK in this regard, hence why I
| am curious.
| kergonath wrote:
| AFAIK, unless this changed British scientists can apply
| to Horizon Europe funding, which includes ERC grants.
| However, there is some uncertainty as this is related to
| the trade and cooperation agreement, which looks a bit
| shaky right now.
|
| One of the problem was that the British government does
| not keep its word, so people are wary of putting British
| colleagues only for their funding to get pulled at the
| last minute because lord Frost wants to annoy the EU.
| [deleted]
| agent008t wrote:
| Was the UK not a net contributor to the EU budget? And
| therefore, why cannot the UK fund PhDs more effectively than
| the EU? I would've thought being less removed from the
| universities and research groups would make funding more
| effective.
| mvc wrote:
| > And therefore, why cannot the UK fund PhDs more effectively
| than the EU?
|
| I always assumed the whole raison d'etre of Brexit was that
| Conservatives wanted to avoid the obligation of paying into
| funds like this. Sounds lovely in theory but leaves less
| government money available to companies with
| social/professional connections to the cabinet.
|
| Funny to see the red wallers finally realizing that too now.
| agent008t wrote:
| I still think the whole divide over Brexit was less about
| the principle of it, but more about whether you are more
| aligned with the current EU political leanings or with
| those of the current UK ones (reflected in its Tory
| leadership).
|
| If you are more aligned with the EU political leanings, you
| would want them to be able to force the UK government to do
| what you believe is the right thing. If you are more
| aligned with the tories, you want them to be free to do
| their thing without being told what to do by the EU. And
| that seems to correlate highly with whether you think
| Brexit was a good or a bad idea.
|
| An interesting thought experiment I like to ask people to
| do is whether they would change their views on Brexit if
| the political leanings of the EU and the UK were flipped.
| I.e. the EU views were more like ones they disagree with
| (e.g. more right-wing perhaps), and the political leanings
| of the UK were more like what they agree with. For example,
| if the UK wanted to have more funding for science, but the
| EU frowned upon that regarding it as unfair competition, or
| something along those lines.
| an9n wrote:
| Regardless of the left/right false dichotomy, if either
| the EU, national governments thereof, or the UK were to
| start looking after their electorates' interests rather
| than doing the bidding of faceless globalist puppet-
| masters, it would be a start.
| deadbunny wrote:
| That's the thing, they're not faceless to the
| establishment. They are their friend and donors.
| kergonath wrote:
| > I still think the whole divide over Brexit was less
| about the principle of it, but more about whether you are
| more aligned with the current EU political leanings or
| with those of the current UK ones (reflected in its Tory
| leadership).
|
| Not necessarily. As a socialist, I really don't align
| with the "current EU political leanings". I also realise
| that the EU is still useful for several things, and that
| leaving it would be at best counter-productive.
|
| Replace "the EU" with your country. You can be in
| disagreement with your current government without wanting
| to secede. That's the same with the EU, really: for all
| its warts and idiosyncrasies, we are better united than
| divided.
| tonyedgecombe wrote:
| I'm doubtful about that. For one thing large amounts of
| left wing areas voted for Brexit including Wales as a
| whole. Also the Tory leadership at the time was pro-
| remain whereas the Labour leadership was lukewarm at
| best.
| maccard wrote:
| That was the suggestion that was made to many industries and
| regions, yes. In reality it seems that those funding sources
| are not being met, e.g. Cornwall [0] and the red wall [1]
|
| [0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-55279468
|
| [1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-
| levell...
| aigo wrote:
| The top-rated comment on this FT article [0] spells it out
| really quite clearly.
|
| _English regions used to receive funds of PS1 billion a
| year from the EU regeneration fund for poor regions with
| the final year om 2018 the final figure being PS1.12bn of
| the PS8.4 billion total over the seven year period._
|
| _For 2018, this worked out to be Midlands (PS190m),
| Yorkshire (PS143m), Cornwall (PS95m), the north west
| (PS88m) and the north east (PS80m)._
|
| _Now this figure of PS1.12bn (PS8.4 billion over the seven
| year budget) has been cut to PS220m for 2021-22 and PS3.6bn
| in total for the same period._
|
| [0] https://www.ft.com/content/eb56347b-42bb-4c56-906a-2ea2
| 4bd54...
|
| p.s the comments section on the FT is probably the best on
| the internet, apart from maybe here
| kergonath wrote:
| > p.s the comments section on the FT is probably the best
| on the internet, apart from maybe here
|
| My impression as well. The articles are also good, but
| bear in mind that both have a noticeable neo-liberal
| point of view.
| user568439 wrote:
| That's the Brexiters logic, but it turns out UK was not only
| contributing to the EU but also trading. Now it doesn't need
| to contribute anymore but it also lost exports, access to
| talent and so on.
| agent008t wrote:
| Fine, but my point is there is no reason for Brexit to be a
| net negative when it comes to the funding of PhDs - if
| anything, it offers an opportunity to be more effective at
| funding.
|
| Same when it comes to the specific issue of access to
| talent - nothing in principle stopping the UK from making
| it extremely easy for talent to come to the UK.
| kergonath wrote:
| > Fine, but my point is there is no reason for Brexit to
| be a net negative when it comes to the funding of PhDs -
| if anything, it offers an opportunity to be more
| effective at funding.
|
| This works only if you assume that the amount of money
| stayed the same. For now, there has been a flux of
| capital and business moving over to the continent. Trade
| decreased as well. This can change in the long run,
| depending on the policy of the Bank of England, but for
| now Brexit is a net loss in British government funding.
| Besides the fact that the money that was supposed to be
| saved was also supposed to be spent simultaneously on the
| NHS, infrastructure, and developing the "northern
| powerhouse" (of cards, unfortunately, as the North of
| England gets shafted again).
| tonyedgecombe wrote:
| Anything remotely related to the EU is toxic as far as
| the current government is concerned. This includes
| immigration which they successfully tied to the EU in
| voters minds.
| roomey wrote:
| The point is that there was both scales of economy due to
| the Erasmus program and a lot of pan European research
| grants..
|
| Being able to pull from a Europe wide talant pool was a
| huge benefit to the UK and her universities.
|
| So there was massive, irreplaceable benefits just for
| universities lost due to the Brexit project.
|
| Along with that Brexit has cost the UK a ton of money..
| this net contributer stuff was literal propaganda.
|
| The UK is worse off now, with less funding to go around.
| kergonath wrote:
| Short answer: the UK and the EU have different priorities and
| the Tories are not interested in giving money to get more
| fancy "intellectuals" (who tend to be foreign and liberal).
|
| Also, for now Brexit is costing more than the money that was
| supposed to be saved.
| jgrahamc wrote:
| _Beyond that, I believe that Europe's (particularly Britain's)
| negative cultural attitude towards sales is a major inhibitor to
| building tech champions on the same scale as the US or China. In
| my thirteen years of working in the UK, I've learnt that in
| British culture sales and selling is viewed negatively._
|
| The linked HBR article talks about self-promotion not sales. That
| seems quite different to me. And speaking from Cloudflare's
| perspective our London-based EMEA sales team has been
| spectacularly effective.
|
| _Early in Eigen's history there were many London-based employees
| who prioritised technological purity over commercial success; it
| was almost fatal for us. However hard it is, the UK needs to
| transform its cultural attitude to sales._
|
| I think that's a leadership issue not about "London". The team we
| built in London was/is all about commercial success.
| KaiserPro wrote:
| London does sales well, if you want a sales office you open it
| in london.
|
| What it doesn't do well is spaff money indiscriminately at any
| old idiot with an idea. Even less so to someone with a crap
| idea.
|
| Despite the article author's claim, most of the startups in the
| generation that I joined (2018+) have focused on getting a
| decent business model, rather than hyper growth above all else.
|
| They also had to do much more with significantly less. There
| was less VC money sloshing about compared to the west coast, so
| we had to be very careful in how we optimised.
|
| To back up the point that John is making, "Technical purity"
| above all else is a symptom of leadership not explaining the
| business needs well enough. (or not putting in place an
| engineering team with enough pragmatism to translate business
| to tech. )
| jgrahamc wrote:
| I mean, good luck to him moving his HQ to NYC etc. but if I
| were an employee in London HM The Queen's tea cup in Windsor
| would be shaking from the sonic boom after I lit the reheats
| on my CV.
| eganist wrote:
| > I mean, good luck to him moving his HQ to NYC etc. but if
| I were an employee in London HM The Queen's tea cup in
| Windsor would be shaking from the sonic boom after I lit
| the reheats on my CV.
|
| I wish I lived in London _just_ to use this expressive
| nugget of gold.
| iso1210 wrote:
| > What it doesn't do well is spaff money indiscriminately at
| any old idiot with an idea.
|
| That's what government's for
| fmajid wrote:
| No, the UK government requires you to have no clue (but be
| chums with a minister or Tory MP) before it spaffs torrents
| of money your way.
| ed_balls wrote:
| I used to work for a startup founded by a few Brits. We had
| engineers in London, but no sales people, because of the
| culture. I was much easier to sell to Walmart than Tesco.
| eganist wrote:
| In fairness, Cloudflare's public perception as a disruptor
| already did Cloudflare's marketing for it in 2017 onward when
| y'all opened your London office; Eigen doesn't seem to have
| that advantage.
|
| I can imagine the sales landscape being a bit better with those
| tailwinds.
| jgrahamc wrote:
| The 2017 date you mention is not correct.
|
| I was Cloudflare's first employee in London in 2011.
| Cloudflare went all in on London shortly thereafter and at
| one point 50% of Cloudflare engineering was in London and 50%
| in San Francisco. We had sales very early on in London
| covering EMEA. At the current time the London office is "full
| stack": engineering, operations, support, sales, legal, HR,
| finance, ...
| eganist wrote:
| Thanks; I googled it and the press was heaviest in April
| 2017 for a new London office, so this is a helpful
| correction for me. Though deeper inspection found 2013 (htt
| ps://www.facebook.com/Cloudflare/posts/10151742549255432),
| so I probably should've just googled harder.
|
| It also changes the equation substantially since the rest
| of my assumptions were based on 2017, though I wonder how
| much the environment also changed between 2011 and 2021,
| brexit aside?
| jgrahamc wrote:
| Cloudflare's London office remains large and important.
| We've built up Lisbon as an alternative location in part
| to give folks a choice between London and a continental
| European city and in part because we are hiring so fast
| it's good to hire in multiple places.
| secondcoming wrote:
| > prioritised technological purity over commercial success; it
| was almost fatal for us.
|
| A leadership failure, exactly. I thought I understood how
| business worked until I joined a startup. It was eye-opening
| hearing how Sales people did their jobs and the pressures they
| were under. Personally, I'd fail at being a Salesperson, it's a
| special talent. If a business allows its tech team to dictate a
| "better late than never" attitude then it's quite likely
| doomed.
| Terry_Roll wrote:
| I was going to cite the same section, but what the author fails
| to notice or mention is a massive amount of inflation circles
| the planet right now that has not been seen since the 70's,
| which is perhaps before his time, but he may have noticed being
| based in London the BBC's Faisal Islam has already dropped it
| into a report that the Bank of England is seeing 5% interest
| rates in 2022 with inflation remaining on its current
| trajectory! When money becomes tight due to things like
| inflation, selling becomes harder because people want quality
| because it adds value and this "London-based employees who
| prioritised technological purity over commercial success" is to
| put it another way, quality, which will hurt the competition.
| When money is cheap due to low interest rates, people throw it
| around like confetti, when money becomes expensive, we will see
| who is not wearing a swimming costume when the tide goes out.
| Helicopter Ben is at it again.
| https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59358070
| waihtis wrote:
| Personal anecdote - depends on where you are on the technology
| adoption bell curve. Innovative, a bit "out-there" things seem
| to be better received in the US.
| mg wrote:
| Are there any European websites in the Alexa top 50?
|
| https://www.alexa.com/topsites
|
| For all I know, Europe mostly missed the internet.
|
| Will the same happen with AI, data centers, solar, crypto and
| biotech?
| goldcd wrote:
| I think there's a difference between where companies are
| listed/head-quartered and where the work is done (e.g. Google
| seems to have 4 separate offices, just in London).
|
| Or consider India, where huge amounts of dev work is done - but
| nobody can name an "Indian web brand" (internationally).
|
| Only actual European brand I can think of that's made global
| impact is Spotify.
|
| Europe seems to do better on the less fancy consumer facing
| side of IT - reasearch and 'hard' companies like ARM.
| czzr wrote:
| The web was invented in Europe. Still, you're right, few big
| internet successes in Europe. Problem is almost entirely
| addressable market size.
| mg wrote:
| What hinders Europeans to address big markets?
| dukeyukey wrote:
| More limited home markets, in both a regulatory and
| cultural way.
| mg wrote:
| Since we are talking about internet companies - why is
| the home market important?
| dukeyukey wrote:
| Language, culture, regulation - it's not just a matter of
| reach.
|
| Like, imagine a successful-at-home French startup wanting
| to expand internationally. First, unless you're happy
| staying in the confines of the old French Empire, you're
| gonna need to translate everything, definitely to
| English, maybe to German or Spanish. Second, your app is
| built with French attitudes in mind. Chances are you're
| gonna have to change that to adapt to American, British,
| German tastes, and that's a lot of redesign. Third, for
| every country you expand to, you have to comply with
| local rules and regs. The EU has helped here, but
| definitely not solved the issue.
|
| Whereas in the US, not only have you got 330 million
| wealth consumers under broadly the same legal/cultural
| regime, but they practically all speak English too! That
| gives US startups a much more solid base to expand from.
| Hell, in Europe the UK is by far the biggest tech hub on
| the continent, and Ireland punches far above it's weight.
| Don't discount the advantages of language or culture even
| in a globalised world.
| Zababa wrote:
| I know someone that work in a startup that does exactly
| that. Opening a new country takes 3/6 months, as you need
| to open an office in the country and recruit people here.
| And that's now that they have a good process for it.
| Translation and localisation add processes and takes
| time. You need a new sales team for each country.
| Sometimes support too. Launching something in the USA
| would be equivalent to have France, Germany, Italy, Spain
| and the UK at the same time. That's a lot.
| IdiocyInAction wrote:
| Language barriers, legal differences between countries,
| etc. Also less availability of capital in general.
| thow-58d4e8b wrote:
| More underappreciated aspect is variety. US tends to be
| very copy-paste - once you solve someone's problem well,
| it's quite likely your solution is universally applicable
| to large swaths of the market. EU varies not only
| country-to-country, but often even between departments of
| the same company in the same building. It's not just
| technology, even markets for beer or coffee are likely
| more varied in your average EU country than in the entire
| US
| Ragnarokk wrote:
| It is kind of biased if you take global raw data as the US and
| China have a bigger share of global internet users. Baidu is
| 6th but I doubt that it is highly frequented by American or
| Europeans. However, the problem shows when you search by
| country. Top visited sites in Europe are still American.
| dgellow wrote:
| VK.com is European if you're talking about the continent.
| Though not if you're talking about the EU.
| jstx1 wrote:
| I wonder how you move a company with about 200 employees to a
| different country and time zone.
| soco wrote:
| Especially when they prioritize technological purity over
| commercial success. Okay irony aside, you kick (most of) them
| out and hire new folks.
| an9n wrote:
| Not particularly convinced about the Brexit angle or the comments
| on sales - for example, you can bet that The City has some highly
| aggressive salesmen/women given its status. But from my
| perspective Europe suffers from a problem of culture - there is
| _seriously_ old money here and, I 'd assert, a related, outdated
| zero-sum/dog in the manger mentality. Anything like FAANG, Tesla,
| SpaceX etc that seriously threatens to disrupt the status quo is
| either stillborn, strangled at birth or shortly thereafter as
| this guild's dead hand does its work.
| ageitgey wrote:
| I run a US-based start-up with a distributed team, but I
| personally live in London. I'd say a lot of this is true. I don't
| personally know how Brexit has or hasn't affected talent
| availability yet, but everything else lines up with my
| experience. US investors throw money around and European
| investors are much more traditional.
|
| But I'd like to offer a different perspective on this quote from
| the article:
|
| > I am not alone in believing Europe has a problem with founders
| and investors, who lack ambition in comparison to the best of
| Silicon Valley or Shenzhen. While I have been blessed with my
| European investors, who are very much the exception to this rule
| and share my ambition, I have seen this lack of boldness during
| my various fundraising processes with many other investors.
|
| The US VC market right now is very "frothy", as the VCs say. It's
| so frothy, you might as well say the froth has churned into
| butter. The article says that European investors lack "boldness",
| but one might instead say that US investors are lacking outlets
| for their ample capital and will throw money at nearly anything
| right now. I guess it depends on your point of view.
|
| But the truth remains - it's a whole lot easier to raise money in
| the US right now.
| Dracophoenix wrote:
| How do you manage a company from across the Atlantic? What does
| your tax situation look like? Do you personally enjoy living in
| London or are you there in spite of your interests?
| ageitgey wrote:
| 1. One day at a time. But in all seriousness, a good co-
| founder and team. Also, we started the company during COVID
| which I think made the VCs less worried a about a full remote
| situation.
|
| 2. US citizen but UK tax resident. So two income tax returns.
| It's a pain, but thankfully the tax treaty means one offsets
| the other and it works out in the end.
|
| 3. Personally want to live in London
| aaa_aaa wrote:
| Summary: He received free money from EU. Now that he could not
| get enough from UK government, he is leaving.
| jstx1 wrote:
| This is misleading. Their staff having EU-funded PhDs is very
| different from receiving free money from the EU.
| simsla wrote:
| In the EU industry PhDs are fairly common. In this case, the
| PhD student does R&D work for a company, and gets paid
| through an EU PhD grant.
|
| For some companies, it's an indirect way to get funding,
| because it provides for cheaper highly skilled labour.
|
| (Anecdote incoming) For example, many years ago at the end of
| my industry internship, the company offered to continue the
| project as a PhD, pursuant grant funding. When I declined,
| they offered a well paid full-time job to do the same.
| me_me_me wrote:
| Technically correct, though he is directly benefiting from EU
| funding. Or was.
| artembugara wrote:
| Literally each part of this sentence is false
| throwawaylinux wrote:
| And not to the EU, but the US.
| stillblue wrote:
| I'm slightly confused. Is the traditional way not the stable way
| to go about things instead of how it is done in the US? These
| seem more like positives than negatives to me.
| TheGigaChad wrote:
| Bye Bye!
| soco wrote:
| I really like the way he describes Europe. Pretty much the way I
| see it as well.
| setgree wrote:
| > Advances in the type of small data AI we do -- AI created
| without vast data sets -- _would have only been possible here in
| Europe_ , with its deep and diverse technical and mathematical
| talent. This would have been difficult in Silicon Valley _given
| US tech's reluctance to experiment and innovate_ , beyond the
| conventional "big data AI" approach.
|
| Can anyone expand on what the author is saying here/validate it
| with personal experience? I have never thought of AI advances as
| "only" being possible in Europe, or of the US tech scene as
| reluctant to innovate.
| c7DJTLrn wrote:
| Sounds like the author is upset that Brexit has closed the valve
| on the pipeline of cheap labour from EU workers. There's no
| shortage of talent in London trust me, it's just that you're
| going to have to start paying more than a pittance to get it.
| Brexit so far has been a positive thing for tech workers'
| salaries.
| aigo wrote:
| Tech workers salaries are going up everywhere, though, and it's
| happening in other industries too. It can't be because of
| Brexit that a bartender in NYC is getting paid more, but they
| are.
| brianmcc wrote:
| "cheap EU labour" tends to apply more to fruit pickers than AI
| PhDs I suspect
| kranke155 wrote:
| Nope. Eastern European brilliant minds would flock to London
| and get paid far lower salaries than they were worth.
| Ukranians, Lithuanians. The legacy of communist math is alive
| and well - they were generally better than any western
| european talent you could get and cheaper. They would always
| get the top jobs, but the regular influx of new blood meant
| salaries were stuck.
| Veen wrote:
| Yes, I voted remain but I suspect the businesses yelling that
| they can't hire really mean they can't hire for what they were
| accustomed to paying before Brexit. It's particularly prevalent
| in lower paid areas like transport, coffee shops, and
| agriculture. If the success of your business depended on low
| wages Brits won't accept, you're likely to be in trouble.
| varjag wrote:
| Likely a prequel to "leaving NYC for SF".
| tonyedgecombe wrote:
| Wherever he goes his problems will follow him. The US won't be
| a utopia when it comes to hiring PhD's with sales skills
| either.
| goldcd wrote:
| I work for a company head-quartered in one continent, listed on
| another and I work in a third (the UK) - and sales are based all
| over.
|
| Not for one moment saying there aren't local
| issues/idiosyncrasies - but I'm unsure how moving your company
| solves them, and article seems to overlook all manner of
| problems:
|
| Aren't you going to lose staff when you move?
|
| Is everybody going to have to get up really early to talk to
| Europe?
|
| Won't new employees cost more in NA?
|
| i.e. Why not just hire a US based sales rep to sell to your US
| customers, in the style that works there? (and a native speaking,
| convervative, tech-enabled one for Germany etc)
|
| Or just register yourself at a Missouri PO, list in the US, seek
| US investors etc?
| KaiserPro wrote:
| Well precisely
|
| Moving to NYC/silicon valley is going to mean fishing in a very
| over fished pool. There is a reason why "meta", Google and
| amazon are expanding engineering over here and the wider EU:
| lots of (comparably) cheap talented labour.
|
| Even if you don't loose staff, operating an engineering team
| over large distances is a challenge unless you know what your
| doing.
|
| Given that he's blaming the engineers for concentrating on
| "technical purity" when I assume he was in charge, I suspect
| he's not really of the right mindset to be responsive enough to
| make the changes needed.
|
| Still, best of luck. I look forward to the updates on progress.
| goldcd wrote:
| Yes, there was a subtext of:
|
| 1) I'd like my company to be doing better ("what an
| innovative thought")
|
| and
|
| 2) It isn't, because the engineers are trying to make the
| product better and sales can't shift it (but these two things
| definitely aren't connected and due to me not being in NYC
| which will magically solve these issues)
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