Where are the best countries for entrepreneurs and launching your next startup? You can start a business anywhere. Yet, if you talk to the most successful entrepreneurs, location matters.
Where you spend your time and base your business can make a lot of difference in your fundraising, talent, and team, advisors, customer base and potential. So, where are the best places to go?
The USA
Without question, the United States of America is still easily the number one country on the planet for practicing entrepreneurship and growing a startup.
While many Americans are decrying the erosion of their freedoms, the rest of the world still ranks the US as the number one place to come to and build their companies. There’s far more capital available for funding, more experienced startup lawyers and advisors and a stronger ecosystem for founders. You can start your business anywhere, but if you want to get funded and grow it big and fast, America is the country to do it in.
The UK
The United Kingdom and London, in particular, has become one of the top places in the world to build a startup where founders can build a pitch deck and the next day target tons of investors. It has developed immensely over the past few years. It is rich in capital and is embracing innovation.
For much of the world, it is a lot easier to get into the UK than the US. London has often rivaled NYC for being the financial capital of the world and it is an economic epicenter that is a great hub for e-commerce and basing a startup.
Israel
Israel, now dubbed ‘Startup Nation’ has emerged as one of the hottest countries for launching new ventures, and growing global startups. It’s a country that has produced startups like giant WeWork and Wix which supports numerous other startup businesses.
Founders who have launched highly successful companies there describe it as a country born on innovation. They have the capital to support hyper-growth startups, and now have a strong ecosystem to encourage launches.
Chile
Chile makes the list for its Startup Chile accelerator program which gives entrepreneurs temporary visas to go and incubate their ideas. It is one of the most active startup accelerators in the world.
Backed by the Chilean government, the program provides seed funding and $100k in support and credits for essential startup needs. It is also an incredibly beautiful country where many entrepreneurs may enjoy the quality of living while focusing on their ventures.
United Arab Emirates
Since the early 2000s, the UAE has established itself as a highly popular and important financial and commerce hub.
They’ve drawn immense amounts of capital, businesses, and expats from all over the world with easy resident visas, no income taxes, and no corporate taxes. Dubai, in particular, has been a shining example that anything is possible.
They’ve built monumental man-made islands and themed cities to meet a variety of tastes. You can even get gold bars from vending machines.
India
India may not be responsible for churning out some of the highest numbers of hyper-successful startup entrepreneurs. If you’ve been staying tuned into the Dealmakers Podcast you will have heard many Indian born founders who have gone on to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to build multi-billion-dollar companies.
They often credit both the struggles of growing up there and the extremely competitive environment which mints entrepreneurs. US News ranks it the second-best country to start a business, with a population of over 1.3B, and GDP over $2.6T.
Germany
US News has ranked Germany as the second-best country for entrepreneurship. Although their population is a small fraction of India’s at just 82M, they had a GDP of close to $4T. It is in many ways the financial heart of central Europe and a great base from which companies can branch out throughout the region.
It’s a popular expansion point for US-born companies looking to expand too. They have the capital, and perhaps, even more so since tax law changes significantly decreased the appeal of taking money out of the country to other destinations like Spain.
Spain
Although Spain’s venture capital market is a small fraction of that in the US, it offers a very free country with a great cultural mix, diverse destinations, and a good quality of life.
Spain’s startup ecosystem has been developing fast over the past decade. CEO World Magazine ranks Spain tenth for the best countries for entrepreneurship in the world, with a higher innovation score than the US, UK, and Israel.
Expect to see more great founders and companies coming out of this country in the next few years.
New Zealand
Expatica.com ranked New Zealand number one for entrepreneurs in 2019 thanks to its easy entrepreneur visa program.
The government’s focus on attracting innovative companies has led to a very simple one day, one procedure process for getting these entrepreneur visas.
The World Bank also ranked New Zealand number one for ease of doing business in 2019. You only need around $63,000 to invest in a business to qualify for a visa compared to countries like Spain which have traditionally required assets of $250,000.
The country also recently ranked best in the world for surviving an apocalyptic event or epidemic due to its remoteness. Legendary investor and PayPal co-founder Peter Theil also infamously took up New Zealand residency to avoid America’s extreme taxes.
And that’s a move other successful founders may be likely to emulate in the near future.
Summary
Don’t let your location stop you from starting a business. Your country may even be better suited to entrepreneurship and doing business than you think. Looking at the bigger picture, location does matter a lot.
You may want to follow the footsteps of other successful founders and relocate to Silicon Valley or NYC to embed yourself in the startup ecosystem, gain access to better M&A advisors and fundraising consultants, and to supersize your venture fast.
Once you’ve done that, you may eventually find it is far more profitable to seek residency elsewhere to avoid the USA’s extreme tax and regulatory environment.
Alejandro Cremades is a serial entrepreneur and the author of The Art of Startup Fundraising. With a foreword by ‘Shark Tank’ star Barbara Corcoran, and published by John Wiley & Sons, the book was named one of the best books for entrepreneurs. The book offers a step-by-step guide to today’s way of raising money for entrepreneurs.
Most recently, Alejandro built and exited CoFoundersLab which is one of the largest communities of founders online.
Prior to CoFoundersLab, Alejandro worked as a lawyer at King & Spalding where he was involved in one of the biggest investment arbitration cases in history ($113 billion at stake).
Alejandro is an active speaker and has given guest lectures at the Wharton School of Business, Columbia Business School, and at NYU Stern School of Business.
Alejandro has been involved with the JOBS Act since inception and was invited to the White House and the US House of Representatives to provide his stands on the new regulatory changes concerning fundraising online.
