I still use a 2010 MacBook Pro (i7 8GB RAM 256SSD) to run my IDE and all the "normal" apps (Skype, Slack, Chrome), and a NUC (NUC5i7RYH) on Ubuntu to build and run the stack.
I mostly access the NUC via SSH (and rsync my codebase between the two computers). The NUC is also connected to a monitor and I use the MacBook keyboard and mouse to drive both computers with Symless Synergy.
Don't agree at all, having lived 4 years in Germany. Certainly it's cheap, dirty cheap compared to London; certainly it has a good, creative vibe; certainly it's a awesome city. But that's all.
Facts I learnt in 4 years in Germany:
- it's very difficult to conduct business in Germany (with German customers) if you aren't fluent in German. And while people correctly says it's not difficult to pick up some German, proficiency requires at least 9 months of full time study
- taxes are prohibitive
- setting up a Gmbh it's expensive, and requires a lot of paperwork. The mini, entrepreneur-friendly UG (aka mini-Gmbh) it's a laughable joke, just political propaganda with so many limitations (number of founders, need to save 25% of profits to build the reserve fund, ...) that's hardly usable for a startup
- tax authorities are, as a matter of fact, going after (I'd like to say, persecuting) contractors, especially those coming from abroad or working for foreign companies. I have a dozen of stories of people asked to pay undue VAT, or asked to provide proofs that their employer are conducting business legitimately in Germany, asked to explain why some months they didn't earn any salary, ...
When my business partner told me about the cost and effort in setting up a GMBH I was shocked. In London, we got our Ltd company registered with Companies House for well under 100GBP in about 3 hours. We were registered the same day we submitted our application.
I like Berlin, but I wouldn't incorporate over there and the winters in that part of the world are too cold for me!
On the other side, tax authorities actively try to punish foreign companies operating in Germany with taxes like the Außensteuergesetz (AStG); applicability varies from country to country, from case to case, and in my experience if you ask two accountants whether your Ltd is subject to AStG, you'll get 2 opposite answers.
It depends on many factors (f.i. are the founders successful entrepreneurs? how long have they been working on the company? do they have a working prototype? a product in production? does the company already have customers? revenue? profits?), but in general 1% is not enough for a first employee, especially if you are not getting salary until the company get funding.
I'll shoot for something between 5-10%, but again, it's difficult to say without knowing the details.
Hi, I'm moving from Germany to London (tomorrow) precisely to find more opportunities to network and attend technical/business events. There are actually many of them, check Lanyrd for a good (but not exhaustive) list http://lanyrd.com/places/london/.
In any case, I'm in for these kind of events (feel free to connect on Linkedin to keep in touch, see my profile)
Yes, I mean, there are a lot of meetups, to which I already go, but I wanted to do a thing more about doing things than talking about them!
PS: could you please up-vote so more people can see the thread? Thx
yes, but Craigslist doesn't give you "your website" to organise the garage sale.
The idea is to let people create and customize the website, specifically in situations when they need to sell many things.
I agree--a personalized website is the value add. The issue I see is what is the breakeven on something like that? It will obviously cost something to put up your own site (not just money, but time). If I'm trying to sell stuff in a jam, do I think I'm going to get more page views on my own site than on CL? Is it going to be worth the extra time? Am I getting a better price for my stuff?
Also, it will be a bit of a pain if I need to update it each time something is sold.
Things I would consider adding:
1) ability to pay for the item directly on the site (you could partner with paypal on this, or offer the merchant service directly for a cost to the website user)
2) waiting list for people interested in the objects.
General issue I see with this: can you get people to pay for this when they have a free option? If you're going to offer it free, can you generate enough page views on individual sites to validate ad revenue?
Just to clarify (as I did in the comments section of my blog). You can say whatever you want when you go through customs: that's just a summary screening.
But when you go to the secondary check, you have to give a sworn statement; and they do some clever tricks to "warn" you and suggest you to tell the truth.
I mostly access the NUC via SSH (and rsync my codebase between the two computers). The NUC is also connected to a monitor and I use the MacBook keyboard and mouse to drive both computers with Symless Synergy.