You have a great idea, you’ve lined up a technical co-founder, and you’re ready to start disrupting the world as we know it by bringing your million-dollar idea to life. You’re more than ready to be the next unicorn. The question is, where will you launch your startup?
Although the United States has plenty of cities that are great for launching startups, we wanted to look at major cities around the world that are just as good or better at helping startups take off.
We looked at cities that are hubs — technological, transportation, cultural — in their own right in Europe, Asia, and the Americas and assessed their potential for a startup launchpad. We looked at tax rates, the vibrancy of the local tech scene, and business-related costs to determine which cities were the friendliest for startup founders.
TL;DR: here are our results in map form, with the top five of each region discussed in more detail below. For details on how we calculated the rankings, you can read more below.
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Top Ten Cities to Launch A Startup Outside of the United States
Best Cities To Launch Your Startup in Europe
When it comes to the best city to launch your startup in Europe, and incidentally first place overall, Warsaw is your bet. Warsaw offers aspiring entrepreneurs one of the lowest tax rates, a vibrant tech scene, and low overhead costs.
Warsaw ranks second lowest for employee salary cost and fourth lowest for coworking space rent. More importantly, Warsaw ranks second overall for developer meetups, meaning you’ll have access to developers who are engaged and excited about their work if you decide to base your operations in Warsaw.
Warsaw startups: Azimo, DocPlanner, Unified Factory, Survicate, Prowly
Coming in second in Europe is Berlin. Unlike Warsaw, Berlin has the third most expensive rent and labor costs in Europe and is overall on the list. Conversely, Berlin has one of the lowest tax rates at 15%. While overhead costs may be high, Berlin has other amenities for founders, including one of the highest numbers of developer and founder meetups, which can provide founders with both technical and entrepreneurial support when trying to get their business off the ground.
Berlin startups: Auto1, Blacklane, Clue, GoEuro, Crate.io
If you’re a startup founder looking for VC support, third-place London should be your home base. Although London has the most expensive coworking spaces of all of the cities we surveyed, it ranked first for the number of venture capitalists in the city. Notable London-based VCs include Episode 1, Fuel Ventures, Passion Capital, and Octopus Ventures. Therefore, if you’re shopping for a city with strong support from VCs and an active startup scene, London might be the city for you.
London startups: Deliveroo, MoveGB, Gousto, Hibob, Nested
Amsterdam ranks fourth as the best city to launch your startup in Europe due to its relatively high tax rate and labor costs but makes up for it with strong support for founders. While it falls in the middle of the pack when it comes to coworking space rent, the number of VCs, and developer meetups, it shines at second place when it comes to founder meetups. If you’re a founder who wants to meet other founders and grow your businesses together, Amsterdam is a great fit.
Amsterdam startups: BUX, Fairphone, Ohpen, ParkBee, Stream.io
Finally, rounding out the European pack is Moscow. Although the tech scene in Moscow is not as active as it is in other cities, if you need access to more affordable labor, Moscow ranks third overall in terms of employee costs. While Moscow is on par with Amsterdam when it comes to coworking space rent and the number of VCs it hosts, Moscow has an affordable tax rate that may sway you in its favor, all costs considered.
Moscow startups: Busfor, Youdo.com, Qlean, Doc+, Deliver
Read More: 14 Toptal Alternatives to Hire Freelance Software Developers & More
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Best Cities To Launch Your Startup in the Americas
When it comes to the Western Hemisphere, Montreal is the number one city to launch your startup. Montreal has, by far, the lowest tax rate in the Americas, in addition to a respectable ranking when it comes to founder meetups and coworking space rent. Although Montreal is on the moderate to the expensive side when it comes to labor costs and could play host to more VCs, the low tax rate, along with its relatively cool weather and easy access to maple syrup, is something to consider when deciding where to set up operations.
Montreal startups: Flinks, Element AI, Nectar, Luffa, Vention
The silver medal for startup launchpad goes to Mexico City for the Americas region. Mexico City boasts relatively cheap coworking space rent and a tax rate lower than its Southern Hemisphere neighbors. Mexico City lies near the middle of the pack in terms of founder and developer meetups, which means that you’ll meet plenty of entrepreneurs and enthusiastic developers if you decide to make Mexico City your new home.
Mexico City startups: Avetones, Clip, Lavadero, Kichink, Zaveapp
Buenos Aires narrowly ekes past São Paulo for third place due to its incredibly affordable coworking spaces. While Buenos Aires also has pretty good labor costs and a good number of founder meetups, it has by far the least expensive coworking spaces on the entire list, which means that if you’re a founder who likes working away from home, Buenos Aires can definitely be an affordable home away from home.
Buenos Aires startups: Descuentocity, InvertirOnline.com, Pickmebus, Plataforma 10, Restorando
São Paulo ranks fourth in the Americas when it comes to launching a startup, mostly because it has the highest tax rate on the entire list (though closely followed by Paris), at 34 percent. While São Paulo has an average number of developer and founder meetups as well as co-working space rent, it has a good number of VCs and labor costs that are relatively affordable. If you prefer Portuguese to Spanish, consider building your startup in São Paulo.
São Paulo startups: Printi, Cuco, GetNinjas, QuintoAndar, Trocafone
Last but not least in the Americas is Bogotá. While Bogotá has the third-highest tax rate overall on the list, it also has the fourth most affordable employee labor costs and fifth cheapest coworking space costs on the entire list of cities we surveyed. Although Bogotá could benefit from more developer and founder meetups, it is home to a good number of VCs to make your startup launching experience a bit more financially viable.
Bogotá startups: Fluvip, Trulii, Vendty, Civico, Greencode
Read More: Hiring Developers Online: Freelance vs Recruitment Agencies vs In-House
Best Cities To Launch Your Startup in Asia
If you want to launch a startup in Asia, look no further than Bangalore, India. While Bangalore came out second overall on the list of top 10 cities, it went toe to toe with Warsaw because of its very affordable labor costs and coworking spaces. Bangalore ranked first overall in terms of rent and employee salary, so if you’re a founder who wants to be economical on overhead costs, while enjoying an enthusiastic developer candidate pool to choose from, Bangalore may be the city for you.
Bangalore startups: Chimple Learning, CoWrks, Dunzo, Artivatic, HyperWorks
Coming in second in Asia is Singapore. Singapore boasts a relatively low tax rate compared to the other Asian countries on the list and is a commercial hub in its own right. While rent is one of the most expensive on the overall list in Singapore, founders who choose to locate their home base in Singapore can enjoy a good amount of support from fellow founders and VCs.
Singapore startups: 99.co, Active.Ai, Honestbee, ShopBack, oBike
Hong Kong ranks third in Asia when it comes to launching a startup. Founders who are concerned about taxes can relax in Hong Kong with a 16.5 percent tax rate, one of the lowest in Asia. In addition to lower taxes, Hong Kong offers the third highest number of VCs and the sixth highest number of developer meetups in the city, which is amazing given its actual size. If you like your cities compact and your taxes low, consider Hong Kong as your new base of operations.
Hong Kong startups: SenseTime, GoGoVan, Lalamove, Accompany, Prenetics
While it narrowly missed the top three, Taipei is a great city for startups in its own right. Taipei gets a bronze medal for the affordability of its coworking spaces and hosts a vibrant founder scene, coming in seventh overall for the number of founder meetups in the city. If you’re worried about overhead costs, in addition to low rent for coworking spaces, labor costs in Taipei are the second most affordable in Asia. If you love great food, low overhead, and hanging out with fellow founders, Taipei could be your dream home.
Taipei startups: Appier, The News Lens, Citiesocial, Gogoro, KKDay
Finally, Seoul rounds out the list for best cities to launch a startup in Asia. Although Seoul has relatively high tax rates for Asia, it also has the second highest number of VCs on the entire list. To complement the number of VCs there, Seoul also has relatively affordable coworking spaces and a good number of developer meetups. Therefore, if you’re a founder who is definitely looking for VC support as well as enthusiastic developers and an affordable home base, Seoul might be a great fit for you.
Seoul startups: LooxidVR, BUXI, Zigzag, Market Kurly, Hyperconnect
Read More: Toptal vs Upwork, Fiverr, Arc: Where to Find Great Freelance Developers?
Final Factors to Consider Before You Launch
Although taxes, rent, labor costs, talent, and support from fellow founders are important factors that shouldn’t be neglected, before you run off to launch in Warsaw, Bangalore, or Berlin, there are a few more things to consider.
One, do you speak the native language in the country you plan on launching in? Although many of the countries we listed offer low tax rates and labor costs, unless you have a native friend, launching in a country where you don’t speak the language can be difficult if you can’t get the ball rolling due to language barriers.
Two, related to language, unless you plan on running a remote or distributed company, what are the country’s laws regarding emigration and investment? Can you get permanent residency or even a visa based on entrepreneurship? If you plan on being on-site, you’ll have to ensure that you can, legally, be in your country of choice after launch as well.
Three, consider the political climate of the country you want to launch in. Is your product potentially controversial for your country of launch, for example, Grindr in Russia? Can you deal with possible censorship from the government, like the Chinese government banning Winnie the Pooh references? While many of these countries are firmly democratic, some are not so free, though they provide excellent opportunities for enterprising founders, which may create roadblocks down the line.
As a caveat emptor, although we did our best to provide the most accurate information possible at the time of publication, information for some countries was more limited than others, with fewer online resources available. For those countries, we used the limited resources to the best of our ability.
Finally, while we did our best to come up with a comprehensive list of cities for Europe, Asia, and the Americas, we know it doesn’t cover every city. If you’re a founder that just launched your startup in one of the cities mentioned, let us know about your experience in the comments!
Read More: How Much to Hire a Software Developer: Freelance vs Full-Time Costs
Methodology
The United States is, of course, a well-known hub for tech companies, with Silicon Valley as the symbol of cutting-edge technology and ideas. While the United States is still a land of opportunity, we wanted to look at cities outside of the United States that could give it a run for its money for new entrepreneurs who aren’t based in the Western Hemisphere.
Indeed, this list may well be most useful for founders living outside of the United States or entrepreneurs interested in targeting an international audience.
We’ve curated a list of big cities from Europe, Asia, and the Americas that have the potential to offer entrepreneurs a good head start in launching their startups. To create this ranking, we looked at factors startup founders needed to consider when deciding where to base their startup.
We looked at each city’s tax rate (after all, nothing is certain but death and taxes), the number of venture capitalists in a particular city, the vibrancy of the local tech scene, support for founders by other founders, labor costs, and rent.
To determine how active the tech scene was, we looked at the number of meetups for the month of September, and for founder support, we looked at the number of founder groups there were in a particular city relative to the country’s population.
For tax rate, we consulted this guide, and we tallied the number of venture capitalists based on the venture capitalist association website for the respective country, narrowed by city. We looked at average developer salary information from Glassdoor and the cost of a monthly coworking space from Coworker.
We then ranked this information based on its importance to new startups in order to obtain the rankings above.
You can also try Arc, your shortcut to the world’s best remote talent:
⚡️ Access 350,000 top developers, designers, and marketers
⚡️ Vetted and ready to interview
⚡️ Freelance or full-time
