European Regulations Deter Startup Investments Over US Gap and Anti-AI Rules

They don't

They tell European founders to immediately incorporate in the US or they won't even invest

From then on they become American companies and benefit the American people!

@levelsio ✋for my 1st fundraising i talked to @peterthiel a long time ago and he instantly cut me short with: Forget about Europe. Close your shop, take your best people, get to the US, just forget it!

It was very brutal and to be honest i hated it a lot back then but boy was he right

@levelsio Facts.

We founded HandCash in Spain, early 2018.

The main condition of the US VCs that invested in us a year later was to turn the company into a Delaware C-Corp.

Needless to say that the same company based in the US vs EU, gets an instant 10x valuation.

@joehas @levelsio They don't. There is no real VC market here outside of government.

There are just too many hurdles.

@levelsio So why do so many US VCs invest here?

Same happened to my company. No Delaware Corp, no US investment.

I had believed it was changing, for example @HelsingAI

https://helsing.ai/newsroom/helsing-concludes-transformation-to-societas-europaea-se

Not so with ElevenLabs, which is now legally incorporated in the US.

As is lovable “Major European venture capital firms including London’s Accel and Stockholm’s Creandum participated in the funding round, yet they still required the comfort of Delaware corporate law to write their cheques.”

https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/sweden-s-ai-darling-lovable-is-actually-a-us-company-and-that-s-europe-s-real-problem

@levelsio 🎯

Seeing more invest across Europe (even southern Europe) in 2026. But yeah, largely agree.

We just need to copy what works. The real problem is what @pmarca points out, no political vision or willingness to take the trade-offs.

Which in turn is probably due to a bunch of countries acting independently instead of as one unit.

@levelsio that's correct

@levelsio True, but it’s mostly a jurisdictional power grab. Swiss investors don’t invest (mostly) in EU companies unless they are Swiss, so it’s the same. I know investors in EU also that won’t invest outside of the EU. It’s just the investor determining rules (on their favor/comfort)

@joehas @levelsio Ya but compare that to how much they invest in the US.

Europe is just a small part of their portfolio unfortunately

@joehas @levelsio How many?

@elwatto @levelsio -1, there's no regulation preventing one from investing in European startups..

a general rule: any country that creates policies hostile to innovation and commerce (e.g. high taxes) inevitably drive that talent away.

location arbitrage is a tale as old as time. thats why Cayman Islands, Panama and Ireland became a thing

even companies in the US have policies that pull their economics out of the US and dont benefit Americans either.

this is where the whole 'tax the rich' thing comes from because currently the wealth is not benefiting anyone if they hide their wealth offshore.

but how do you keep companies in your country AND benefiting the people?

policy is so nuanced and tricky and one wrong move can have dangerous consequences at scale.

@levelsio +1

@andupoto @levelsio no one said that. that was not the point. in fact, the US is a lot more restrictive for angel investing.

@levelsio Yep

@levelsio Yeah you need both parts. Point being bureaucrats can do what andreessen says and it won't accomplish anything without also having what you and your friends have. Which cannot be regulated into existence Though maybe I'm wrong, vc has been more institutional than p2p for >20y now

@joehas @levelsio What