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In a remote-work world, why ever launch a startup in the US / Canada? Why not launch in a tax-free zone, like Dubai?

Better access to funding, networking, bigger talent pool, access to some sort of "water-cooling" conversations if you are the social type who loves to mingle. But it is true that the world is getting smaller. Even as an employee, for many places getting a 50% of what you'd earn in the US without having to move there could be worthwhile.

Compliance. If you're building a SaaS startup then it's very important to have physical presence in the US

Could you expand on this. Is this only for government-based contracts?

It's kind of a spillover effect where your customers need to meet compliance requirements from other customers such as US presence (not limited to US government btw - mostly around data handling requirements by Infosec teams). Thus as a service providers you are subject to these restrictions as well.

Another example, I know cases where you cannot run your service on AWS because the customers have a blanket ban on AWS - for competitive reasons.

Thanks. Will try to investigate more about this "spillover" effect.

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