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Comment by moreira | Hacker News Reader

> Honestly, this whole ride makes me think I should just get a job at a US startup and use the cost of living difference to pay devs out of my own salary.

I know this was an off-hand remark that you're probably not thinking much about, but you're absolutely right, and it might be worth seriously considering it. Moving to the US is probably the single biggest improvement you can make to your career and opportunity options. You will never have as much opportunity in Europe as you will in the US, not in the tech world. You might be able to eke out some success in Europe, but it'll pale in comparison to what you could've achieved in the US.

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Oh it's not just an off-hand remark, been thinking a lot lately, especially the closer we are to closing a round the more it's on my mind.

I know that career-wise I'd have more opportunity in US, but besides that, not much attracts me there - quality of life is way better here. Especially if I can work remotely for a US based company and use 50% of my salary to hire at least 2-3 developers locally to work on my product. The difference in salaries and cost of living is huge.

Be careful, US companies usually have you sign IP contracts and do not approve of moonlighting.

They could well try to claim stake or ownership on your company, even if they lost, the distraction and money it would cost to defend probably aren’t worth it.

How the hell can they justify this habit of telling a developer what they can and can't work on in their own time, or making any claim to it afterwards just because someone worked at company X during the same time they made side project Y? The whole tendency seems grossly onerous and unjustifiable to me.

This is precisely it, you get it.

Then why is there no widespread pushback against this idiocy? It's grossly unfair and seems like a lite version of some notion of serfdom, by which you belong to your emplo0yer just because you spend part of your day working for them during some time period.

If they hire as a contractor, then it's easy to say no to these clauses. If they hire through a local subsidiary then these clauses are against the law in much of the Europe.

> They could well try to claim stake or ownership on your company...

Note that not only is this not legal in California (but is in others -- Texas is particuarly notorios) but any employment agreement in California must specifically include a copy of the relevant section of law so that the employee is a aware of their rights. But don't use any of the employer's property (e.g. computer, IP) or do it when you are supposedly working: in that case the law does not apply and the employer does get the rights.

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