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> GmbH took 5 months due to international founders

> No wonder there are hardly any startups in Europe

Please remember that the process is different in each country. AFAIK the equivalent process takes less than a month in my country, and that's mostly waiting for the paperwork to go through and registering for VAT (which is technically optional, but almost always necessary). There are also companies that will do all this for you for basically pocket money.

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Yes, it can be worse! In Switzerland the process is quite similar to Germany, but the pain really starts not with founding the firm but when you first start to employ people. Or indeed, when you need to shut the company down.

Source: I've done this. The first time I tried to shut a company down, my advisors (who you need to handle the local paperwork) didn't tell me about the "three strikes" requirement in the public register. So it took five years to get the company fully shut down.

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