witcherchaos's comments

Or looking at it another way, you can stress out for a company for 8 year (in case of segment), or or you can join the company as a c-level exec at year 6 for the same amount of equity

Series D (with 3 seed rounds) and 4 founders....what does the equity shares for each founder look like? 3% maybe?

You forgot that Chinese economy crashed heavily last year and this year. In addition, Chinese government really stepped up the blocking of money transfer out of the country

I am curious, why not japan or South Korea? Or even Taiwan, which google is now opening offices there?

> All education in India happens in English

That is incorrect. In urban areas in India, schools teach in English but in rural areas it's in Hindi. In urban areas, only if it's a big city, then peer to peer communication is in English. However, in other cities, the only interaction in English is with a teacher; other times is in the native tongue.

And even if the students in big cities are learning mainly in English, the teachers are usually not native English speakers, which means that the grammer/pronounciation suffers. which is what you see with Indian engineers that have migrated to other countries.

https://www.quora.com/What-language-is-used-in-schools-in-In...

> When it comes to computer science skills, U.S. students approaching graduation have a significant advantage over their peers in China, India, and Russia.

There are a few explanations for this

1.) Programming is an English skillset, which the native English-speaking countries have an advantage. Out of the native English speaking countries (US, England, Canada, Australia, and others), US has the biggest economy, the best tech companies that can train students as interns, and the best infrastructure to grow the students. Where as China, while it does have the population advantage, doesn't have the English capability. Chinese government is currently actively engaging in nationalism (maligning foreign brands, censoring foreign cultures, destroying churches, arresting pastors, saying winnie the pooh is an evil foreign influence), thus will have less and less English skillset overtime.

2.) more innovative/risk taking mindsets. This allows a more creative problem-solving skills amongst students. The Chinese education style is regurgitation and there is a culture of copying and cheating amongst students. Rote learning is widely practiced in schools in India as well, which isn't conducive to innovative problem solving.

The current administration, the one you called Idiocracy, stood up against dictatorship China and exposed the bubble mirage that was the Chinese economy. The Chinese economy is now crashing hard. This current administration did what many said was impossible: wage increases in the age of automation and globalization. This administration has US economy growing at 3%, when most other global economies are going into recession. This administration gave jobs and money back to the main street people, when corporations were eager to give those to the prison labors in China.

You might be reading/watching the mainstream media too much.

There's plenty of Trump supporters in silicon valley. We may be democrats previously, but we really like what Trump did against China, even though the large corporations (who owns mass media) hated the move. Trump rejuvenated the economy, increased competitiveness of American firms, and helped to increase jobs and wages for American workers. He stood up against dictatorship China and is winning the trade war. He is a very flawed man, but he did great for America

Counterpoints

> It’s no longer the best place in the world to start a startup.

The place with most active investors with the largest investments? The place with the biggest pool of programmers and pms and designers? The place with the best legal system to foster entrepreneurship?

Where else in the world would you get all of this? (Not even including beaches, attractive people, weather, food, top hospitals and universities, diversity, optimism, etc)

And to the author. San Francisco != all of tech in California

> The gains from the existing tech industry increasingly accrue to a) passive investors, and b) lucky landlords.

Sure, but compare that to any other industries. Tech industry is still very very mericratic. (Low startup capital, barrier to entry) Besides, every company is a tech company now

> The state government is a levered bet on tech compensation.

Why would you not want to bet on the best industry going forward? The one that eats all the other industries?

Yeah its a shame. Most multinationals have already diversified out of China (usually less than 30% of capacity is left in China now). It’s the middle sized and small sized businesses that were too stupid not to diversify out of China, and now have to beg and plead for mercy from a malevolent Chinese government. And drag the US down with them. I hope the current administration can stand up against them.

Why is US pretending to be friend with an enemy that is out to steal anything in US that isn’t locked down? Least of which, an enemy that is a dictatorship that has oppressed religion, democracy, free speech, and free will in its domain?

Dongfeng motors dropped 17%. BAIC motors dropped 11%. Great Wall motors dropped 40% alone in November.

Incorrect

1.) made in 2025 was announced in 2015. Crash happened last year in a sudden fashion across all luxury goods

2.) brand loyalty doesn’t work like an immediate switch easily levered by a government.

3.) average Chinese citizens prefer foreign brands still, due to food and vaccine poisoning cases from local firms

Incorrect. There was a recent study done on tariffs effects. The study found negligible effects on consumer good prices. Turns out most tariff costs were eaten by manufacturers in China. (The importers forced them to eat the costs) Which prompted them to either shut down or move overseas

Louis Vuitton is a French company. Also, Burberry, am English company, had 8% drop in sales

US wage is growing though. Money is flowing into US at an unprecedented rate due to:

a.) Fed raising interest rates to a normal level. Government bonds are now earning close to some of the faster developing countries, without the risks.

b.) Brexit impacting the growth of EU. Germany narrowly avoids recession....for now. But grew only 1.5% in 2018. There's still the matter of a possible US tariff on EU automobiles. And Italy/Greece/Spain debts are still a thing.

c.) Chinese economy is crumbling. GM dropped crashed 15% in China in 2018. Ford dropped 36%. iPhone sales dropped 13%. Louis Vuitton dropped 20%. Overall car sales dropped 13%. Stock market dropped 22%. Real estate sales in January 2019 dropped 44%.

d.) Asian countries impacted by China's fall. South Korea's export to China dropped 14% in 2018. Japan dropped 8%. Taiwan dropped 10%. Singapore dropped 8%.

e.) Uncertainties and high debt ratio in developing countries, prompting money to seek safe harbor. Tariff and protectionism impacts.

f.) lastly, US is growing at a healthy 3% in 2018

It fits the narrative of US doing better than everyone else, thus money is flowing in.

There was a study done (can't find the link atm) regarding the impact of the tariffs on US consumer goods, and what they found was that the impact on US goods were negligible. The Chinese suppliers usually ate the tariff cost, which cuts into their margin. This in turn either bankrupts the company - because the private enterprise in China has been suffering from massive debt and government preferences for state owned enterprises - or it prompts the company to move the factories to Vietnam or other places.

It makes sense that US wage is growing if you look at the macroeconomic environment. Money is flowing into US at an unprecedented rate due to:

a.) Fed raising interest rates to a normal level. Government bonds are now earning close to some of the faster developing countries, without the risks.

b.) Brexit impacting the growth of EU. Germany narrowly avoids recession....for now. But grew only 1.5% in 2018. There's still the matter of a possible US tariff on EU automobiles. And Italy/Greece/Spain debts are still a thing.

c.) Chinese economy is crumbling. GM dropped crashed 15% in China in 2018. Ford dropped 36%. iPhone sales dropped 13%. Louis Vuitton dropped 20%. Overall car sales dropped 13%. Stock market dropped 22%. Real estate sales in January 2019 dropped 44%.

d.) Asian countries impacted by China's fall. South Korea's export to China dropped 14% in 2018. Japan dropped 8%. Taiwan dropped 10%. Singapore dropped 8%.

e.) Uncertainties and high debt ratio in developing countries, prompting money to seek safe harbor. Tariff and protectionism impacts.

f.) lastly, US is growing at a healthy 3% in 2018