Join us for an exclusive one-of-a-kind startup journey, which takes you through all the key steps and phases of a startup, from establishing and building your company to raising capital and conquering the world. Participating in our unicorn building masterclass gives you full overview, how to start and run a company in one of the world’s best places for that – in Estonia.
Estonia of Europe: the best place for startups
Estonia isn’t “the Silicon Valley of Europe”. Estonia has a vibrant startup ecosystem and close connections to Silicon Valley — but we are still different. Estonia’s strengths are Silicon Valley’s weaknesses — and vice versa. We’re the Estonia of Europe – and that may be good for your business too.
It doesn’t matter, where do you live and from where you are operating your business currently, Estonia’s e-residency programme offers you an ahead-of-time digital business environment. To become an e-resident of Estonia is as easy as ABC. In our masterclass we show you how it works.
After becoming an e-resident, the next step on your journey to the success is to choose a business service provider to obtain a legal address and cover your company banking needs.
We will also show how to register both the company and the employees in a digital way and with ease that you have never experienced before.
You’ll learn how Estonian Startup Visa helps non-EU founders grow their startup in Estonia and eases the process for Estonian startups to hire non-EU talent; and how to become a part of the strong tight-knit startup ecosystem of Estonia.
Estonia was digitised because it was the best option
Marten Kaevats, National digital advisor The Government Office of Estonia, explains why Estonia started digitising the country 20+ years ago and how the government continues boosting innovation. In the early 1990s, digitisation was the best option for Estonia. Estonia didn’t want to build up a huge and expensive manned infrastructure. Instead of that, Estonia invested in the digital infrastructure, which has become a model of digital society for the rest of the world.
Estonia isn’t a tax haven
And last but not least: Estonia has the world’s best tax system. It doesn’t mean that it’s a tax haven. Nope. It’s even better, because it’s legal. In Estonia, there is the 0% income tax on retained or reinvested profits. And you as an e-resident can reap the benefits of this tax system to reinvest your profits into innovation and become the best in the global competition.
In case you doubt that it looks too beautiful to be true – it’s not a hype. Estonia is ranking first in the OECD tax competitiveness index for the 7th year in a row. This isn’t a measure of low taxation. The index mostly measures how well designed the taxation system is, both for achieving policy objectives and for being simple to pay. Estonia ranks top because it has a fair, simple, and smart taxation. It takes only 3 minutes to file taxes in Estonia and 95% of taxes are filed online.
Join Estonia’s unicorns masterclass at Web Summit!
Estonia, the country with population of 1.3M has 5 unicorns: Skype, PlayTech, TransferWise, Bolt and Pipedrive. (Okay – to be honest – Skype wasn’t really founded by Estonians, but it was Estonians who turned the founders’ vision into reality.) so, if you are looking for a land of unicorns, that’s what Estonia is. What is our secret? Our startups (Estonia has more than 1100 startups here) and the most startup-friendly ecosystem in the world.
“Estonian startup sector or ecosystem has continuously grown 30% for quite some years now, contributing more significantly to our economy,” Martin Villig, co-founder of Bolt and president of Estonian Startup Leaders Club noted.
As a startupper, join Estonia’s unicorns masterclass at Web Summit here on Friday, December 4, 2020 at 1:30 pm Lisbon Time (convert it to your time zone here).
Meet you at investor sauna
As an investor, you are welcome to jump into our virtual investor sauna!
Why? Because for Estonians, the most truthful conversations happen in the sauna. We may seem a bit reserved at first, but the sauna is where we truly open up and understand each other. It’s our oldest social network (perhaps still the best one) and the perfect place to talk business. So, we’ve heated a sauna for you to cut through the hype, call out bullshit, and open up about taboo subjects. By doing these things, let’s uncover the naked truth about startups, technology, investing, and doing business — both in Estonia and around the world.
Estonia’s unicorns masterclass at Web Summit is organized by Invest Estonia in cooperation with EstVCA.
