We are very curious to see what replies to our posts are going to be like now that we’ve answered “AMD when?”
My reply is “EU office (a legal entity in a country in the EU) when?”. Because according to this comment, having a Framework EU office (a registered company in a country in the EU) enables Framework to sell their products in all of the EU countries.
Edited:
I don’t want Framework people to feel pressured by the question “EU office when” above. It’s not my intention. However, as a possibility of someone who is not comfortable with this question, I canceled the question. I hope that we can just talk about which city or which country is the best for Framework to launch the EU office (or a legal entity) “in the future” that may be 5, 10, or 20 years later or never happen. I believe that the local people in the EU may know useful information that it’s hard to find on the internet. I think a company will typically travel to a city or country, and talk and see which city or country is the best to have their office when they are ready. So, I hope the information in this thread can be useful some day (again 5, 10 or 20 years later).
We do not have an entity in the EU nor do we have operations there. We have to apply for the ability to sell and ship our product into every country that we officially enter.
So, hypothetically what do you think about which city in a country in the EU should be the best for Framework to have their first EU office? I am curious to know your answer with the reason (why). I think this survey can be useful for Framework to consider their offices in the EU when the company is bigger.
Note 1: If you don’t want Framework to have an office in the EU, try to replace the question above with which country should be the best for Framework to have their first legal entity (their registered company) in the EU? And why? Note 2: Please try not to confuse your personal desire for the city that is the best for Framework. But if you think you are the right person who will join Framework some day, your desire for a city may be a factor to decide which city is the best to have the office. Note 3: I hope we focus on this topic. Let’s avoid the shipping forward topic for this thread to survive. Note 4: If you want to comment “your_country_name when?”, please check it on another thread such as What countries will you be shipping to? or search by your country name on this forum from the search button a the topic of the page. Not this thread.
Good point! I edited the thread title and the first comment to include this case.
My intent was Framework can have a legal entity (a registered company) in the EU. So, if Framework has to have a legal entity in a country in the EU, hypothetically what do you think about which country is the best to register their legal entry in the EU? And why?
I think there’s a significant misunderstanding of how international operations work and what it takes to maintain multiple entities globally for a company of less than 50 employees, all working remotely. While we absolutely understand everyone wants us to be everything, everywhere, all at once, we’re being compared to multi-billion dollar international behemoths as far as international presence, and even those companies aren’t everywhere, even to this day.
As a United States company operating internationally with offices in United States and Taiwan (Taiwan as our international shipping partner is there along with manufacturing), we are bound by different rules than EU-based businesses that wish to sell/ship their product throughout EU Member States.
Until we are at a scale with the appropriate finances, resources, and streamlined governmental authority to operate without what can only be described as crushing overhead, this can’t happen.
Hi thanks for the clarification. I am happy if you remember this thread when you are ready to scale with 500+ employees or 5 or 10 years later. Is it a problem just to chat about the dream here until then?
Why were you not comfortable for that? If you feel uncomfortable for my question, “An EU office when?”, I am happy to withdraw the question. I don’t want Framework people to feel the pressure by the question. I just want to talk more about which city is the best for Framework EU office in the future without asking about when.
None. Remain primarily remote until business needs demand a change. Opening a physical location brings with it a bevy of expenses that are recurring, and usually come with contractual obligations. If the demand is high enough where a warehouse in Europe would make sense, I am sure at that point it would happen. If that did happen it would clearly be at a logistics hub.
Hi @junaruga. I just wanted to make sure there was an official response in here to address any low-hanging-fruit questions as to “why, Framework, why?”
As long the conversation is focused on where we might decide to set up shop in the future, and not on how to bypass our existing systems to yolo and yeet it across international borders we aren’t authorized to cross, have at it, and I’ll be following along!
All right. Bypassing your existing systems are definitely not my intention. That’s why I wrote the “Note 3” to focus on this topic. If I really need a new Framework Laptop and the time will come, I may plan to relocate to another country in the EU where the Framework products are supported. So, the current situation is not a problem for me.
Even when a company doesn’t have an office, I think the company needs to register an address. It seems that having an address where the logistics hub is a good idea. For example, there are some considerations when a company has an address in a country in the EU.
Hiring pool: When I worked at a country in Asia, I remember that there was a rule about hiring local people in a country. For example, Have to hire some rate of the local people when hiring foreigners in the country. In my experience, it depends on the contract, working remotely doesn’t mean you can work in any countries. I can only work in the current living country. if a company wants to hire the right people, it’s important to think which country they can hire the right people in.
Easiness of the finance tasks: It’s old information from more than 10 years ago. I heard someone that Estonia is easy to do financial tasks because the tax process is easy and effective. Due to that, I heard that there are no accountants in Estonia. I am not sure if it is true.
So, back to your topic, additional question for your answer can be where is the best country to have a logistics hub in the EU.
Why not team up with the guys at Fairephone in the netherlands ?
EU is complex market, many countries and languages.
I had troubles with my FP4 in france, support was well working.
All right. Perhaps, you might be thinking if you were Framework people, you might be not comfortable. But in the reality, you (and I too) are not the Framework people. I believe that in general, our imagination and association give ourselves a great gift. However, at the same time, we can take care of that those things may also hurt ourselves.
We are “very curious” to see what replies to our posts are going to be like now that we’ve answered “AMD when?”
On the Twitter page, the post says “We are very curious to see …”. I was thinking asking “something when” gave Framework people a positive feeling not a negative feeling, at least to the author of the tweet).
@anon81945988 Maybe I was not able to tell you my words correctly due to my challenge of English. Sorry about that. I am happy with you, and I appreciate your great contributions on this forum.
I know this is off topic, but I would like to know, when would be available framework for New Zealand, just to ship it there. Or what work around I would have to do to get it here? thank you
As you know it is out of this thread’s topic. please don’t write the “country name when” comment on this thread. There are many other threads covering it such as What countries will you be shipping to? .
If you’re wondering why there was no newsletter last weekend, it was because we had our hands full with Hackaday Berlin. But boy, was it worth it! Besides being the launch party for the tenth annual Hackaday Prize, it was the first Hackaday gathering in Europe for four years, and it was awesome to see a bunch of familiar faces and meet many more new ones.
And I also saw that Penk, the author of the Mainboard Terminal, the Framework mainboard-based computer lives in Berlin now by his Twitter. And it seems that he lived in Taiwan and Japan in the past. That means maybe the relocation from Asia to Europe was a big event for him, and maybe he carefully thought about which city is the best to live in Europe.
So, I thought Berlin has something to attract people tinkering with hardware.
