A few differences in entrepreneurship between Denmark and the US

I think you need to be careful about romanticising being an entrepreneur in the US. There’s more room to manoeuvre in some areas, but there are also lawsuits, unpleasant debt collection and fees that can cost time and money. In many respects, I actually think it’s easier to be a new entrepreneur in Denmark.

Here in August 2010, I live in Florida and have been here for almost two years. The weather shifts from torrential rain to fantastic in minutes. It’s quite a contrast with Denmark, where I’ll always complain about the weather. But having said that, I actually think lots of other things about Denmark are great.

I want to tell three little stories about differences I’ve experienced or noticed. This isn’t a claim that everything is bad in the US. It’s a counterweight to the fascination with how easy and fantastic starting a business over here is supposed to be. I tell my own story as an entrepreneur in Iværksætter til jeg dør.

Entrepreneur in the US: What do all the disputes cost?

I was reading Jeremy Shoemaker’s blog. He’s a funny, larger-than-life character and a little self-absorbed like me, but he makes some good points now and then.

He talked about making lots of money over the past year, but also about things that had cost him. Staff and rent can’t surprise anyone. The interesting part was his item about legal problems.

As I read it, he’d had 16 different legal cases or approaches about possible lawsuits. Four had gone to court.

Think how much time you’d spend if you had to go to court four times in a year and deal with twelve other disputes alongside a lawyer. It’s insane.

That’s one of the things I think you need to bear in mind when you’re back in Denmark dreaming about the opportunities here. In my experience, people threaten lawsuits at the drop of a hat, and the disputes can be a gigantic waste of time.

I’ve dealt with legal disputes myself, though not a comparable lawsuit in the US. We’ve also deliberately organised our US company separately from SPAMfighter in Denmark because we wanted to limit how much a US dispute could affect the rest of our business. That was our thinking in that particular situation.

We haven’t had lawsuits like that here yet. But it’s part of the reality you need to consider rather than only seeing the opportunities.

A voicemail about $1,500

When I came over almost two years ago, there was suddenly a voicemail. A man said it was very important we called back. It was something to do with a law firm.

I called, and he didn’t seem to have any idea who I was. He asked for a case number. I hadn’t written it down, which irritated him, but eventually he found me in the pile.

SPAMfighter owed around $1,500, he said.

What for? He couldn’t tell me. But he’d send a fax. Fine, send it.

A couple of months passed. No fax. Nothing happened. Then I saw a missed call on my mobile and called back. Same company, a new man this time.

He found the case and repeated the amount. Again, he couldn’t explain what the claim was about. Again, he promised a fax. I said that was what they’d promised last time too.

More time passed, and a third man called. Now the tone became more unpleasant. They’d called several times, and if we didn’t pay, various things would happen.

I replied that they’d promised documentation several times and we still hadn’t received anything. I wasn’t just going to send $1,500 to someone because they claimed we owed it.

Once again, he couldn’t explain the claim. Once again, he promised a fax. And once again, it never arrived.

The letter with "Lawsuit" on the envelope

Eventually, a letter arrived in a large envelope with "Lawsuit" written in big letters. A lawsuit.

Inside, it said we owed the money, they’d tried to collect it several times and it was clear we didn’t want to pay.

It also said they’d report us to the local authority, send investigators to shadow employees, interview our customers and photograph the company.

It was a completely outrageous and unpleasant letter. I experienced it as professional intimidation.

I began investigating but couldn’t find anything. When I called, I finally learned that an employee had apparently ordered something at some point. They still couldn’t say much more.

They called again and got even nastier. When they started talking about credit ratings too, I completely lost it.

Over here, creditworthiness has a big impact on people’s ability to borrow, rent and buy. I felt it was being used as a powerful pressure tactic. But I wouldn’t be pressured into paying a claim they couldn’t explain.

I shouted and screamed into the phone, called myself a fucking Danish viking and made severe threats if they sent their investigators. I was so bloody angry my employees barely dared talk to me for the next hour. That’s a description of how far that conversation went.

An old service sent to a closed email address

After that conversation, I finally learned which company the claim came from and what it concerned. Then I called the company itself.

It turned out an employee who’d been with us for around a fortnight two and a half years earlier had enquired about a service monitoring words online. You could get an email when a particular word appeared. Something like Google Alerts, which was free.

Apparently, this service cost $100 a month. The employee had received a couple of deliveries and then left. But the company had continued sending emails every morning to his old email address, which had long since been closed.

And they wanted paying for that.

I said they could have $100 for the first month, but not a penny more. They wouldn’t accept that. They wanted the full amount, and I said no.

After that, I actually never heard from them again. But the letter and their behaviour left a strong impression. I felt the people at the other end were acting like thugs, way over the line. That’s one side of business over here I think we’re spared in a different way in Denmark.

An overdraft became hundreds of dollars in fees

The third story is about my bank. I’d overdrawn my account by a few dollars without noticing. During the week, I used the card for petrol and other purchases until the overdraft was around $1,000.

That was my fault. It was stupid. But I didn’t know the bank charged $35 every time I used the account while it was overdrawn.

So I ended up with nearly $500 in fees. I went in and talked to them and got it down to around $320. That was still a hefty price for the overdraft.

The letter alerting me to the problem only arrived after a week or ten days. By then, I’d already used the card repeatedly.

I’d heard fees like these made up a lot of US banks’ earnings. In the video, I also mention my understanding that Obama had stopped some of it, but I hadn’t properly looked into the changes. I’m telling you about my experience of the bank back then.

Denmark has some big advantages too

Those were three examples of why you need to look beyond the great American dream.

Yes, there’s more room to manoeuvre in the US in some respects. And I’ll never love Danish weather. But lawsuits, aggressive demands and fees can be nasty and unpleasant things to be thrown into as a new entrepreneur.

That’s why I rather bluntly say it’s 100 times easier to be a new entrepreneur in Denmark in many respects. That’s my way of stressing the point: We have good conditions back home too, and they’re worth remembering.

Is the US a good country to be an entrepreneur in? Of course, but it has its thorns!