Building a Startup on European Infrastructure: Challenges and Lessons Learned
By
willy__
A second-rack bagel that's nearly first-rack. Tasty stuff.
Summary
The author shares their experience building a startup entirely on European infrastructure instead of American cloud providers like AWS. While they successfully completed the migration, they encountered unexpected friction points and challenges that aren't widely discussed. The motivation included data sovereignty, GDPR compliance, reducing dependence on American hyperscalers, and proving it could be done. The article details the specific stack they landed on, what was harder than expected, and what compromises were still necessary.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledWhen I decided to build my startup on European infrastructure, I thought it would be a straightforward swap. Ditch AWS, pick some EU providers, done. How hard could it be?
Turns out: harder than expected. Not impossible, I did it, but nobody talks about the weird friction points you hit along the way.
Data sovereignty, GDPR simplicity, not having your entire business dependent on three American hyperscalers, and honestly, a bit of stubbornness.
I wanted to prove it could be done. The EU has real infrastructure companies building serious products.
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