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Matthias Schmidt
@eurofounder
Founder based in the EU • Building GDPR-compliant startups • 7 years in, €7k MRR
European Union
Joined October 2025
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    Matthias Schmidt
    @eurofounder
    Dec 3, 2025
    Just discovered my 19 year old daughter has an OnlyFans account I was devastated She clearly must not be registered as a sole proprietor with the the German Trade Office I sat her down and asked how much she'd made She said €4,200 I nearly collapsed That's at least €1,890
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    Matthias Schmidt
    @eurofounder
    Nov 7, 2025
    Visited a startup accelerator in Palo Alto last week It was 10pm and the founders were still coding “Do you have a government permit to be working at this hour?” I asked them They looked at me and said “bro what are you talking about” in a typical condescending American way I
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    Matthias Schmidt
    @eurofounder
    Nov 6, 2025
    I was at a cafe in Brussels ordering coffee Barista asked for my name and wrote it on a cup I caught myself and said “Wait, did I consent to you storing my name?” She put down the marker and looked at me confused I explained that under GDPR, names are personal identifiable
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    Matthias Schmidt
    @eurofounder
    Nov 9, 2025
    Recruiting our second engineer and had a call with an American living in Berlin We got to salary negotiations and I offered €35K He laughed and said “is that per month?” in an annoying Texan accent I explained that it is annual and actually very competitive for a senior
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    Matthias Schmidt
    @eurofounder
    Nov 11, 2025
    I almost got robbed in a restaurant in New York yesterday Had a dinner with my wife and her boyfriend, the bill came to $47 I put down $48, telling waiter to bring my change The waiter stands frozen and tells me in a rude condescending way that in “America people tip at least
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    Matthias Schmidt
    @eurofounder
    Nov 14, 2025
    My 18yo daughter came home at 3am last night with a strange old man I confronted them at the door asking who he is She said “papa relax, this is Yusuf, he is just here to make sure I got home safe” She showed me her phone with a government-mandated safety app that connects
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    Matthias Schmidt
    @eurofounder
    Nov 9, 2025
    Worst cities to build a startup: - San Francisco - New York - Austin - pretty much the whole America Best cities to build a startup: - Strasbourg, France (proximity to the EU parliament) - Aachen, Germany - Graz, Austria This is an approved list by the EU government officials
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    Matthias Schmidt
    @eurofounder
    Nov 9, 2025
    Horrible experience pitching my startup to an American VC on a Zoom call He asked about our growth Told him we achieved 98% GDPR compliance across all data processors “What?” I started to explain that we have completely restructured our data retention policies and— “Do you
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    Matthias Schmidt
    @eurofounder
    Nov 8, 2025
    Met an American founder at a tech conference in Amsterdam He showed me his website and I noticed there is no cookie banner “Ah yeah, we didn’t include it, it’s just annoying and no one cares anyway” My blood started to boil I excused myself and immediately called the Dutch
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    Matthias Schmidt
    @eurofounder
    Nov 12, 2025
    Where is the Silicon Valley dominance Americans talk so loudly about? Those charts speak more than thousand words European technology is winning while American tech bubble is finally bursting The future of technology is being built in Munich, not California
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    Matthias Schmidt
    @eurofounder
    Nov 10, 2025
    My wife's boyfriend Johannes' career is the biggest founder success story I have ever seen He worked at Siemens for 23 years Left to start his own company at the age of 49 Incorporated in 17 EU jurisdictions before launching In two years managed to raise €250K from one of
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    Matthias Schmidt
    @eurofounder
    Nov 7, 2025
    My co-founder turned 54 today In Silicon Valley, this would be a startup suicide. Here in Germany, it’s a feature, not a bug Our investors understand that to understand compliance documentation you must work for Siemens for at least 20 years Our lead investor is 64. He likes
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    Matthias Schmidt
    @eurofounder
    Nov 8, 2025
    A founder of a SF-based startup asked why are we not using AI to code, or an app called Cursor (??) He said it writes code 10x faster than humans an everyone uses it in Silicon Valley I asked him: “but who reviews the code for compliance?” He looked confused and said “dude
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    Matthias Schmidt
    @eurofounder
    Nov 12, 2025
    Absolutely TERRIBLE experience with one of the leading American VCs We had a meeting scheduled for 2pm He showed up late at 2:06pm obnoxiously talking on the phone about 'Asian baddies' he met at Burning Man Finally sits down and says he "skimmed through deck" but only saw
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    Matthias Schmidt
    @eurofounder
    Nov 9, 2025
    I was recently onboarding a US-based client who wanted to expand to Europe I asked them, “EU has 27 countries, where do you want to expand?” “Everywhere bro” - typical ignorant American response I explained that in each country they’d need to appoint a Data Protection Officer,
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