A Swiss entrepreneur compares the Swiss vs US business culture, market size, scale, and transactional style.

Sister Republics—that’s what Switzerland and the United States are sometimes called. The term highlights the two countries’ shared views on liberty, self-governance, and federalism.

As a proud Swiss citizen and well-traveled entrepreneur, I certainly see the similarities between the two countries. But as always, things aren’t black and white, and similarities always come with differences.

Let’s examine some of them in an entrepreneurial context, leveraging my experience as the Founder and CEO of Yonder, a B2B SaaS company.

1. Market Size

Switzerland is a small country, which means it has a small market. In contrast, the United States is the largest single market in the world.

When you start a company out of nothing, getting started in the largest market in the world has obvious benefits, especially when your product is designed for regulated markets such as aviation.

With Yonder, we serve the aviation industry. Our first customers were in Switzerland, and we have subsequently grown our customer base in Europe and Asia out of Switzerland. With every new country we added, new legal and regulatory requirements popped up that we had to comply with.

Had we founded Yonder in the United States, we could have achieved the same number of customers and revenue levels within one single jurisdiction, avoiding additional requirements and delays in complying with all those European and Asian regulations. I guess our growth would have been much quicker in the United States.

2. Scale

Because of the huge market size in the United States, it’s easier and faster to achieve scale for a U.S. company than for a Swiss company.

But of course, achieving scale costs a lot of money, even when operating within the largest single market in the world. That’s reflected in the investor landscape: Whilst getting seed money is easy in Switzerland, finding growth funding is much more difficult in Switzerland than in the United States — simply because there aren’t any investors in Switzerland who are familiar with the scale and market size of the United States.

To illustrate this point with an everyday product, let’s look at a few airline apps. You know, the ones you use to book flights, check in, get flight updates, etc.

I’m starting with the apps from Swiss International Air Lines and Lufthansa. Swiss International Air Lines was taken over by Lufthansa in 2005. But even after almost 20 years, there are two distinct apps, both of them with limited functionality: You still can’t check in on a SWISS flight on the Lufthansa app, or check the status of a Lufthansa flight on the SWISS app.

Change of scene. I recently flew on United and used their app. My flight was heavily delayed, and the app gave me up-to-date information on where the flight was, what rebooking options I had, etc. United and Continental merged in 2010, and there is just one single app left for a long time.

This small example and the fact that we lack big investors in our country illustrates why big tech companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple were born in the United States and not in Switzerland.

3. Transactional Style

American business is very transactional: What value can you provide to an American business partner? If there is value in your offering for your business partner, they will interact with you and get the deal done. If at some point they find out that there isn’t any value in your offering, they will walk away, possibly not even telling you that they are no longer interested.

In contrast, in Switzerland, we like to discuss and debate everything and anything. Sometimes, a healthy debate is useful to find the best solution. But sometimes, you just have to end the discussions and move forward.

Especially so when you are dealing with an American business partner who is used to transact, not to debate.