Startups and politics are misaligned in many countries. Here are four checks every country needs, using Switzerland as an example.

Founding and growing a company is hard. Finding investment for your startup is even harder. But once you’re there, another administrative challenge awaits: You will need to get the funding registered and your company incorporated.

Sounds easy? At least in Switzerland, my home country, this is not the case. It is a costly, time-consuming, and paper-based process. I know this from my own experience as the Founder & CEO of Yonder, a B2B SaaS company.

And yet, politicians from left to right aren’t shy to tell the world what a wonderful startup ecosystem we have in our country.

Let’s run an entrepreneurship/politics reality check that can be applied to any country.

Check #1: The Political Lobby

If you don’t have a lobby in your national parliament, it will be difficult to achieve your goals. Ask the farmers or the lawyers, they know. Both professions have a mighty lobby, because many parliamentarians are either farmers or lawyers.

What about entrepreneurs? In the 200-seat lower house of Switzerland, only a handful are founders or entrepreneurs, and another handful are CEOs of larger companies. So it’s no wonder that the political framework for startups has lower priority than agricultural policies and legalese.

Check #2: E-government Infrastructure

My special love for lawyers is well-known to those who read my articles regularly. It’s this profession that created all the legalese that makes founding and capitalizing a company cumbersome, paper-based, and expensive.

I can buy a car, pay by credit card, and walk up to my new car that already sports the new license plates. The purchase is a fully digital process, including proof of insurance and proof of identity. Why can I not incorporate a company digitally?

I can buy a second home halfway across the country without seeing a notary. Sending an apostille, the mortgage confirmation from my bank, and wiring the money is enough. The next step is to get the key from the real estate agent. Why can I not perform a capital increase fully digitally?

In Switzerland, we tend to explain to the world why our processes make sense and why they should remain unchanged. Hey, we’re a successful country, so why change?

That’s dangerous. Other countries move much faster with process digitization. Think of Estonia, the digital frontrunner among European countries.

Check #3: Culture of Failure

It would be too easy to rant about politicians and lawyers making my entrepreneurial life oh-so-miserable. Besides the political lobby and the e-government infrastructure, entrepreneurs need a society with a healthy culture of failure.

In this respect, Switzerland can learn from the United States. Failure is common among entrepreneurs, as creating something out of nothing is risky and doesn’t always end well. The Americans know, and society accepts and even honors entrepreneurs who tried and failed.

What about the Swiss? Failed entrepreneurs are stigmatized, their careers often curbed. As a consequence, entrepreneurs often take lower risks, which leads to smaller, less successful companies in the long run.

Check #4: Venture Capital Market

In most cases, building a company is expensive and requires upfront investment. That’s why entrepreneurs need access to a vibrant venture capital market that shares their appetite for risk-taking and growth.

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

When you start a company, getting started in the largest market in the world has obvious benefits, especially when your product is designed for global markets such as aviation.

That’s why the United States has a much larger and more vibrant venture capital market than Switzerland. Nevertheless, there is no obvious reason why a rich country like Switzerland cannot create VC funds deep enough to fund the next Google or OpenAI. The money is available, but Switzerland lacks the political will and the risk appetite.

Conclusion

In any society, entrepreneurs fuel innovation. They invest their blood, sweat, and tears to create innovation, progress, and value. The least politics can do is to set the general conditions for entrepreneurs to thrive. In contrast, many political systems overload entrepreneurs with unnecessary admin work and fees.

And, my dear politicians, even if this worked in the past, don’t rest on your laurels: The world is changing fast, and many other countries crave to become the next economic superpower.

Your entrepreneurs are your secret weapon. So the least you can do is to create favorable conditions for them to succeed.