German as a business language is not even that important if it it's for an IT tool/software. Virtually every student in Zürich speaks passable English and much business is conducted in English anyway. Speaking the language helps in your everyday dealings however.

Hello Kein

First off, thank you for your response. By partner I mean Business Partner, not life partner. He handles more of the business end than I do, I'm more of a technical guy.

What do you mean social freedom? If you mean as it pertains to homosexuality, I'm not gay, and I'm pretty sure homosexuality is pretty alright here in NY; people actually embrace homo culture (I personally don't have a problem with it either). I'm moving to Suisse, like I said before, mostly for the experience, but if it's absolutely detrimental to my business I may think twice

We recently seeded a start up tech firm and we realized something. With an online platform you can domicile yourself anywhere. Even google is structurally domiciled in Bermuda for tax reasons, even though they have a management office in the US.

So moving your entire start up company to a high cost country with out very flexible people might be a bit more of a head-ache than its worth.

Why not start a company in a tax free, neutral domicile. And then move to Switzerland on a student visa.

Since you are American your company will find it difficult to open bank account here. You also wont be able to gain the kind of privacy you are probably seeking. Americans arent "free" when they leave the USA.

As far as benefits to starting a tech firm with a 100% online platform, there are ZERO in Switzerland. Ricardo.ch is the ebay of Switzerland. That says it all. It certainly works well. But it would never compete with Ebay.

Ive lived in the Bay Area during university and you will certainly find more tech-passionate people (on the average) there than you will in Switzerland.

Also, its very hard to find start up capital in Switzerland for social tech firms. But in NorCal there is a cookie cutter industry.

I think if you want to live and work from Switzerland thats great. A good goal to have. But you shouldnt domicile or move your company here. The two should be separate issues all together.

LMFAO! He means you will be spied on and not trusted by the people in your apartment housing. In Switzerland most people live in buildings that resemble Cabrini Green Projects, only with more rules. You cant wash your car, do laundry on certain days, nor throw styrofoam out with your trash, unless you want it spewed on your door-step the next day with a nasty letter.

As someone in the HPC world, I can say:
If you're looking for a wealth of technically minded people with access to venture capital, I'd say SV.
If you're looking for technically minded people who treat it as a hobby (with the attendant quality issues), then Switzerland. There are some good people here, but not a lot. I can't tell you the difficulties we've had finding good people.

You know, like social networking initiatives.

As far as the language issues are concerned, I would recommend the French speaking part of Switzerland... I speak just a little French, but I have heard that the Swiss French and the French French are not so much different (the same applies to Swiss Italian and Italian Italian).

As regards so called "High German" and Swiss German - the Swiss consider them two different languages. I have been living in Switzerland for more than 10 years now - and I am still not being able to speak any of the Swiss German dialects fluently (although I understand almost all of them - some of them are easier than others).

Another thing is that many Swiss people prefer to speak English rather "High German", especially if they notice that you are a native English speaker...

If you decide to go for the German speaking part of Switzerland, I would recommend to learn "High German" first - and a few phrases in Swiss German, like Grüezi mitenand

I am in a similar situation as the OP, and I wonder why is Vaud, and more specifically Lausanne, not getting any mention? I did some research (as in - talked to some lawyers) and it is supposedly easier for a founder to get a B permit than in Geneva. And, secondly, there is also EPFL that would seem to be a logical place to source recent IT graduates from.

So what's up? Why not Lausanne?

Why not Basel

I think that if your looking for an oversupply of workers that are super tech savy and venture capital there is only one place that comes to my mind and that is the Washington D.C capital area.This place is a absolute boom town for techies.The salaries for these people is astounding and totally out of control.No one here execept military government contactors even comes close to making that much money.