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Do you know the last startup paradox?

I was in Shenzen lately and birthed a new joke for founders about the perfect startup geography. It goes something like this…

Heaven is:

  • the capital of San Francisco,
  • the manufacturing of Shenzhen,
  • the compliance of Germany,
  • the market of Singapore,
  • the design of Italy,
  • all coordinated by a passionate founder.

Hell is:

  • the capital of Italy,
  • the manufacturing of San Francisco,
  • the compliance of Shenzhen,
  • the market of Germany,
  • the design of Singapore,
  • and the coordination entrusted to a venture capitalist.

This article is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). You may share, translate, adapt and reproduce it freely, including for commercial purposes, with attribution to Raffaele Mangialardi and a link to https://www.mangialardi.it/the-startup-paradox .

on September 10, 2026
  1. 1

    Really solid approach — curious how you're thinking about this, what's been the hardest part to figure out so far?

  2. 1

    Ha, this is painfully accurate. The "hell" version is basically what happens when no one owns the founder's mindset and everyone else owns a piece of the process. The paradox is real — the more you try to optimize each part globally, the worse the whole becomes. Great startups are often messy on paper but unified in execution. Keep building!