Kristiina Aljas-Saarma – About E-Residency

Kristiina Aljas-Saarma, the head of sales at 1office, an office that helps companies and people to carpet incorporate in Estonia with E residency, is the guest for the 15th episode of this podcast!

We will be speaking about E-residency opportunities, why you should open the company in Estonia, the work of 1office to help you open the company very easily and the future of work, and also the competition to attract businesses.

So if you are very curious, or if you plan to open a new company, you definitely need to hear this. Also, Kristiina has amazingly deep knowledge about the residency programs. So you should definitely listen to her instead of just getting advice on the internet. So be smart, stay safe, and I hope you enjoyed this amazing podcast with Christine.

Show Notes:

00:31 – About Kristiina
01:24 – Welcome Kristiina
02:01 – What is the residency program?
04:46 – Would Kristiina agree that the biggest trend that is that Estonia and the e-residency program is actually that there is no bureaucracy or the bureaucracy is very low because you are optimizing all the systems.
05:30 – Who is the perfect client, is someone that starts in the company. Can it be also a freelancer that is having good money and prefers to open a company, maybe wants to form an agency who is this perfect client.
08:44 – What’s the minimal annual revenue for someone to know that is time to incorporate?
09:58 – What is so special in Estonia? What led Kristiina to go on this way and not just follow everyone else and be a normal country with a lot of bureaucracy?
12:05 – Some examples of big companies that are actually Estonian and nobody knows that they are from Estonia?
13:25 – Estonia as a country that is doing a really good job in several areas
14:39 – Estonia has a good start-up mentality
17:19 – What changed since five years
20:27 – Attracting people to Estonia
21:17 – About the Estonia digital nomad visa: is it going forward? Will digital nomads be able to visit Estonia in the future, and enjoy the nice startup environment and good cafe?
22:39 – Vision about the remote work and the impact it might have in local communities
26:46 – About the e-residency programs, and regarding more countries being working on that: What does this mean to the world? Are we going in the right direction? What this means to Estonia – will Estonia still be unique and try to keep improving and keep being different by attracting people and keeping them out there?
28:50 – Comparing the bureaucracy between Estonia and the other countries
31:12 – What is the work of 1office and what is the role of 1office in the E-residency program?
35:53 – When should a person contact the company – before or after they have an e-residence card?
36:45 – What is the next step after the contact?
38:05 – How long are these processes?
39:12 – Is it possible to open a normal bank account, or some other bank, with a company from Estonia?
40:45 – What is the cost of the process?
41:33 – What taxes do I pay as a company in Estonia?
43:27 – Is it important to contact everyone and make sure everything is following the right paths?
44:46 – The importance of the language spoken
45:24 – Estonia in 10 years
47:04 – Any ideas for the prime minister of Estonia to implement in the future?
47:57 – Final message from Kristiina

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