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Oliver Gasser is a Swiss entrepreneur and founder of the software company Moduulo. The company helps clients easily measure time spent on projects and automatically issue sales invoices based on logged time. Oliver has been an Estonian e-Resident since 2018.

Why did you establish a company in Estonia as an e-Resident?

e-Residency allowed me to establish and run my business as an Estonian company. As a Swiss businessperson, this has several clear benefits:

• In Estonia, I set up my company in two business days and paid just €215. Establishing a company in Switzerland, on the other hand, must be managed by a notary. This is time consuming and expensive, resulting in initial costs of around CHF 3,000 (over €2,800).
• In Estonia, I was able to initially set up my company without paying in the share capital. And even after the share capital of €2,500 had been paid, I could use this money for company expenses and investments. In Switzerland, a company’s share capital is almost 10 times larger (CHF 25,000, or around €23,350) and it must be deposited as collateral, meaning it can’t be touched. For a startup in its initial phase, the Estonian requirements are far more favourable.
• In Estonia, everything from company formation to tax declaration can be handled online. In Switzerland, there is still a lot of physical paperwork which needs to be submitted, both at the cantonal and federal level. The Estonian option is definitely more hassle-free for me.
• In Switzerland, an accountant charges roughly CHF 100 per hour (over €93/hour), and the amount of hours required for certain tasks is often difficult to predict. In Estonia, e-Residency Hub offers a much more transparent and affordable model without sacrificing quality or reliability.

Why did you choose e-Residency Hub?

As probably all e-Residents do, I browsed the different service providers represented on the e-Residency marketplace and analysed their service packages, their level of customer service, and their prices. What attracted me to e-Residency Hub was the clarity of their service description — you know exactly what you pay for and what you get. In addition, the different plans listed on their website provided me with the flexibility to start small and later upgrade as my business grew.

I found it quite easy to combine the accounting services offered by e-Residency Hub with an online payment account offered by Holvi.

What is it like to work with e-Residency Hub?

e-Residency Hub has helped me every step of the way. The service has been smooth and seamless, and I really have not needed to put too much effort into my company’s accounting details. I find that my accountant is very quick to respond to my emails and gives me very professional advice.

The way it works is simple — I just forward my purchase invoices to the Envoice system and use the mobile app for any paper receipts I have. And that’s it. I leave the rest to my e-Residency Hub accountant. As I travel a lot between Estonia and Switzerland, Envoice’s “Travel Report” feature has been particularly handy.

I also received helpful instructions regarding how to use my e-Residency card to provide digital signatures. This helps not only with accounting, but with signing documents pertaining to the startup accelerator as well.

How is business?

In 2019, we were selected to be part of “Startup Wise Guys,” an Estonian startup accelerator. This was a key turning point for us. I would say that being a part of the Estonian business ecosystem — and the startup community, which Estonia strongly supports — was essential in getting this nomination.

Since then, we have been able to put together an efficient team to focus on our product very intensively. From the beginning in January 2020, we have started to generate revenue. We continue to work hard in an effort to make Moduulo a success story.

I would wholeheartedly recommend Estonian e-Residency — and e-Residency Hub more specifically — to anyone who wishes to run an efficient and hassle-free business online.