Yes you can pay or have (cheap like 1k/year) insurance and get immediate service as well. There are private clinics that also work together with the public system.
Daycare and Healthcare for kids is cheap though. And you don't have to pay for good schools or move to another neighbourhood to get a good school. This far outweighs the cost of a car.
ABC News? Probably one of the most reputable news sources in Australia. It's also funded and owned by the government and has no ads so I doubt it's paid advertising.
That's about right. To live in Helsinki you'd probabaly need minimum 1000€ for a shared Apartment and food... With 560€ you might be able to live somewhere and scrape by.
Your fear that someone will steal the idea is natural but mostly wrong. You are being emotional about it, but you have to be rational in order for your company to succeed.
The most likely outcome of your idea is that you will work hard, launch, and discover then that actually no one is interested and at that point you discover why.
When talking about ideas to others you will discover that:
- Most people have their own ideas that they think others want to steal and that they think are much better ideas than yours. (You'll think these ideas are worse than your own.)
- Most people will think the idea sucks. (it's natural, just like you'll think their ideas suck)
There's a lot of information needed to be able to understand an idea. That's why you should also just validate the problem you are solving or some part of it, or part of the solution. You can't validate the whole thing. "Would you use this product" is the wrong question.
So you can be pretty comfortable in asking feedback.
However.
Get feedback from people who are relevant to the target audience.
Get feedback from people who are already invested in something. I wouldn't necessarily validate with a serial entrepreneur that's looking for something new to build. Although the more likely outcome is that he'd want to work with you which would be the best outcome for you.
Get feedback from people who don't have a significant advantage compared to you to get it done.
You shouldn't be afraid of competitors. They will come anyways. You should be confident in your ability to outperform them - you will have to. Which also means that these people you are validating with that you think could steal your idea - you need them on your team. Or you need to build to a team so strong that them stealing doesn't matter. You still actually need to build that team.
I agree with Sten that it's a pitty that Europe doesn't receive more attention from SV. But most Europeans don't care. Most people don't want to be like SV. We don't care that there isn't as many startups. We're happy about living a balanced life and that most people here can do that (Most think it's ok to be taxed hard so that so many don't have to suffer and at least get healthcare and shelter...). People just don't strive to be financially hugely successful. Doing good is enough so that you can focus on what's important for you, which for most europeans isn't work. The ones that love to push their intellectual boundaries all the time and devote themself to work find their niche in Europe or move to the Valley. That's ok. I've heard from friends in SF that a lot of people there are "depressed" because of their high ambitions that they're not reaching. Europeans are often considered a bit boring. We don't have the same highs as in SF of pushing something amazing forward every day. There are good and bad sides to both of these places.
