When it started doing well, around June, we started thinking about going somewhere else: we wanted a change of lifestyle and lower taxes. After arguing for a long time, we ended up choosing Budapest, and we moved there about two weeks ago. We signed a lease here, and we are in the process of moving the funds from an existing french company to a Hungarian company, yet to be created. This process involves two teams of lawyers (we spent around 20k in lawyers fees so far). The lawyers are currently reviewing what is the best way to transfert. To our surprise, this is really complicated. We are now a team of 5, my partner and I moved from France to Budapest, and a 3rd guy plans to join us "on-site" next Feb. The plan is that 3 of us work from our apartment in Budapest, 2 remotely.
My issue is that I don't like it here and I don't feel good. I though there would be meetups & a tech/ML scene here, and there isn't, at least not a big one. Starting from day 2 of arriving in Budapest, I had a constant headache of varying intensity (I never had that in my entire life before). I sleep ok but not great, and I feel depressed. I think I miss exercice, but gyms & pools are closed, and don't want to run everyday because the pollution is high in this period.
The issue is that starting a process to go somewhere else is quite complicated. It would involve cancelling the lease and changing the lawyers plans & work so far. It's mostly my partner who did the work of coordinating with the lawyers, and he likes life here. Not committing here would also delay the process of moving the company out of France, and I estimate this cost to be around 100-300k per month of additional taxes.
Should we move again?
At this point, your top priority should be getting your lifestyle back on track. Relocating to another location without thoroughly vetting it could just make your problems worse.
If you're processing billions of dollars in volume and you're worried about taxes on the order of $500K per month, you should have plenty of budget to use for travel. Spend some time traveling and trying different locations. You don't have to move the entire company just to visit some place.
Never move to a different country unless you've spent significant time there and you know you enjoy it. People always talk about moving to foreign countries as a panacea, or describe the "ex-pat" lifestyle in glamorous ways, but the reality is that most of us are happiest being around friends and family and operating in places that we know best.
There are many states NY/CT/MA that already have lots of finance-related companies located there and good availability of lawyers.
There is also the Delaware Court of Chancery which is very good for business. https://courts.delaware.gov/chancery/
Also if you are looking for webdev hmu I'm looking.
It sounds like you personally should travel some place else and work remotely. Every company is working remote now anyway and you can always return to your team for short trips.
https://www.internations.org/budapest-expats
I've never been there but if it's like any other city, moving a few KMs in any direction should bring you to a different community. Maybe You just ended up in the wrong part of town, with the pollution and an unpleasant vibe.
There should be some sort of promoting ambassadors organization where for a small fee, locals will properly introduce You to the city with a personal tour.
Unfortunately because of the pandemic most places suck right now.