What it must feel like, to have an idea that you can‘t physically realize in the place you are located in. This is quite often true for people with business ideas that do not fit the local context or would simply do much better if adapted to a whole different ecosystem. Enter Stephanie Brennan: entrepreneur, who tasted much of the world, finally moving to Vilnius, Lithuania from Australia.

“Last year we started developing Evarvest, which required us to move to London in an attempt to research different finance and real estate development markets of Europe. One of the stop was Lithuania, The Bank of Lithuania licensing requirements and assistance for startups is what led us to move to Lithuania ,” says Stephanie.

She adds: “The program provided us with exceptional amounts of information for our research, but we also had a chance to gain insights from European leaders in numerous sectors, including finance, technologies and others.”

How does one end up going from a temporary visit to actually moving permanently to a country? Stephanie’s case points to business opportunities. She says that a smaller market is generally a benefit for a company still in its incubator period. Once you get off the ground in a smaller, less competitive market, you start readying up for bigger ones.

Stephanie also mentions numbers backing up her claims: Lithuania is 16^th in the list of 190 countries where it’s easier to found a business. This proved to be true for Evarvest – establishing a foundation allowed the companies to break through into numerous European markets and to offer services a much larger audience.

However, personal reasons seem to have played a part in the decision as well: “Eastern European culture is intoxicating, which helped me and my partner make up our minds about moving here to live,” says Stephanie.

We couldn’t agree more, and hope that more entrepreneurs can use the advantages Startup Visa program provides young and promising idea-heads. Feel like you’d find at home here with your business? Check if you’re eligible here: https://startupvisalithuania.com/#am-i-eligible