Our November First Monday asked a big question: what can the state actually do for Hungarian startups? Tamas Kadar (co-founder & CEO, SEON) and Györkő Zoltán (President, Startup Hungary, ex-Balabit) took the stage to talk about the policy decisions that shape where companies get built and why.

We started with the topic on most founders’ minds. The wealth tax bill is now in Parliament, and Startup Hungary has submitted two amendment packages with drafted legal text. Technical consultations with the government are underway. The core issue is simple: founders shouldn’t owe tax every year on shares they can’t sell. We talked through where things stand and what the amendments are trying to fix.

Next we looked at why most Hungarian startups past Series A now operate through a US or UK holding. The short answer is that international investors know those structures and trust them. EU Inc was meant to change that by giving Europe its own version of the Delaware C-Corp. The proposal is now in negotiation, and the parts that matter most for VC-backed companies are getting diluted. Hungary has a vote in the Council on how it ends up, which makes this a local question as much as a European one.

Finally, we looked back at 15 years of heavy state involvement in the Hungarian ecosystem: what worked, what didn’t, and how public money can bring private capital in instead of replacing it.

The evening ended with an open Q&A with the audience.

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