If I'm not mistaken, when going the Blue Card route, you can get a permanent residence visa after 33 months even without B1 German.
The problem with the Blue Card, from my [non-German/EU citizen] perspective, is that it's a work visa, which means you must have a job offer, and one that pays at least 37K EUR annually, to get the visa. Likewise if you lose that job, you've got just a short time to find another one or get out. The Blue Card is not a visa for those expecting to work at a German startup and compensated mostly with equity. In other words, not a visa for most founders.
I guess as a founder without a significant amount of money to invest it's hard to stay in almost any foreign country.
At least the Blue Card makes it at easy as possible for people, who got employed there.
I realize pay scales are different in the EU than in the US, but 37K isn't a ridiculously high burden, is it? If so I'm surprised the offices of Dublin startups aren't packed with germans because that would be considered very low for a qualified engineer.
One could also check out the Dutch American Friendship Treaty if able to self-employ and likes the Netherlands.
The problem with the Blue Card, from my [non-German/EU citizen] perspective, is that it's a work visa, which means you must have a job offer, and one that pays at least 37K EUR annually, to get the visa. Likewise if you lose that job, you've got just a short time to find another one or get out. The Blue Card is not a visa for those expecting to work at a German startup and compensated mostly with equity. In other words, not a visa for most founders.