A Vocal Monkey Studios production
Landed — founders who chose Cyprus.
You moved the company to Cyprus. Then what?
Landed is a long-form conversation with the founders and operators who actually made the move — not the brochure version. The tax and residency reality once the accountant stops talking. What broke in year one. Who they hired, and from where. What nobody warned them about. What they’d do differently if they landed again tomorrow.
Hosted by Demos Petsas, who moved to Cyprus after twelve years working in the UK and built Vocal Monkey Studios in Larnaca — the same move most of his guests are making, a few years further along.
It’s in English, recorded in Larnaca, and it’s for two kinds of people: those who have already relocated and want to compare notes with someone further down the road, and those still weighing it up who want something more honest than a relocation agency’s landing page.
Latest episodes
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The questions everyone asks
Short answers below. The long version, with the timeline, the banking problem and what a month actually costs, is in moving a business to Cyprus.
What is it actually like moving a business to Cyprus?
Moving a business to Cyprus is administratively slower and socially faster than most founders expect. Company registration runs a few weeks, but banking is the real bottleneck and routinely takes longer than incorporation. The compensation is that the market is small enough that a warm introduction reaches almost anyone within two or three steps.
Landed exists because that gap — between the brochure version and the year-one version — is where founders lose time and money. Each episode is a long-form conversation with someone who has already made the move, recorded at Vocal Monkey Studios in Larnaca.
What do founders wish they had known before moving to Cyprus?
The most common regret founders name is underestimating banking and over-weighting tax. Opening a corporate account takes longer and asks for more documentation than incorporation does, and a company that exists on paper but cannot receive money is not yet trading. Founders who planned banking first tend to describe a smoother first year.
Other recurring themes: August is genuinely slow and should not be in your plan as a working month, hiring senior technical people locally is hard and most teams stay partly remote, and school places for the September intake need to be arranged far earlier than families expect.
Is Cyprus still worth it after corporation tax rose to 15%?
For most founders the 2026 rise from 12.5% to 15% changes the arithmetic without changing the decision. Cyprus remains an EU jurisdiction in a convenient time zone with an English-speaking professional layer, and the non-domicile regime still exempts dividends and interest from the Special Defence Contribution. Founders who moved purely for the headline rate are the ones now reconsidering.
The rise aligned Cyprus with the OECD Pillar Two global minimum rate. This page describes the general position and is not tax advice — take advice on your own circumstances before acting.
Larnaca or Limassol for a founder relocating with a family?
Limassol has the larger international business community and the deeper hiring pool; Larnaca is cheaper, quieter, and sits next to the main airport. Founders who fly often or want a shorter working commute tend to choose Larnaca. Founders who want to be inside the corporate and fintech cluster tend to choose Limassol.
Neither is a wrong answer, and the two are under an hour apart, so plenty of people live in one and work from the other rather than treating it as a binary.
Where do relocated founders in Cyprus actually meet each other?
Relocated founders in Cyprus meet mostly through small recurring events and introductions rather than large conferences. The island is compact enough that a handful of consistent rooms covers most of the community, which is why regular attendance matters more here than it would in a larger market.
Landed Nights is one of those rooms: once a month in Larnaca, thirty to forty founders and operators, one live conversation and drinks afterwards. Founders and operators only — service providers attend as partners.
How long does it really take to get set up in Cyprus?
Plan for three to six months from decision to fully operational, not the two to three weeks quoted for company registration. Incorporation is the fast part. Corporate banking, residency permits, an office lease, an accountant who answers, and school places are the steps that set the real timeline.
Founders who treat incorporation as the finish line tend to be the ones caught out. The ones who sequence banking and residency in parallel with registration land faster.
Landed Nights
Once a month, 30–40 founders, one live conversation, drinks after. Larnaca, with a Limassol edition to follow. Founders and operators only; service providers attend as partners. Dates and how it works.
Partners
Landed is funded by a small number of category-exclusive partners who serve people arriving in Cyprus — accountancy, legal, relocation, banking, property, schools. One per category.
Be a guest
If you moved your business here and the story is worth an hour, tell us about it.
Get in touch
One form for all three — tell us which and we will pick it up.
A Vocal Monkey Studios production.
The studio is the means. The strategy is the work.
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Sessions and strategy calls are booked in advance — call or message and we will find a slot.