3 ms·

Good point. I should have qualified. ETH is an excellent school—I'd be happy to have an ETH degree! They produce tons of good research in computer science (esp

Good point. I should have qualified. ETH is an excellent school—I'd be happy to have an ETH degree! They produce tons of good research in computer science (especially geospatial), material science, and others. I think Google is especially there because of the geospatial workforce (and generally highly qualified technologists). By "cutting technical edge", I specifically meant 1) large numbers of smart people solving important problems in startups and 2) large numbers of smart people pushing practical technology forward in novel ways. In general, most dev jobs in CH are C++ or Java. I know of a handful of good startups, but not too many. The mentality is generally quite conservative, so most companies do standard technology solutions for standard companies—nothing wrong with that, but I wouldn't say you can compare Zürich to Berlin, Barcelona, London, Tallinn, or any of the US startup hubs (and it's not just attributable to population size).

Rochus 6y ago
"In God we trust, all others must bring data." (Edward Deming) See https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_gii_2019.pdf https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_gii_2019.pdf, https://ethz.ch/en/industry/entrepreneurs/spinoff/uebersicht-eth-spin-offs.html https://ethz.ch/en/industry/entrepreneurs/spinoff/uebersicht..., etc.
- lukeqsee 6y ago
  That’s a good quote, I shall use it in the future. :) I never disputed that there’s lots of spin-offs from ETH, but I was unaware of the precise count. It’s higher than I thought. Thanks for bringing the data. However, even with a few dozen startups a year it cannot be termed to a major startup hub. Are there any accelerators, major VCs, or the like in Zürich? I’m not aware of many, if any. I’m in Ostschweiz, so I don’t know Zürich super well, but here the tech meetups groups for almost everything are < 100 members (not attendees), so I would have to go to Zürich for any real meetups, which are quite small based on group pages, as well. And don’t get me wrong—I’m not disappointed in or minimizing the amount cool stuff that comes out of Switzerland. I want to see it grow and succeed. It’d be fantastic if Zürich became a major hub in the future. Hopp Schwiiz! :)
  - Rochus 6y ago
    Not sure what you mean, but see e.g. https://www.technopark.ch/ https://www.technopark.ch/ or https://ethz.ch/en/industry/entrepreneurs/spinoff.html https://ethz.ch/en/industry/entrepreneurs/spinoff.html, or e.g. https://www.computerworld.ch/business/start-ups/foerderprogramme-schweizer-start-ups-in-uebersicht-1664103.html https://www.computerworld.ch/business/start-ups/foerderprogr...
    - lukeqsee 6y ago
      The last link is what I was looking for, thanks. More startup infrastructure is there than I was aware of. I’m not certain it changes my overall assessment, though: I wouldn’t chose to move to Switzerland based on its vibrant community of tech startups when compared to other European options. This isn’t to diminish the work being done, and I obviously have more to learn which may change my opinion.

Rochus 6y ago

"In God we trust, all others must bring data." (Edward Deming) See https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_gii_2019.pdf https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_gii_2019.pdf, https://ethz.ch/en/industry/entrepreneurs/spinoff/uebersicht-eth-spin-offs.html https://ethz.ch/en/industry/entrepreneurs/spinoff/uebersicht..., etc.

lukeqsee 6y ago
That’s a good quote, I shall use it in the future. :) I never disputed that there’s lots of spin-offs from ETH, but I was unaware of the precise count. It’s higher than I thought. Thanks for bringing the data. However, even with a few dozen startups a year it cannot be termed to a major startup hub. Are there any accelerators, major VCs, or the like in Zürich? I’m not aware of many, if any. I’m in Ostschweiz, so I don’t know Zürich super well, but here the tech meetups groups for almost everything are < 100 members (not attendees), so I would have to go to Zürich for any real meetups, which are quite small based on group pages, as well. And don’t get me wrong—I’m not disappointed in or minimizing the amount cool stuff that comes out of Switzerland. I want to see it grow and succeed. It’d be fantastic if Zürich became a major hub in the future. Hopp Schwiiz! :)
- Rochus 6y ago
  Not sure what you mean, but see e.g. https://www.technopark.ch/ https://www.technopark.ch/ or https://ethz.ch/en/industry/entrepreneurs/spinoff.html https://ethz.ch/en/industry/entrepreneurs/spinoff.html, or e.g. https://www.computerworld.ch/business/start-ups/foerderprogramme-schweizer-start-ups-in-uebersicht-1664103.html https://www.computerworld.ch/business/start-ups/foerderprogr...
  - lukeqsee 6y ago
    The last link is what I was looking for, thanks. More startup infrastructure is there than I was aware of. I’m not certain it changes my overall assessment, though: I wouldn’t chose to move to Switzerland based on its vibrant community of tech startups when compared to other European options. This isn’t to diminish the work being done, and I obviously have more to learn which may change my opinion.