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Europe's hottest startup capitals
- adnam 15y agoPoorly researched filler piece. For example, the article on Barcelona failed to mention ANY of the truly interesting startups, like Privalia, ExperienceOn, Letsbonus, Groupalia, and all the companies seeded by Grupo Intercom.
- toumhi 15y agoThese articles are of very unequal depth. 2 pages for Paris, and only a list of startups for Amsterdam. Not even a mention of recentlylaunched new york times-featured appsterdam: http://www.nytimes.com/external/venturebeat/2011/06/27/27venturebeat-appsterdam-a-haven-for-indie-app-makers-89100.html http://www.nytimes.com/external/venturebeat/2011/06/27/27ven... Nice to read about less popular cities though (Tallinn, Helsinki).
- smiler 15y agoThe reason for the unequal depth is that the article was originally written for the print magazine - if you see the design of the magazine, you will see that they have a few featured cities with longer articles and others in brief. Obviously limited on page count.
- Tomis 15y agoSomeone should let Wired know that Tel Aviv is as European as Damascus and Beirut.
- lell 15y agoAnd that Sweden isn't a city (so it can't be a European capital.)
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- brunnsbe 15y agoAnd www.dealdash.com, which is listed under Helsinki, is located in California, USA. However they seem to have a Finnish developer (are you Juha on HN?).
- ristretto 15y agoDue in part to cultural differences with the rest of the middle east, Israel is often classed as closer to europe. (As is Turkey as well)
- route66 15y agoAt least Israel is a recurring participant at the european song contest[1]. This might have influenced wired's judgement profoundly. [1] http://www.eurovision.tv/page/dusseldorf-2011/about/shows/participants http://www.eurovision.tv/page/dusseldorf-2011/about/shows/pa...
- Someone 15y agoThey also are a member of the Union of European Football Associations, take part in European championships, play in the Europa cups, etc. I think the situation is the same in other sports such as basketball.
- maayank 15y agoAlso, not the capital of Israel. (A main city, sure)
- topbanana 15y agoLondon?
- alxtye 15y agoProbably omitted on purpose for reasons unknown.
- T-zex 15y agoIt's quite cold in London at the moment (17°C).
- jkaljundi 15y agoDid you read the article? It starts with "London's startup scene is booming -- you need only read Wired to see that. But what are Europe's other hot digital cities -- and which are the companies and founders to watch?" - so it's about what else besides London there is. Not downplaying London at all.
- drats 15y agohttp://www.crowdcube.com/ http://www.crowdcube.com/ looks interesting for the UK: "equity-based crowdfunding". However, it doesn't look like there is a great deal of activity.
- relix 15y agoI was looking into moving to Tallinn as an expat. This just sealed the deal. Any Estonian hackers on here?
- ddon 15y agoi moved from Tallinn last year :) many positive things can be said about this place, but having a snow (mostly dirty) for about 7..8 months a year, and seeing this mess made me move: http://public.fotki.com/dmitri_don/tallinn-2011/ http://public.fotki.com/dmitri_don/tallinn-2011/
- relix 15y agoYou're the first guy I read who addresses negative points of Tallinn, thanks! I knew about the snow, but not about the derelict state of some of the surroundings. However, isn't it normal for a reasonably large city to have vandalized parts like that? I'm sure you could find similar scenes in cities like Paris, Brussels or Berlin. If you have any other resources about Tallinn (biased or not ;-) ) I'd love to take a gander, it's actually quite hard to find good intel about it. I noticed you're Canadian - did you use a guidebook when you first arrived? I'm wondering which one I should get.
- robtoo 15y agoThe pictures aren't representative of Tallinn as a whole, certainly not the central parts, but it is probably fair to say that it is more run-down in parts than similar cities in wealthier countries. (Remember that Estonia isn't rich -- GDP per capita is one third that of Belgium, for example.) How much you see of this obviously depends on where you live and where you go. Best single Tallinn resource is probably In Your Pocket: http://www.inyourpocket.com/estonia/tallinn http://www.inyourpocket.com/estonia/tallinn You can pick this up cheaply in the city, download the pdf from their site for free, or get their iPhone app (also free). Also new and interesting-looking is http://www.likealocalguide.com/tallinn http://www.likealocalguide.com/tallinn There is no great definitive online expat forum. Also: when looking up stuff online, learn to love Chrome's built-in translation functions, and remember that it (and Google Translate) unfortunately does a better job with Russian than it does Estonian.
- eoghan 15y agoDublin?
- leon_ 15y ago> Europe's hottest startup capitals: Sweden Come and visit the wonderful town of Sweden ...
- arethuza 15y agoThat town has some really impressive parks!
- shazamjad 15y agoAn error in the title but the article itself actually discusses Stockholm.
- presty 15y agoWell, Barcelona is not the capital of Spain..
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- iwwr 15y agoIt's the capital of Catalonia, who many people in Spain would not mind to see as an independent republic :)
- johnyzee 15y ago> Europe's hottest startup capitals: Moscow > Europe's hottest startup capitals: Tel Aviv > Europe's hottest startup capitals: Bangalore (Ok I made the last one up)
- ristretto 15y agocommon error. Everybody knows Ikea is the capital of Sweden where they make the best wines.
- atomicdog 15y agoYou're really pushing it if you're classing Moscow and Tel Aviv as "European" cities...
- chico_dusty 15y agoSay what? Moscow is most definitely European. It's located something like 850 miles west of the Urals.
- arethuza 15y agoSo what continent do you think Moscow is in? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe
- smiler 15y agoIsrael is thought of European because its football team is aligned with UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) and also it participates in the Eurovision song contest, so a lot of Europeans, myself included, definitely see Israel as quasi-European
- marcf 15y agoIsrael is fairly European in a lot of aspects except when it comes to its occupation of the Palestinian territories and its denial of rights to the inhabitants of those territories. Israel's behavior with regards to the West Bank is so bad that it being referred to more and more as an apartheid situation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_the_apartheid_analogy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_the_apartheid_analog...
- nivertech 15y agoApartheid was invented by British colonialism. The current deadlock in Israel is also British colonial inheritance. That's sums up any analogies between South Africa and Israel.
- philwelch 15y agoThis is the third time I've seen you try and start a flamewar over Israel. Please knock that shit off.
- harryf 15y agoThrowing in a Swiss boot - http://startupchart.ch/ http://startupchart.ch/ - of course Switzerland is a country, not a capital. But then so is Sweden...
- SoupIce 15y agoIsrael is not in Europe. Why is it on the list?
- arethuza 15y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest
- ristretto 15y agoPlease stop using that kitsch abomination known as eurovision for reference. Use UEFA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA
- philwelch 15y agoIt's culturally closer to Europe than to its Muslim neighbors. Israel competes in the Eurovision song contest and in the European soccer confederation.
- dazzawazza 15y agoIf you are going to use that standard then the UK is in North America as it's culturally closer to US/Canada than France/Germany.
- arethuza 15y agoThat is a matter of opinion!
- ristretto 15y agoTrue, that's why the article ommited the UK. (and UK startups are rarely labeled 'european')
- philwelch 15y agoI know British people who don't think the UK is part of Europe. British discourse often refers to "the continent" as something distinct from Britain.
- jkaljundi 15y agoOne of the great things in the article is choosing both Helsinki and Tallinn, neighboring cities with just 50 miles apart. That region is really buzzing with startup activity.
- robjohnson 15y agoI wish there was more depth to these articles - it could have been a very interesting read.
- mvalente 15y agoLisbon, the West Coast of Europe. Better beaches, better food and better wines than the other West Coast. Plus: better trams and a better bridge. Perfect geographic location, halfway between Europe and US. -- MV
- andynosebone 15y agoTallinn and Helsinki truly booming! Garage48 Tartu (http://garage48.org/events http://garage48.org/events) is on next weekend and after that Steve Blank is visiting Finland for a week (www.steveblank.fi). Truly great stuff happening here!