8 ms·

The Nordic region is becoming a hothouse of entrepreneurship

88 points by enra 14y ago

akurilin 14y ago
Any thoughts from people on the ground in those areas?
- daliusd 14y ago
  I'm from Lithuania (that is Baltic state, but http://www.arcticstartup.com/ http://www.arcticstartup.com/ includes Baltic states in their news coverage). I'm constantly getting offers from various startups without looking for them. EDIT: basically if you want to start company here you can get help from forming team, getting training, getting a little bit money and etc.
  - bjelkeman-again 14y ago
    Yeah. I just posted a devops position there. :)
- vukk 14y ago
  I'm a student at Aalto. There is promise, there are some communities with really, really smart people. But this article feels like it hypes the government. Personally I do not agree with the government throwing a bunch of money at things, it creates a loop of nonsense, people milking the cow while the fun lasts. This can be seen and heard on the ground level here. Throwing money at companies is something Tekes has done for ages with established companies in Finland, like Nokia. The startups are just the hot thing now so money is flowing there. This leads to the fact that the startup scene is hyped in general. Please note that this comment is quite specific to Finland.
  - smcl 14y ago
    I've heard bad things on HN (possibly from yourself) about government startup funding in Finland - something along the lines of there are a small number of entrepreneurs favoured by the government who receive investments and produce some mediocre product doomed to fail and repeat semi-regularly. Is this anything close to the truth or did I misunderstand/mis-remember this?
    - enra 14y ago
      As far as I know there is no "favoritism" for goverment grants . Like any fundraising, there are those are better / more experienced with it and those who aren't. But the real problem is that the government officials are not investors. Steve Blank said this well on his visit: Ironically one of the things that’s holding back the Finnish cluster is Tekes, the government organization for financing research, development and innovation in Finland. It’s hard enough to pick which existing companies with known business models to aid. Yet Tekes does that and is trying to act like a government-run Venture Capital firm. At Tekes, government employees (and their hired consultants) – with no equity, no risk or reward, no startup or venture capital experience – try to pick startup winners and losers. http://steveblank.com/2011/10/07/the-helsinki-spring/ http://steveblank.com/2011/10/07/the-helsinki-spring/
    - slash-dot 14y ago
      I'm from Finland, from what I have heard and seen about the government funding companies is that they usually fund companies with a clear plan and with founders with a lot of experience in their field (that is have worked their whole life in the field/phds).
      - smcl 14y ago
        So it sounds like I'm mistaken then, hmm in that case I wonder what I was reading on this topic.
- INTPenis 14y ago
  Sweden here, I feel like we have a startup scene just like California these days. It's fun. Students are clearly influenced by what they've heard and seen from the states. And the technology around them is making innovation easy.
- meriksson 14y ago
  Running a software company in Stockholm, Sweden is a blast. It is a great place to live, plenty of good people to recruit, a decent domestic market, e.g. many big companies willing to try out services from startups. There is a vast number of small tech companies here, most of them completely unknown. Every week I learn about some cool new company doing their thing just around the block from us, without ever having heard of the people involved. There are some major caveats: Income taxes are extremely high and tax rules makes it almost impossible to share ownership in a rational way, e.g. it is very hard to setup stock option programs etc. Also, the domestic venture capital market is extremely underdeveloped - a great opportunity for foreign investors! I am a firm opponent of all government programs to stimulate entrepreneurship. My view is that the government should simply get out of the way. And in fact, except for the taxes, this is by and large what the Swedish government is doing. For example, there is very little bureaucracy around running a business, e.g. starting an incorporated company is now done easily over the internet, often the whole process can be completed in a matter of days.
  - robin_reala 14y ago
    Out of interest, do you think it’d be easy to get into the startup scene with minimal Swedish? My wife is Swedish and we have in the past considered a move to Stockholm but my Swedish is absolutely not fluent (although were we to do it I’d enrol in an evening course as soon as we moved).
    - Matti 14y ago
      Getting by in Stockholm won't be a problem: you can safely assume that people within the start-up scene are fluent in English. You'll be met with a slightly different kind of problem: as communicating in English is so effortless, you'll have few opportunities to really practice your Swedish.
      - robin_reala 14y ago
        Hah, yeah, I know the Swede’s proclivity for English :) Just wasn’t sure that it’d be acceptable to speak it in a business context. That’s interesting for sure.
- maggit 14y ago
  I'm involved in the startup scene in Norway, and it seems to me that there are mainly two sources of real money; oil (gas/offshore/etc) and fish, considering both private and public funding. It doesn't look to me like unrelated tech startups gain any special advantages by being in Norway. I think we are still fighting the unfortunate culture of the Law of Jante: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante
  - arethuza 14y ago
    I grew up in a community in the North of Scotland that was dominated by fishing (more oil these days) and most boat-owning skippers were pretty much risk-seeking entrepreneurs - with pretty big rewards possible (certainly well into F-you money). The chapter on Iceland in Boomering Michael Lewis where he describes how the risk seeking fishermen were maybe not the best choice to become investment bankers reminded me a lot of people I knew when I was younger.
  - larsmak 14y ago
    I partially agree. Norway is a pretty small country - and folks here, it's seems, would rather sit on cafés drinking coffy and "solving the problems of the world" rather than getting into the hard world of entrepreneurship. There's just not that many good ideas to fund here (?) There's some gov. initiative, and now they are also open sourcing more (of our) data (and even throws in a competition: www.apps4norge.no) Also IMHO, Scandinavians needs to stop blaming the "law of Jante" all the time - maybe we should take a look at ourself instead? :)
- skarmklart 14y ago
  Lund, Sweden, here. Currently doing a SaaS mobile project in my startup. Malmö has a great startup scene with Foo Cafe and other gatherings. In Lund you have LTH, Ericsson, Ideon, etc so there's a lot of tech talent there as well. Anyone, feel free to hit me up for free coffee in our Malmö office :)
- Geee 14y ago
  There's one anecdote I can share from Finland: 'startup' is now an actual word used in mainstream media. http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startup-yritys http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startup-yritys
- enra 14y ago
  I've been around the scene about 5 years (one of the founders of ArcticStartup which was mentioned in the article). I think the Economist is pretty accurate on the fact that there is lot of bubbling but takes time and experience to actually build something big and successful. SV has had the mindset, experience and infrastructure for decades. We are just starting now. PandoDaily about Helsinki: http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/20/welcome-to-helsinki-home-of-the-sauna-supercell-and-some-angry-birds/ http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/20/welcome-to-helsinki-home-of... & http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/22/out-of-the-fire-into-the-sauna-how-students-power-finlands-startup-ecosystem/ http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/22/out-of-the-fire-into-the-sa...
Matti 14y ago
Unless things have changed recently, Berlin still has fairly low rents and low living costs going for it -- giving people a fair amount of marginal space: http://www.paulgraham.com/marginal.html http://www.paulgraham.com/marginal.html Alexander Young (of Soundcloud) speaking about Berlin: "The atmosphere and culture in Berlin is very unique. Since the costs for living are still low, people can afford to only work a few hours per week, and do the stuff they want the rest of the time." http://blog.twingly.com/2010/05/18/from-stockholm-to-berlin-interview-with-soundcloud-ceo-alexander-ljung/ http://blog.twingly.com/2010/05/18/from-stockholm-to-berlin-... That can't be said about Stockholm nor Helsinki.
- _delirium 14y ago
  I agree Berlin is ultra-cheap, but the Nordic capitals are still pretty cheap compared to other startup hubs. When I moved from the US to Copenhagen, people warned me about expensive rents, but I was actually surprised at how much cheaper it is here than in major American cities. I pay about $1400 (€1000) for a centrally located 2bd in a nice area near the metro, which is a kind of price it's totally impossible to find in SF, Boston, or NYC. Not to mention in other startup hubs like London...
  - zura 14y ago
    But after 50%+ taxes, take home amount is quite low compared to US, right?
    - Expez 14y ago
      This might be a common myth. The tax levels in the nordic countries might be higher than the US but not by that much. We also have free health care and education (university attendance is free) and other benefits included in our taxes. Earning $100k in Norway you'd pay around 32% tax. Edit: We have progressive taxes. To pay over 50% taxes in Norway you'd have to have a regular salary above $551k, with no deductibles. Capital gains are taxed at 27%.
      - 14y ago
henrik_w 14y ago
Another recent story, on the startup scene in Stockholm: Why tiny Stockholm has the most stunning startup ecosystem since Tel Aviv (http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/20/why-tiny-stockholm-has-the-most-stunning-startup-ecosystem-since-tel-aviv/?pages=all http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/20/why-tiny-stockholm-has-the-...). It was discussed here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4813573 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4813573
drpgq 14y ago
House cleaning as a tax deductible expense and employment perk? That I could get behind.
apaprocki 14y ago
I helped host a delegation of Finnish startups that came to Bloomberg in NYC. The Finnish Consul throws networking events in his apt as well. Everyone appears very driven and there are some great startups coming from the country. A lot of ex-Nokia guys need something new to do... :)
rdouble 14y ago
Two of my favorite products are from Sweden, my OP-1 synth and Reason. I've often wondered if a social safety net, such as the one in Sweden, takes a risk burden off of entrepreneurs and therefore allows for more experimentation with products like these. They require more lead time to develop (years vs. months) and target music making, which isn't an obviously lucrative market. However, the companies behind both products seem to be doing quite well.
- antris 14y ago
  Linux would have never happened if Linus Torvalds didn't have a chance to "slack off" in Helsinki University with taxpayer money. The whole thing started as a hobby project. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux#The_creation_of_Linux http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux#The_creation_o... Unfortunately, the times are changing in Finland, too, as politicians are pushing for legislation to force students to finish their studies within tighter time frames.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - hjn341 14y ago
    Do you happen to have a link to some writing on those proposed changes in legislation? Thanks!
    - antris 14y ago
      There was a legislation about a maximum period of 7 years for doing both the bachelor's and the master's degree. This would mean a student could lose his permission to be enrolled in the university as a student and graduate: http://yle.fi/uutiset/seitseman_vuoden_takaraja_hiillostaa_nyt_ikuista_opiskelijaa/5742927 http://yle.fi/uutiset/seitseman_vuoden_takaraja_hiillostaa_n... http://www.mtv3.fi/uutiset/kotimaa.shtml/opintoajan-rajaus-on-vauhdittanut-opintoja/2012/08/1592019 http://www.mtv3.fi/uutiset/kotimaa.shtml/opintoajan-rajaus-o... I couldn't find an English source for this, sorry. Perhaps Google Translate will help. There is a caveat in the law, which is that universities can give extensions to the studies as they wish, and most students who request it do get it. But it's still a strong message from the government and there are ~400 students at the moment that have their studies interrupted because of this law. Also Anita Lehikoinen from the Ministry of Education says that "funding to universities are partly decided by the amount of students who achieve 45 study points (points awarded for completing parts of the curriculum) in a given year" ( http://ylioppilaslehti.fi/2010/02/pitka-ura/ http://ylioppilaslehti.fi/2010/02/pitka-ura/ ) So there is a clear incentive for universities to push students into graduating quickly. edit: Found an English source, this is an instructional material of Aalto University for exchange students, mentioning the study right: https://into.aalto.fi/display/enmasterarts/Study+right+and+the+duration+of+the+degree https://into.aalto.fi/display/enmasterarts/Study+right+and+t...
randall 14y ago
The suit is back! http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
vowelless 14y ago
How is the immigration process in the region? I might not be able to get permanent residency soon enough in the US, and so it might be worth checking out other countries (I am also eyeing Canada). This is speaking as a graduate from one of the top 3 CS schools in the US, former "Big Company" employee and currently doing a startup.
- mindjiver 14y ago
  It depends if you are a citizen of EU, a Nordic country or Switzerland or not. I assume that you are not so in that case you would need a job offer first, apply for a work permit, then come and work. The process is described here: http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Work/ http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Work/ If you are self-employed or moving with your company it might be trickier. Here at $MEGA_CORP we have hired tons of non-EU citizen, mostly Russians, and it seems to work pretty well.

88 points by enra 14y ago

akurilin 14y ago

Any thoughts from people on the ground in those areas?

daliusd 14y ago
I'm from Lithuania (that is Baltic state, but http://www.arcticstartup.com/ http://www.arcticstartup.com/ includes Baltic states in their news coverage). I'm constantly getting offers from various startups without looking for them. EDIT: basically if you want to start company here you can get help from forming team, getting training, getting a little bit money and etc.
- bjelkeman-again 14y ago
  Yeah. I just posted a devops position there. :)
vukk 14y ago
I'm a student at Aalto. There is promise, there are some communities with really, really smart people. But this article feels like it hypes the government. Personally I do not agree with the government throwing a bunch of money at things, it creates a loop of nonsense, people milking the cow while the fun lasts. This can be seen and heard on the ground level here. Throwing money at companies is something Tekes has done for ages with established companies in Finland, like Nokia. The startups are just the hot thing now so money is flowing there. This leads to the fact that the startup scene is hyped in general. Please note that this comment is quite specific to Finland.
- smcl 14y ago
  I've heard bad things on HN (possibly from yourself) about government startup funding in Finland - something along the lines of there are a small number of entrepreneurs favoured by the government who receive investments and produce some mediocre product doomed to fail and repeat semi-regularly. Is this anything close to the truth or did I misunderstand/mis-remember this?
  - enra 14y ago
    As far as I know there is no "favoritism" for goverment grants . Like any fundraising, there are those are better / more experienced with it and those who aren't. But the real problem is that the government officials are not investors. Steve Blank said this well on his visit: Ironically one of the things that’s holding back the Finnish cluster is Tekes, the government organization for financing research, development and innovation in Finland. It’s hard enough to pick which existing companies with known business models to aid. Yet Tekes does that and is trying to act like a government-run Venture Capital firm. At Tekes, government employees (and their hired consultants) – with no equity, no risk or reward, no startup or venture capital experience – try to pick startup winners and losers. http://steveblank.com/2011/10/07/the-helsinki-spring/ http://steveblank.com/2011/10/07/the-helsinki-spring/
  - slash-dot 14y ago
    I'm from Finland, from what I have heard and seen about the government funding companies is that they usually fund companies with a clear plan and with founders with a lot of experience in their field (that is have worked their whole life in the field/phds).
    - smcl 14y ago
      So it sounds like I'm mistaken then, hmm in that case I wonder what I was reading on this topic.
INTPenis 14y ago
Sweden here, I feel like we have a startup scene just like California these days. It's fun. Students are clearly influenced by what they've heard and seen from the states. And the technology around them is making innovation easy.
meriksson 14y ago
Running a software company in Stockholm, Sweden is a blast. It is a great place to live, plenty of good people to recruit, a decent domestic market, e.g. many big companies willing to try out services from startups. There is a vast number of small tech companies here, most of them completely unknown. Every week I learn about some cool new company doing their thing just around the block from us, without ever having heard of the people involved. There are some major caveats: Income taxes are extremely high and tax rules makes it almost impossible to share ownership in a rational way, e.g. it is very hard to setup stock option programs etc. Also, the domestic venture capital market is extremely underdeveloped - a great opportunity for foreign investors! I am a firm opponent of all government programs to stimulate entrepreneurship. My view is that the government should simply get out of the way. And in fact, except for the taxes, this is by and large what the Swedish government is doing. For example, there is very little bureaucracy around running a business, e.g. starting an incorporated company is now done easily over the internet, often the whole process can be completed in a matter of days.
- robin_reala 14y ago
  Out of interest, do you think it’d be easy to get into the startup scene with minimal Swedish? My wife is Swedish and we have in the past considered a move to Stockholm but my Swedish is absolutely not fluent (although were we to do it I’d enrol in an evening course as soon as we moved).
  - Matti 14y ago
    Getting by in Stockholm won't be a problem: you can safely assume that people within the start-up scene are fluent in English. You'll be met with a slightly different kind of problem: as communicating in English is so effortless, you'll have few opportunities to really practice your Swedish.
    - robin_reala 14y ago
      Hah, yeah, I know the Swede’s proclivity for English :) Just wasn’t sure that it’d be acceptable to speak it in a business context. That’s interesting for sure.
maggit 14y ago
I'm involved in the startup scene in Norway, and it seems to me that there are mainly two sources of real money; oil (gas/offshore/etc) and fish, considering both private and public funding. It doesn't look to me like unrelated tech startups gain any special advantages by being in Norway. I think we are still fighting the unfortunate culture of the Law of Jante: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante
- arethuza 14y ago
  I grew up in a community in the North of Scotland that was dominated by fishing (more oil these days) and most boat-owning skippers were pretty much risk-seeking entrepreneurs - with pretty big rewards possible (certainly well into F-you money). The chapter on Iceland in Boomering Michael Lewis where he describes how the risk seeking fishermen were maybe not the best choice to become investment bankers reminded me a lot of people I knew when I was younger.
- larsmak 14y ago
  I partially agree. Norway is a pretty small country - and folks here, it's seems, would rather sit on cafés drinking coffy and "solving the problems of the world" rather than getting into the hard world of entrepreneurship. There's just not that many good ideas to fund here (?) There's some gov. initiative, and now they are also open sourcing more (of our) data (and even throws in a competition: www.apps4norge.no) Also IMHO, Scandinavians needs to stop blaming the "law of Jante" all the time - maybe we should take a look at ourself instead? :)
skarmklart 14y ago
Lund, Sweden, here. Currently doing a SaaS mobile project in my startup. Malmö has a great startup scene with Foo Cafe and other gatherings. In Lund you have LTH, Ericsson, Ideon, etc so there's a lot of tech talent there as well. Anyone, feel free to hit me up for free coffee in our Malmö office :)
Geee 14y ago
There's one anecdote I can share from Finland: 'startup' is now an actual word used in mainstream media. http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startup-yritys http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startup-yritys
enra 14y ago
I've been around the scene about 5 years (one of the founders of ArcticStartup which was mentioned in the article). I think the Economist is pretty accurate on the fact that there is lot of bubbling but takes time and experience to actually build something big and successful. SV has had the mindset, experience and infrastructure for decades. We are just starting now. PandoDaily about Helsinki: http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/20/welcome-to-helsinki-home-of-the-sauna-supercell-and-some-angry-birds/ http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/20/welcome-to-helsinki-home-of... & http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/22/out-of-the-fire-into-the-sauna-how-students-power-finlands-startup-ecosystem/ http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/22/out-of-the-fire-into-the-sa...

Matti 14y ago

Unless things have changed recently, Berlin still has fairly low rents and low living costs going for it -- giving people a fair amount of marginal space: http://www.paulgraham.com/marginal.html http://www.paulgraham.com/marginal.html Alexander Young (of Soundcloud) speaking about Berlin: "The atmosphere and culture in Berlin is very unique. Since the costs for living are still low, people can afford to only work a few hours per week, and do the stuff they want the rest of the time." http://blog.twingly.com/2010/05/18/from-stockholm-to-berlin-interview-with-soundcloud-ceo-alexander-ljung/ http://blog.twingly.com/2010/05/18/from-stockholm-to-berlin-... That can't be said about Stockholm nor Helsinki.

_delirium 14y ago
I agree Berlin is ultra-cheap, but the Nordic capitals are still pretty cheap compared to other startup hubs. When I moved from the US to Copenhagen, people warned me about expensive rents, but I was actually surprised at how much cheaper it is here than in major American cities. I pay about $1400 (€1000) for a centrally located 2bd in a nice area near the metro, which is a kind of price it's totally impossible to find in SF, Boston, or NYC. Not to mention in other startup hubs like London...
- zura 14y ago
  But after 50%+ taxes, take home amount is quite low compared to US, right?
  - Expez 14y ago
    This might be a common myth. The tax levels in the nordic countries might be higher than the US but not by that much. We also have free health care and education (university attendance is free) and other benefits included in our taxes. Earning $100k in Norway you'd pay around 32% tax. Edit: We have progressive taxes. To pay over 50% taxes in Norway you'd have to have a regular salary above $551k, with no deductibles. Capital gains are taxed at 27%.
    - 14y ago

henrik_w 14y ago

Another recent story, on the startup scene in Stockholm: Why tiny Stockholm has the most stunning startup ecosystem since Tel Aviv (http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/20/why-tiny-stockholm-has-the-most-stunning-startup-ecosystem-since-tel-aviv/?pages=all http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/20/why-tiny-stockholm-has-the-...). It was discussed here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4813573 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4813573

drpgq 14y ago

House cleaning as a tax deductible expense and employment perk? That I could get behind.

apaprocki 14y ago

I helped host a delegation of Finnish startups that came to Bloomberg in NYC. The Finnish Consul throws networking events in his apt as well. Everyone appears very driven and there are some great startups coming from the country. A lot of ex-Nokia guys need something new to do... :)

rdouble 14y ago

Two of my favorite products are from Sweden, my OP-1 synth and Reason. I've often wondered if a social safety net, such as the one in Sweden, takes a risk burden off of entrepreneurs and therefore allows for more experimentation with products like these. They require more lead time to develop (years vs. months) and target music making, which isn't an obviously lucrative market. However, the companies behind both products seem to be doing quite well.

antris 14y ago
Linux would have never happened if Linus Torvalds didn't have a chance to "slack off" in Helsinki University with taxpayer money. The whole thing started as a hobby project. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux#The_creation_of_Linux http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux#The_creation_o... Unfortunately, the times are changing in Finland, too, as politicians are pushing for legislation to force students to finish their studies within tighter time frames.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- hjn341 14y ago
  Do you happen to have a link to some writing on those proposed changes in legislation? Thanks!
  - antris 14y ago
    There was a legislation about a maximum period of 7 years for doing both the bachelor's and the master's degree. This would mean a student could lose his permission to be enrolled in the university as a student and graduate: http://yle.fi/uutiset/seitseman_vuoden_takaraja_hiillostaa_nyt_ikuista_opiskelijaa/5742927 http://yle.fi/uutiset/seitseman_vuoden_takaraja_hiillostaa_n... http://www.mtv3.fi/uutiset/kotimaa.shtml/opintoajan-rajaus-on-vauhdittanut-opintoja/2012/08/1592019 http://www.mtv3.fi/uutiset/kotimaa.shtml/opintoajan-rajaus-o... I couldn't find an English source for this, sorry. Perhaps Google Translate will help. There is a caveat in the law, which is that universities can give extensions to the studies as they wish, and most students who request it do get it. But it's still a strong message from the government and there are ~400 students at the moment that have their studies interrupted because of this law. Also Anita Lehikoinen from the Ministry of Education says that "funding to universities are partly decided by the amount of students who achieve 45 study points (points awarded for completing parts of the curriculum) in a given year" ( http://ylioppilaslehti.fi/2010/02/pitka-ura/ http://ylioppilaslehti.fi/2010/02/pitka-ura/ ) So there is a clear incentive for universities to push students into graduating quickly. edit: Found an English source, this is an instructional material of Aalto University for exchange students, mentioning the study right: https://into.aalto.fi/display/enmasterarts/Study+right+and+the+duration+of+the+degree https://into.aalto.fi/display/enmasterarts/Study+right+and+t...

randall 14y ago

The suit is back! http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

vowelless 14y ago

How is the immigration process in the region? I might not be able to get permanent residency soon enough in the US, and so it might be worth checking out other countries (I am also eyeing Canada). This is speaking as a graduate from one of the top 3 CS schools in the US, former "Big Company" employee and currently doing a startup.

mindjiver 14y ago
It depends if you are a citizen of EU, a Nordic country or Switzerland or not. I assume that you are not so in that case you would need a job offer first, apply for a work permit, then come and work. The process is described here: http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Work/ http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Work/ If you are self-employed or moving with your company it might be trickier. Here at $MEGA_CORP we have hired tons of non-EU citizen, mostly Russians, and it seems to work pretty well.