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European startup scenes compared
- swombat 13y agoThis is just an extract from the Telefonica startup ecosystem report that can be found here: http://blog.digital.telefonica.com/?press-release=country-highlights-startup-ecosystem-report-2012#filter=*,media=The-Startup-Ecosystem-Report-2012-–-Global-map http://blog.digital.telefonica.com/?press-release=country-hi... It's an interesting report, though unless there's actionable information in this for you (there is for me, actually), it's probably infoporn rather than anything worth reading...
- Peroni 13y agoThere's no question that London is suffering from a funding gap however some of the excerpts seem incredibly difficult to quantify: They are more motivated by building a great product than by changing the world compared to SV entrepreneurs I also don't really understand how a preference towards mobile orientated start-ups is indicative of quality: London has been slow in adopting mobile as a new trend. It has 30% less startups than SV or NYC in the mobile space
- LeonidasXIV 13y agoBecause the less it is like SV the less intersting it is. I am joking obviously, but I found the article strange: it compares all these places with the be-all-end-all bay area and obviously concludes that it is not the same. It doesn't seem to consider that being different can also be an advantage.
- yyqux 13y agoTel Aviv is in Europe now?
- duggan 13y agoEnough to be in the Eurovision (it's a more complex question than you might imagine). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93European_Union_relations#EU_membership_for_Israel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93European_Union_r...
- qompiler 13y agoExcept that Eurovision has as much to do with the European Union as the UEFA champions league (read: none).
- duggan 13y agoFor some purposes, Israel is grouped with Europe; that's all.
- cateye 13y agoThis is so hypocritical. What it actually says is: world is full of politics and bullshit. We just bomb the ones we want and call them enemies while we call others friends because it is better in our intere$t.
- noloqy 13y agoApparently Asia doesn't want it anymore.
- nir 13y agoJudging from the article it seems like Asia's loss.
- Samuel_Michon 13y agoSimilarly, what continents do Istanbul and St. Petersburg belong to? Cyprus is an EU member state, but geographically, it is in Asia.
- wowoc 13y agoPart of Istanbul is in Europe, another part is in Asia. Whole St. Petersburg is in Europe. No part of Tel Aviv is in Europe.
- Samuel_Michon 13y agoSure, geographically speaking, that’s correct. That’s not what I was getting at, though. Israel is more akin to Western Europe culturally than European countries like Albania. Israel has a functioning democracy, freedom of speech and religion, excellent education and healthcare, and it has a higher GDP than most European countries. Europeans have been coming to Jerusalem en masse for thousands of years, especially this guy by the name of Jesus has been quite popular with Europeans.
- VexXtreme 13y agoPretty much everyone I know considers Israel to be a middle eastern country. While it's true that European Jews have absorbed a huge amount of European culture and are Europeans for all intents and purposes, whether Israel can be considered a part of Europe is extremely debatable. Just because certain nations are culturally close, that doesn't suddenly close the geographical gap between them. New Zealand and Australia are culturally much closer to Europe than Turkey and yet that doesn't make them a part of Europe. Now, to say that Israel is a western country would be correct (as are US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and possibly even many central and south American countries). But to say that they are in Europe would be incorrect. Let's stick to geographical facts and not reinvent common knowledge, shall we?
- sbmassey 13y agoIn the same vein, "European" is not the same as "In Europe"
- 1timeposter 13y agoIsrael tags along several European events such as football championships, Eurovision etc. Partially I suspect it's because they don't have the necessary relationship with their neighbours to be included in a more regional context.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jmcdowell 13y agoQuick question: Do people think the rising cost of living in a place like London will have a negative effect on start ups? Currently it doesn't look like it from that report but I'm currently on an intern's wage and have struggled to live here, I can only imagine how hard it is to potentially work for a small wage maybe even just equity whilst being a bit older than I am and potentially more responsibilities.
- jmcdowell 13y agoN.B. I have heard the cost of living in other European cities is a lot lower which is why I thought they would be in a similar shape to London before reading that article.
- Kurtz79 13y agoI have been living for a substantial amount of time (years) in London and Madrid, a short while in Berlin, and the latter two are definitely cheaper, offering a similar quality of life (personally I would say better, but it's a matter of taste, it has also to do with the sheer size of London). In London I was living in a shared flat in Zone 3, and I was paying more of what I pay now for a decent studio in the middle of Madrid's city center. Public transport is cheaper and more efficient both in Berlin and Madrid, just as well, and eating/going out too. Then again London has a better start-up scene, more availability of jobs and better paid ones, so as with everything, it's a matter of trade-offs. BTW, the EU it's not really popular these days, but I always found the fact that you can decide where to work and live with no legal barriers among dozens of different countries absolutely amazing, also considering that those countries were waging war between themselves for centuries up to about 70 years ago...
- troels 13y agoYes, but for legal/tax reasons, UK is much more attractive than most other EU countries.
- corford 13y agoGood point. I've come across quite a few Berlin based startups that are actually incorporated in the UK e.g. Soundcloud. Someone said to me that one of the reasons for this is share capital requirements. You only need £100 to incorporate an ltd in the UK whereas in Germany it's apparently in the thousands.
- croisillon 13y agoThe Berlin pin looks more like Bremen.
- nicholassmith 13y agoDepending on what happens with UK politics over the next 3-5 years that might change dramatically due to the constant drum beating on immigration and EU reforms.
- freyfogle 13y agoAgree, as an non-British EU company founder based in London I can not think of a better way to discourage investment. Berlin will be the beneficiary.
- moneypenny 13y agoTwo things. 1. Israel's not Europe. 2. Until I and everyone else have free passage in and out of Israel, without harassment due to my ethnic origin, it can't even say it operates free and reciprocal movement with the EU. I don't know if the author was making some weird politics point, but here's one of my own. Source: I'm banned from Israel.
- nuromancer 13y agoLast time I checked Tel Aviv is in the Middle East not Europe.
- j_col 13y ago> As the only “European” startup hub, Tel Aviv... Indeed! Use of quotes in original piece says it all.
- qompiler 13y agoTel Aviv scores fairly high in the funding and support index but poor on the performance and trendsetter index. Kind of proves the point that $ isn't all it takes but sure helps you become visible.
- corford 13y agoI'd say the UK certainly has the lead in Europe in terms of talent pool size, legal services, tax regime and government support. I'll shortly be moving back to there and incorporating a company for my bootstrapped startup. I live in France at the moment and the decision to move and kick it off from the UK was a no brainer. One of the major attractions is the SEIS scheme and the potential this gives me to attract funding via a crowd funding platform like http://www.crowdcube.com http://www.crowdcube.com This sort of startup friendly business environment just doesn't exist anywhere else in Europe (at least that I'm aware of). Edit: in connection to the above, would love to know if any UK HNers have had any experience with http://www.vwv.co.uk/ http://www.vwv.co.uk/ ? I need some legal advice before I incorporate and I've heard they're good and very startup friendly.
- pilooch 13y agoInterested in the reasons behind the 'no brainer' move. We're in France, and the regime for startups, with innovation tax cuts and other security nets is pretty favorable. The engineers are pretty good too!
- corford 13y agoYMMV but for my specific setup, it was just easier on all fronts. My French isn't terrible (my partner is French) but English is my mother tongue and what I'm most comfortable in (especially for business stuff). It's also much easier to get quick, good access to startup focussed legal advice. Then there's the SEIS scheme which is very attractive if I run out of runway after launching and need to look at additional seed funding. Company incorporation is easy and inexpensive. Rent is cheap if you aren't in the South East (and I'm not locked in to a long contract as is standard in France). If my startup turns out to be successful and I need to employ people it's much easier and more cost effective to do this in the UK than in France. And the list goes on. I'm currently under the Auto-Entrepreneur scheme here and frankly it's a bordel :) I'd like to kill URSAFF sometimes... Edit: I should also say that I'm out in the sticks in the Limousin region. I imagine things are a bit better in Paris. Where are you guys based?
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