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Many development shops in Balkans provide near-shore, off-shore services to European and US customers. Those companies have experienced significant grow in shor
by llomlup 13y ago
Many development shops in Balkans provide near-shore, off-shore services to European and US customers. Those companies have experienced significant grow in short time, e.g. from 5 to 50 employees in just two years or so. A stretch to higher numbers > 200 people isn't strange as well.
However, a Skype/another $1 billion business level success is yet to be seen.
- tomp 13y agoYou have to be aware that Skype was a Swedish-Danish startup (according to Wikipedia), those countries have a bit longer history of capitalism and entrepreneurship than ex-Yugoslavia (which was socialist less than 25 years ago) countries.
- llomlup 13y agoAgreed. Also in Balkans, due to weak economy and lack of state support, devs won't easily risk giving up their jobs in order to run a full-time startup (no VC's to fund projects there).
- Sandman 13y agoThat's not really true, there are VCs. Crane [1], for example, is a network of angel investors in Croatia. [1] http://www.crane.hr/ http://www.crane.hr/
- azernik 13y agoThe two founding partners at Skype were Swedish and Danish, but the company also started with three engineers in Estonia, and the company still (judging by their jobs page [1]); the company still has an engineering presence there. That model (foreign entrepreneurs getting it started, but based/staffed locally) may be the most likely one for a big consumer-facing company in the former Yugoslavia, but it would still be a major achievement, and could build that startup tradition locally. [1] http://www.microsoft-careers.com/go/skype-tallinn/332461/ http://www.microsoft-careers.com/go/skype-tallinn/332461/