4 ms·

I hope they get something out of it, lots of tech jobs in a nice and accessible area is a good thing for the whole web ecosystem and me personally.

scrollaway 12y ago
Question: What places in Europe would someone recommend an ambitious EU techie with no ties to move to (and possibly settle)? I figure the country needs to have fairly good internet and a decent political climate at the very least.
- dagw 12y ago
  Berlin seems to be the most 'happening' place at the moment
  - kriro 12y ago
    I've always wondered why the Ruhr Valley isn't marketed/established as a techhub of sorts. Well connected infrastructure means it's essentially one big city and there are a few universities with decent tech departments. Berlin makes sense but come on...Valley in the title already ;P
    - guard-of-terra 12y ago
      I can't name terribly many examples where rust belt turned new economy hub. They usually just fade :-/
      - tormeh 12y ago
        Rhine-Ruhr isn't rust-belt, though. It's the largest metro area in Germany, at 11.3 million, and is the EU's third-wealthiest metro area, after Greater London and Paris met.
    - _delirium 12y ago
      As far as reputation among foreigners, some of it might be that Berlin is probably the easiest place to live in Germany without speaking German (or without speaking good German). Though, from what I gather, still not that easy, e.g. tech companies will hire you without German skills, and there is a considerable multilingual social/cultural scene, but the "official" side of daily life (civil service, doctors, utilities, etc.) will be challenging without German.
    - BjoernKW 12y ago
      Because while it technically is one big city, politically and administratively it's rather 10 or so distinct cities, all competing with one another with no overarching strategy. Besides, politics in the area is very much still living in the past (to the extent it's largely driven by nostalgia rather than by what's reasonable), when mining, steel and big state-run companies dominated the economic landscape. Politics being run by largely anti-business socialists for decades now doesn't help exactly either. Corruption is rampant, there's no vision and in general people there don't seem to care as long as their favourite football club's still playing. It's a shame really. There's a lot of potential there that simply goes unused. [edit: grammar]
- BSousa 12y ago
  I'm Portuguese so maybe I'm biased, but seems Lisbon is becoming quite an attractive startup hub where the cost of living isn't too high (compared to London/Paris/etc) and you have nice weather, people, good quality of life and lots to do. If you are thinking of starting something and need investment, London is hard to beat, with Berlin coming up second.
- Jacqued 12y ago
  In the next few years I think Paris might become quite an interesting place. (disclaimer: I live there) It's already booming compared to a few years ago, it is seeing some significant successful startups (Criteo, Blaclacar...), and the ecosystem is clearly growing at an accelerated pace, with new companies, new spaces, new schools, new events appearing all over the place. In 2016-2017 a few really large incubators are to open. Like the one championed by Xavier Niel which will host 1000 startups in a gigantic railway warehouse converted to startup offices (I bet that neighborhood is going to feel that change!), or another one opened by the City that will host 300 startups. All in all I expect a frantic activity in the next few years. Now with so many startups (and hopefully a few great ones in the lot!) the scramble for financing is bound to be pretty harsh.
  - scrollaway 12y ago
    I'm french, lived in Paris for a while. Paris is absurdly expensive, and the French govt is fairly bad at understanding worldwide collaboration and the needs of their businesses. I'm not sure France is a good country to be in right now.
    - Jacqued 12y ago
      Well, - I did not talk about the government, but I don't think it's that bad in France compared to most places in the world. Sure, some places like the Nordics seem to have pretty decent governments but at the end of the day in almost every country in the world the government is going to suck and you'll have to succeed despite them. - Paris is "expensive" but it's still a LOT cheaper than other comparables cities, eg. London. I won't even talk about NYC or Silicon Valley. - The ecosystem is blooming right now, and if it keeps up as I think it will, that means a tremendous number of opportunities for an ambitious person willing to start a business or work with startups. - Funding sucks. But then again it sucks everywhere on the planet apart from SV so that's that. At least people who have worked in France can live on pretty decent unemployment checks for up to two years while they bootstrap the business so that's helpful enough.
- tormeh 12y ago
  Scandinavia. Slightly less functional than Singapore, but they're actual democracies. Stockholm, perhaps?
  - _delirium 12y ago
    Also my recommendation, especially for the language ease. If you speak English to at least a "working professional" level, it's very easy to live and work in the big cities. At least in Copenhagen, the tech-sector work culture is very English-centric, and most official things can be done bilingually (civil servants all speak English, most forms and websites are translated, etc.). Of course there is nothing wrong with learning more languages, but it can be a big issue to attempt to get work and residence in a language you don't really speak well. For example I would personally not try to get a job in Italy unless I first learned good Italian, while I think an Italian who speaks English would find Denmark fairly easy, without needing to learn Danish up front (I know this in part because I have several Italian colleagues).
    - scrollaway 12y ago
      I actually live in Stockholm right now and I like it a lot, but I'm not sure I'll stay here. Can you tell me more about your experience in Copenhagen?
      - _delirium 12y ago
        I like it, but really depends on what you're looking for. It is not a Big City in the sense that London, Paris, NYC, etc. are big cities. But it is a very nice, compact, medium-sized city. Small enough that you can easily bike everywhere, but large enough to have lots of cultural events, academic talks [1], places to go out, etc. I also like having a well-connected airport so nearby (15 minute metro ride from the city center). It has a fairly large international population as well. But I don't know Stockholm at all, so it's hard to compare. Alcohol is definitely cheaper and less regulated compared to Sweden! [1] http://www.cphtalks.org/ http://www.cphtalks.org/
- Someone 12y ago
  If you are into hardware/embedded, consider the Eindhoven regio (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainport_(Netherlands) http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainport_(Netherlands)) It hosts Philips, ASML, TomTom, Shapeways, NXP Semiconductors, DAF Trucks and quite a few other high tech startups.

scrollaway 12y ago

Question: What places in Europe would someone recommend an ambitious EU techie with no ties to move to (and possibly settle)? I figure the country needs to have fairly good internet and a decent political climate at the very least.

dagw 12y ago
Berlin seems to be the most 'happening' place at the moment
- kriro 12y ago
  I've always wondered why the Ruhr Valley isn't marketed/established as a techhub of sorts. Well connected infrastructure means it's essentially one big city and there are a few universities with decent tech departments. Berlin makes sense but come on...Valley in the title already ;P
  - guard-of-terra 12y ago
    I can't name terribly many examples where rust belt turned new economy hub. They usually just fade :-/
    - tormeh 12y ago
      Rhine-Ruhr isn't rust-belt, though. It's the largest metro area in Germany, at 11.3 million, and is the EU's third-wealthiest metro area, after Greater London and Paris met.
  - _delirium 12y ago
    As far as reputation among foreigners, some of it might be that Berlin is probably the easiest place to live in Germany without speaking German (or without speaking good German). Though, from what I gather, still not that easy, e.g. tech companies will hire you without German skills, and there is a considerable multilingual social/cultural scene, but the "official" side of daily life (civil service, doctors, utilities, etc.) will be challenging without German.
  - BjoernKW 12y ago
    Because while it technically is one big city, politically and administratively it's rather 10 or so distinct cities, all competing with one another with no overarching strategy. Besides, politics in the area is very much still living in the past (to the extent it's largely driven by nostalgia rather than by what's reasonable), when mining, steel and big state-run companies dominated the economic landscape. Politics being run by largely anti-business socialists for decades now doesn't help exactly either. Corruption is rampant, there's no vision and in general people there don't seem to care as long as their favourite football club's still playing. It's a shame really. There's a lot of potential there that simply goes unused. [edit: grammar]
BSousa 12y ago
I'm Portuguese so maybe I'm biased, but seems Lisbon is becoming quite an attractive startup hub where the cost of living isn't too high (compared to London/Paris/etc) and you have nice weather, people, good quality of life and lots to do. If you are thinking of starting something and need investment, London is hard to beat, with Berlin coming up second.
Jacqued 12y ago
In the next few years I think Paris might become quite an interesting place. (disclaimer: I live there) It's already booming compared to a few years ago, it is seeing some significant successful startups (Criteo, Blaclacar...), and the ecosystem is clearly growing at an accelerated pace, with new companies, new spaces, new schools, new events appearing all over the place. In 2016-2017 a few really large incubators are to open. Like the one championed by Xavier Niel which will host 1000 startups in a gigantic railway warehouse converted to startup offices (I bet that neighborhood is going to feel that change!), or another one opened by the City that will host 300 startups. All in all I expect a frantic activity in the next few years. Now with so many startups (and hopefully a few great ones in the lot!) the scramble for financing is bound to be pretty harsh.
- scrollaway 12y ago
  I'm french, lived in Paris for a while. Paris is absurdly expensive, and the French govt is fairly bad at understanding worldwide collaboration and the needs of their businesses. I'm not sure France is a good country to be in right now.
  - Jacqued 12y ago
    Well, - I did not talk about the government, but I don't think it's that bad in France compared to most places in the world. Sure, some places like the Nordics seem to have pretty decent governments but at the end of the day in almost every country in the world the government is going to suck and you'll have to succeed despite them. - Paris is "expensive" but it's still a LOT cheaper than other comparables cities, eg. London. I won't even talk about NYC or Silicon Valley. - The ecosystem is blooming right now, and if it keeps up as I think it will, that means a tremendous number of opportunities for an ambitious person willing to start a business or work with startups. - Funding sucks. But then again it sucks everywhere on the planet apart from SV so that's that. At least people who have worked in France can live on pretty decent unemployment checks for up to two years while they bootstrap the business so that's helpful enough.
tormeh 12y ago
Scandinavia. Slightly less functional than Singapore, but they're actual democracies. Stockholm, perhaps?
- _delirium 12y ago
  Also my recommendation, especially for the language ease. If you speak English to at least a "working professional" level, it's very easy to live and work in the big cities. At least in Copenhagen, the tech-sector work culture is very English-centric, and most official things can be done bilingually (civil servants all speak English, most forms and websites are translated, etc.). Of course there is nothing wrong with learning more languages, but it can be a big issue to attempt to get work and residence in a language you don't really speak well. For example I would personally not try to get a job in Italy unless I first learned good Italian, while I think an Italian who speaks English would find Denmark fairly easy, without needing to learn Danish up front (I know this in part because I have several Italian colleagues).
  - scrollaway 12y ago
    I actually live in Stockholm right now and I like it a lot, but I'm not sure I'll stay here. Can you tell me more about your experience in Copenhagen?
    - _delirium 12y ago
      I like it, but really depends on what you're looking for. It is not a Big City in the sense that London, Paris, NYC, etc. are big cities. But it is a very nice, compact, medium-sized city. Small enough that you can easily bike everywhere, but large enough to have lots of cultural events, academic talks [1], places to go out, etc. I also like having a well-connected airport so nearby (15 minute metro ride from the city center). It has a fairly large international population as well. But I don't know Stockholm at all, so it's hard to compare. Alcohol is definitely cheaper and less regulated compared to Sweden! [1] http://www.cphtalks.org/ http://www.cphtalks.org/
Someone 12y ago
If you are into hardware/embedded, consider the Eindhoven regio (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainport_(Netherlands) http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainport_(Netherlands)) It hosts Philips, ASML, TomTom, Shapeways, NXP Semiconductors, DAF Trucks and quite a few other high tech startups.