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Berlin is now in a position to usurp London as the startup capital of Europe

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Re: Berlin is now in a position to usurp London as the startup capital of Europe

#101
post #51
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of that is mobile games companies like Supercell with Clash of the Clans - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercell_(video_game_company) ... Hay Day, Angry Birds and others. Basically out of the ashes of Nokia, a bunch of mobile gaming companies has sprung up and to some extent are dominating the industry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_game_companies_... - more at https://techcrunch.com/2016/02/10…

It is not just a nokia thing. Also from Nordic countries: 1. Linux 2. Irc 3. Demoscene 4. DICE

And SSH, MySQL.

Re: Berlin is now in a position to usurp London as the startup capital of Europe

#103
post #75
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is that like being the soccer capital of America? Like Brazil? Yes, it is.

There are about 7 big reasons not to brag about it.

You mean the other reasons why Germany is interesting for competitive people?

Re: Berlin is now in a position to usurp London as the startup capital of Europe

#104
post #87
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not just a nokia thing. Also from Nordic countries: 1. Linux 2. Irc 3. Demoscene 4. DICE

5. Git Jumping on the bandwagon

Linus was already in the US when it created GIT, so I don't think it should count

Re: Berlin is now in a position to usurp London as the startup capital of Europe

#105

Was London at any point the startup capital of Europe? Maybe it was the banking capital of Europe, but that time is over now.

Also curious about that. A few years ago (maybe 2011) another article also stated that Berlin now (=2011) wins against London as the new startup capital. As a Berliner one remembers that.

Re: Berlin is now in a position to usurp London as the startup capital of Europe

#106
post #84
post #65

Europe never had a proper startup capital, or more accurately never did well at startups in general. It's not unlikely that there will just be less investment, nobody has to win. Given the very small numbers, every European country [1] has a lot of potential to multiply their startup output. I doubt any trade deals or policy changes are going to bring it about. Not happening without major cultural change IMO. One mig…

I kinda agree with a 'cultural' factor - Europeans are often more risk-averse than Americans or Israeli's, and starting a startup is definitely risky! I'm not sure how the Nordic countries get around that though. A stronger social safety net is probably negatively correlated with risk-aversion.

I think you mean more risk-averse?

Re: Berlin is now in a position to usurp London as the startup capital of Europe

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Immigration system for skilled workers is not going to change. If the UK actually does leave the EU, they'll replace EU rules of skilled immigration with something similar. The UK is a knowledge economy, it will always be open to skilled immigrants. Yet people actually believe that the UK will close down all immigration. It's absurd.

> If the UK actually does leave the EU, they'll replace EU rules of skilled immigration with something similar. Do you understand how EU freedom of movement works? As an EU citizen I can get on a plane tomorrow, and go to any other EU country, and work there. Skills or no skills. And if I'm not happy with my job there I can quit and get another without fear of being deported. And so on... A points-based system would…

it's actually 'freedom of movement for workers': if you lose your job and can't get another, and don't have the ability to support yourself independently then the host country is within its rights to deport you

Re: Berlin is now in a position to usurp London as the startup capital of Europe

#108
post #18

I have been in Berlin for 8 years and would not change it for London at all. In data science at least there's far more action here. More interesting technologies (Flink), people taking more technological risk and reaping the benefits.

How much German do you need to speak in the Berlin startup community?

ZERO

But do learn German for everyday needs.

Also you might be in a meetup and some presentations might happen in German

Re: Berlin is now in a position to usurp London as the startup capital of Europe

#109
post #19

In the meantime while Nordics are home to just 3% of Europe’s population, it has created more than 50% of Europe’s Billion Dollar exits since 2005. If there is startup capital in Europe, it's Stockholm. https://medium.com/creandum-family/the-nordics-in-context-th...

Stockholm has severe housing problem. It is impossible to get long term contracts which means you have to move somewhere else every six months approximately. Living expenses are too high comparing to low salaries. Only a few companies in Stockholm pay higher than 40k swedish krona. (that means 25k after tax. 25k -> 2.6k euros). If you are not a native here, you can only get a flat through black market. Eventually, you pay around 8k-12k sek for a single bedroom with 30 mins commute. Tough winter is also another case.

Denmark has better chance for being the capital of startups in Europe. Higher pay and no rent problem. Stockholm obviously is not going to scale.

If you are planning to move EU, I would definitely suggest Berlin. You can make 55k-70k euros easily. Cheap rent and food. Nothing to say about its nightlife. (best in EU)

Re: Berlin is now in a position to usurp London as the startup capital of Europe

#110
post #70

Shouldn't we hope that something does? By all accounts, the house price situation in London has become bad enough that it's wiping out the middle class, which is very bad news; the rise of the middle class was a key factor in enabling the transition from feudal society to modern civilization. But while I'm here, I'll throw in a shameless plug: Dublin is still in the EU, and is an English-speaking capital city with mo…

> a pleasant climate I've heard that washing your car in Ireland is a non-issue; the climate takes care of that.

The regularity and amount of rainfall in Ireland is greatly exaggerated. The west of the country certainly is a good deal wetter than the east, facing the Atlantic. This list ranks Ireland 80th in terms of rainfall, below Switzerland the UK, Japan, and New Zealand.

http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Geography/Ave...

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