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I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

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Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#181

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

clement_b wrote: post #176
goldcd wrote: post #18

I work for a company head-quartered in one continent, listed on another and I work in a third (the UK) - and sales are based all over. Not for one moment saying there aren't local issues/idiosyncrasies - but I'm unsure how moving your company solves them, and article seems to overlook all manner of problems: Aren't you going to lose staff when you move? Is everybody going to have to get up really early to talk to Eur…

Completely agree. The grass is always greener, and moving to NYC will not come without challenges. However, post-Brexit UK is problematic on the skilled worker front for startups. Before, many European tech workers converged to London to work in startups (or ended up there). This seems to be happening much less now due to multiple reasons [0]. Overall, I think Brexit removed one of the main benefits of being based in…

Amsterdam will take the cream of the US based tech companies, Ireland will continue to be the ops centre for EMEA and Spain will continue to get most of the contractors.

Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#182

Post by carnitine »

habosa wrote: post #179

Clearly America is the place to be if you want to make billions in tech. The bigger question is why every single company needs to target billions of dollars. You can still build a very successful company in London and get quite wealthy, you just might not get your own private space program. Meanwhile in London your workers will have free healthcare, their kids will have free higher education, etc. He's totally right…

Higher education in England is definitely not free. I imagine most well-funded startup employees have good healthcare plans in the US too.

Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#183

Post by aretaic »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #181
clement_b wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree. The grass is always greener, and moving to NYC will not come without challenges. However, post-Brexit UK is problematic on the skilled worker front for startups. Before, many European tech workers converged to London to work in startups (or ended up there). This seems to be happening much less now due to multiple reasons [0]. Overall, I think Brexit removed one of the main benefits of being based in…

Amsterdam will take the cream of the US based tech companies, Ireland will continue to be the ops centre for EMEA and Spain will continue to get most of the contractors.

Why do you think this, genuinely curious?

Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#184

Post by jwdunne »

fmajid wrote: post #65
iso1210 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What it doesn't do well is spaff money indiscriminately at any old idiot with an idea. That's what government's for

No, the UK government requires you to have no clue (but be chums with a minister or Tory MP) before it spaffs torrents of money your way.

But once you have that, anything is possible e.g a lucrative ferry contract despite owning not a single boat.

Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#185

Post by vidarh »

KaiserPro wrote: post #27
goldcd wrote: post #18

I work for a company head-quartered in one continent, listed on another and I work in a third (the UK) - and sales are based all over. Not for one moment saying there aren't local issues/idiosyncrasies - but I'm unsure how moving your company solves them, and article seems to overlook all manner of problems: Aren't you going to lose staff when you move? Is everybody going to have to get up really early to talk to Eur…

Well precisely Moving to NYC/silicon valley is going to mean fishing in a very over fished pool. There is a reason why "meta", Google and amazon are expanding engineering over here and the wider EU: lots of (comparably) cheap talented labour. Even if you don't loose staff, operating an engineering team over large distances is a challenge unless you know what your doing. Given that he's blaming the engineers for conce…

Facebook recruiting in London feel about as desperate to fill their pipeline as Google did ten years ago these days.

London has many great qualities, but tech hiring here is also really challenging.

Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#186

Post by KaiserPro »

barry-cotter wrote: post #113
KaiserPro wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

London does sales well, if you want a sales office you open it in london. What it doesn't do well is spaff money indiscriminately at any old idiot with an idea. Even less so to someone with a crap idea. Despite the article author's claim, most of the startups in the generation that I joined (2018+) have focused on getting a decent business model, rather than hyper growth above all else. They also had to do much more…

>Despite the article author's claim, most of the startups in the generation that I joined (2018+) have focused on getting a decent business model, rather than hyper growth above all else. > They also had to do much more with significantly less. There was less VC money sloshing about compared to the west coast, so we had to be very careful in how we optimised. With supporters like this the UK is in no need of enemies.…

I mean how stupid, trying to make some money. What kind of n00b tries to pay their own way?

How terribly blinkered we were to not waste runway on hyper growth knowing that there wasn't money to support it?

We are all so terribly stupid.

Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#187

Post by KaiserPro »

Angostura wrote: post #107
iso1210 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What it doesn't do well is spaff money indiscriminately at any old idiot with an idea. That's what government's for

Well that and all that boring but important infrastructure that means you have the pleasure of living in a viable society, rather than a hellscape.

Easy now, I think they'd rather be called Florida

Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#188

Post by te_chris »

f6v wrote: post #158
stayfrosty420 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought this was because lots of Brazilians are eligible for Portuguese passports

Many come straight to Germany or other more rich EU countries.

If you've got a European passport then you can go anywhere in the EU.

Re: I’m leaving London for NYC and taking my tech startup

#189

Post by halgir »

raffraffraff wrote: post #171
solatic wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's more of a gambler's approach. Wrong. The cultural difference comes from differing appetites for risk. VC's aren't gambling on their portfolio companies, they expect each and every one of them to turn into rocket ships. If there's no potential to become a rocketship, they don't invest, simple as that. Stupid ideas don't get investment. That VCs understand that it is highly unlikely that each portfolio company w…

I can't say I agree with either of you 100%. For example, your statement that VCs expect each and every one of their investments to turn into rocket ships? Nah. If they don't know that a % of their portfolio will fail, then they're idiots. Also, FOMO. Any time there's a new hot technology, VCs soil themselves trying to get a piece of the action (AI, I'm looking at you). So they end up investing in start-ups that prob…

> If they don't know that a % of their portfolio will fail, then they're idiots.

Yes, but they don't know which ones. What the commenter meant is that the VC believes each and every one of their investments has the potential to become a rocketship. So they spread the risk into several potential rocketships and hope for one of them to not crash.

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