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Croatia could be Europe's hidden tech haven in 2024

fastcompany.com

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Re: Croatia could be Europe's hidden tech haven in 2024

#11

Post by rightbyte »

boomskats wrote: post #7

As someone who has built and sold an original software startup in Serbia, and has followed the evolution of the local tech scene in the Balkans over the last decade pretty closely, the one thing the region absolutely needs more of is this kind of positive press. While there's been a fair bit written about the growth of the "IT Sector"[0] there, for the longest time that sector was mostly made up of outsourcers and bo…

> I've started to notice an increasing number of individuals at the top end of the talent spectrum

Ye well they have to always have been there? Like, the "top talent" of Silicon Valley and their wages feels more like a medieval kind of guild, rather than actual top talent. With different arbitrary opaque admission ceremonies.

I really don't understand why SWE wages are not flatter nationally in the US and also world wide.

Outside of hardware SWEs who need to be there, who ironically have lower wages, there is no way that it is cost effective to pay for "top talent".

I've always wondered if these WFH proponents (I am one ...) know what they are asking for. They are killing the magic.

Re: Croatia could be Europe's hidden tech haven in 2024

#12

Post by davidw »

foobarian wrote: post #3

It's like California but with Roman emperor's palaces and Habsburg vacation homes strewn around the shoreline. Happy to see this trend and hope it continues.

We went to Pula on vacation years ago and it really is a fascinating mix of a bunch of different things. There's a large Roman arena, the city center looks like it could be anywhere in northern Italy that was under Venice, there are Hapsburg buildings and then construction from the communist part of their history... it's really an impressive mix.

Re: Croatia could be Europe's hidden tech haven in 2024

#13

Post by alephnerd »

mrazomor wrote: post #9

The article doesn't touch upon some major pain points. While the sea side is nice, it heavily relies on tourism and short term rentals. A long term rental is difficult to find during the summer time and it's not well regulated. The capital (Zagreb) is overcrowded and its infrastructure is getting worse every year. I spent many years there. Now, I can't imagine living there again (judging by my occasional 1-2 day long…

FastCompany is mostly paid articles. Croatia is cool, but I get the same RoI in Serbia, let alone in more established Romania, Poland, and Ukraine

Re: Croatia could be Europe's hidden tech haven in 2024

#14

Post by avtolik »

The whole Balkans are doing better and better in tech. Bulgaria and Romania have good startup scene and unicorns, Serbia seems to be doing good, Greece is catching up nicely. The brain drain mentioned in the comments is a problem of course, but at least in tech is not so big, even reversing.

Re: Croatia could be Europe's hidden tech haven in 2024

#15

Post by jacquesm »

boomskats wrote: post #7

As someone who has built and sold an original software startup in Serbia, and has followed the evolution of the local tech scene in the Balkans over the last decade pretty closely, the one thing the region absolutely needs more of is this kind of positive press. While there's been a fair bit written about the growth of the "IT Sector"[0] there, for the longest time that sector was mostly made up of outsourcers and bo…

Sure! But what you don't need is a band of locust like tech bros that play 'digital nomad', don't pay taxes and high tail it to the next hot spot as soon as they are bored (which usually doesn't take all that long). You don't build stability that way.

Re: Croatia could be Europe's hidden tech haven in 2024

#16

Post by jacquesm »

lstodd wrote: post #6
desireco42 wrote: post #4

Kudos to Croatia's tourism board or whoever ordered this article. It is nice place for digital nomads for sure. Belgrade is much bigger hub for example (Serbia) and more of Ukrainians and Russians moved there to work, but overall this creates positive climate for Balkans as a whole... Not sure what is happening in Bosnia for example.

Nothing much in Bosnia, it's all either Serbia or Montenegro. Croatia is Schengen, so it's much more difficult to get there, and once you're in, there are better destinations.

You mean it is much easier to get there.

Re: Croatia could be Europe's hidden tech haven in 2024

#17

Post by jacquesm »

audunw wrote: post #10
46d24 wrote: post #5

Europe is going to have a long hibernation in the global scene. Whatever existed was killed by bureaucracy and taxation. Whatever doesn't exist, it will simply not happen, the ship has sailed

What do you base this opinion on? Northern European countries consistently rank at the top of the world in ease of doing business https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ease_of_doing_business_index Some of them have more entrepreneurs per capita than USA. What you don’t have is the ability to attract a crazy amount of international capital to mega corporations like in California/Texas or some places in China. So it’s hard t…

Any article that mentions Europe either directly or in passing will attract at least a couple of comments that mention 'regulation' and how everything is going down the drain here. It's all bs but that doesn't seem to stop the influx of these comments, in this case from a brave novelty account no less.

Re: Croatia could be Europe's hidden tech haven in 2024

#18

Post by brnt »

46d24 wrote: post #5

Europe is going to have a long hibernation in the global scene. Whatever existed was killed by bureaucracy and taxation. Whatever doesn't exist, it will simply not happen, the ship has sailed

Don't know mate, seems to me Europe controls a, maybe the, major component of tech through ASML. If they decide you can't buy their machines anymore, then good luck with your home grown chips on 10+ year old lithography.

Re: Croatia could be Europe's hidden tech haven in 2024

#19

Post by lstodd »

jacquesm wrote: post #16
lstodd wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing much in Bosnia, it's all either Serbia or Montenegro. Croatia is Schengen, so it's much more difficult to get there, and once you're in, there are better destinations.

You mean it is much easier to get there.

I mean it's much easier to get into Serbia, Montenegro or Bosnia than into Schengen == Croatia, Slovenia.

But Serbia has people, and Montenegro has sea, while Bosnia has neither. So nothing much happens in Bosnia compared to other two. (edit: although it's somewhat cheaper and mountains are gorgeous)

Re: Croatia could be Europe's hidden tech haven in 2024

#20

Post by jacquesm »

lstodd wrote: post #19
jacquesm wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean it is much easier to get there.

I mean it's much easier to get into Serbia, Montenegro or Bosnia than into Schengen == Croatia, Slovenia. But Serbia has people, and Montenegro has sea, while Bosnia has neither. So nothing much happens in Bosnia compared to other two. (edit: although it's somewhat cheaper and mountains are gorgeous)

That is relative to where you yourself are from.
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