Why Ireland is the best place in the world for a start-up • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Ireland is the best place in the world for a start-up

#21

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 3:05 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #18

philjr wrote: post #4

I'd definitely question the talented labour available for work. There's nothing like the talent in SF and we're currently saturated with Google/Facebook/Amazon/LinkedIn/Zynga sucking up a significant chunk of the best talent here and also bringing people from the UK and mainland Europe. This would be a significant challenge for anyone looking to push the bleeding edge of technology. There aren't many brilliant young…

There's nothing like the talent in SF There is. Seriously. Travel outside of the west coast of the US a little- there are a ton of great developers that are either unwilling or unable (e.g. visas) to relocate to SF. And you sort of disprove your own point- there are no engineers available in SF because the big companies have hired them all. So surely that means that areas outside of SF have more engineers available,…

[deleted]

Re: Why Ireland is the best place in the world for a start-up

#22

Post by dkersten » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 3:06 PM UTC

hopeless wrote: post #17

Peroni wrote: post #14

From a business perspective, everything the author says makes sense. From a human perspective, as someone who was born & raised in Ireland and subsequently left the country 6 years ago at the age of 24 I can promise you, Ireland is far from a vibrant, positive place to live. Every single element of the media is drowned in the desperation of the economic crisis, the cost of living is exorbitant and the weather is trul…

You can mostly ignore the media if you're in the tech industry because there's basically two economies here: one is fecked and the other is the tech industry, with tons of open positions. Re. the weather: yeah, it rains. And when it doesn't rain it's often cloudy. And sometimes it's inbetween (a "soft" day). But then the hills, fields and mountains look fantastic (unlike, say much of the UK) because it isn't being bu…

there's basically two economies here: one is fecked and the other is the tech industry, with tons of open positions.

So true! Its a great time to be in tech here right now and a terrible time to be in anything else.

Re: Why Ireland is the best place in the world for a start-up

#23

Post by forgotAgain » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 3:10 PM UTC

Peroni wrote: post #14

From a business perspective, everything the author says makes sense. From a human perspective, as someone who was born & raised in Ireland and subsequently left the country 6 years ago at the age of 24 I can promise you, Ireland is far from a vibrant, positive place to live. Every single element of the media is drowned in the desperation of the economic crisis, the cost of living is exorbitant and the weather is trul…

Every single element of the media is drowned in the desperation of the economic crisis, the cost of living is exorbitant and the weather is truly depressing.

I see your "media desperation" and raise you 11 years of war and government stoked fears of terrorism.

I'm part of the Irish Diaspora, two generations removed. The Emerald Isle has been calling to me lately.

Re: Why Ireland is the best place in the world for a start-up

#24

Post by arethuza » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 3:15 PM UTC

hopeless wrote: post #17

Peroni wrote: post #14

From a business perspective, everything the author says makes sense. From a human perspective, as someone who was born & raised in Ireland and subsequently left the country 6 years ago at the age of 24 I can promise you, Ireland is far from a vibrant, positive place to live. Every single element of the media is drowned in the desperation of the economic crisis, the cost of living is exorbitant and the weather is trul…

You can mostly ignore the media if you're in the tech industry because there's basically two economies here: one is fecked and the other is the tech industry, with tons of open positions. Re. the weather: yeah, it rains. And when it doesn't rain it's often cloudy. And sometimes it's inbetween (a "soft" day). But then the hills, fields and mountains look fantastic (unlike, say much of the UK) because it isn't being bu…

"it rains"

Not that much - according to Wikipedia Dublin gets about 695mm of rain a year, from a Scottish perspective that's practically a desert ;-)

Re: Why Ireland is the best place in the world for a start-up

#25

Post by wtvanhest » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 3:18 PM UTC

I'm sure Ireland is a great place for start-ups, but doesn't seem likely to be the best place on earth.

Start-up incubators - Every major city in the US has them, most of them are terrible. The things that I believe make an incubator good are mainly the talented people willing to spend their time with entrepreneurs and the connections which help close future rounds. Simply having incubators isn't a reason to call Ireland a great place to start a startup.

Talented labour available for work - Every major city in the US has labor available. Not paying for an education does not make someone more qualified. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/22/countries-with-the-...

According to this article, only 32.2% of Irish citizens are college educated, compared with over 40% in the US and 44% of SF residents http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco

Access to successful entrepreneurs - Ireland may be small, but so is the Valley and so is Boston, and so is DC etc. As long as you start meeting the right people and are smart and have a good idea, doors open. It may be true that the Irish community helps you, but I don't think this makes this "the best place in the world to start a start-up"

State run organizations dedicated to helping your business - In almost every case state run organizations do not help your business.

Community of likeminded individuals - These communities exist in every city in the US. Start-up communities are full of likeminded individuals.

EDIT: The guy that wrote the post seems to have a good idea for a start-up. There is definitely demand from mid size business in that are.

Re: Why Ireland is the best place in the world for a start-up

#26

Post by hopeless » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 3:25 PM UTC

arethuza wrote: post #24

hopeless wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can mostly ignore the media if you're in the tech industry because there's basically two economies here: one is fecked and the other is the tech industry, with tons of open positions. Re. the weather: yeah, it rains. And when it doesn't rain it's often cloudy. And sometimes it's inbetween (a "soft" day). But then the hills, fields and mountains look fantastic (unlike, say much of the UK) because it isn't being bu…

"it rains" Not that much - according to Wikipedia Dublin gets about 695mm of rain a year, from a Scottish perspective that's practically a desert ;-)

yes, Scotland is definitely wetter though the rainfall in most of Ireland is much more like 750-1250mm [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Ireland#Rainfall]

And in general terms, Ireland has less extreme weather than the England: it's typically warmer and with less ice/snow in the winter but not as hot in the summer.

Re: Why Ireland is the best place in the world for a start-up

#27

Post by stylishgnome » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 3:37 PM UTC

arethuza wrote: post #24

hopeless wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can mostly ignore the media if you're in the tech industry because there's basically two economies here: one is fecked and the other is the tech industry, with tons of open positions. Re. the weather: yeah, it rains. And when it doesn't rain it's often cloudy. And sometimes it's inbetween (a "soft" day). But then the hills, fields and mountains look fantastic (unlike, say much of the UK) because it isn't being bu…

"it rains" Not that much - according to Wikipedia Dublin gets about 695mm of rain a year, from a Scottish perspective that's practically a desert ;-)

The east coast is pretty dry in contrast to the rest of the country. Galway, for instance, gets 1156mm of rain per year.

Re: Why Ireland is the best place in the world for a start-up

#28

Post by kitsune_ » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 3:46 PM UTC

Mumbai, Shanghai, Seoul all sound more exciting. In that I mean that maybe it's time to shift our focus to other places.

Re: Why Ireland is the best place in the world for a start-up

#29

Post by amcintyre » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 3:48 PM UTC

ilcavero wrote: post #12

philjr wrote: post #4

I'd definitely question the talented labour available for work. There's nothing like the talent in SF and we're currently saturated with Google/Facebook/Amazon/LinkedIn/Zynga sucking up a significant chunk of the best talent here and also bringing people from the UK and mainland Europe. This would be a significant challenge for anyone looking to push the bleeding edge of technology. There aren't many brilliant young…

I can tell you that my employers are having such difficulties hiring good engineers here in Dublin that they are opening another shop on east Europe. Might be matter of €€€, I don't know, but the pool of both companies and candidates is quite small here.

I've wondered how difficult the hiring needs to be before companies will consider hiring good engineers to work remotely. So much of the dev work I've done over the years could have been coordinated/overseen from the other side of the world via email/chat/Skype just as well as it was through the (many) useless meetings we had in person.

Re: Why Ireland is the best place in the world for a start-up

#30

Post by kiloaper » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 3:56 PM UTC

Peroni wrote: post #14

From a business perspective, everything the author says makes sense. From a human perspective, as someone who was born & raised in Ireland and subsequently left the country 6 years ago at the age of 24 I can promise you, Ireland is far from a vibrant, positive place to live. Every single element of the media is drowned in the desperation of the economic crisis, the cost of living is exorbitant and the weather is trul…

>the weather is truly depressing.

It's not that bad in my opinion. We have a mild climate. Looking on the bright side we don't get heavy snowfall or droughts or heat waves. Personally I like the lack of extremes.