That's got to be why one UK VC after another is closing their doors.
How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital
51–60 of 374 posts
Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital
#52A different perspective: https://x.com/aakashgupta/status/2016375397131420005 TL;DR: What London actually built is Europe’s most efficient farm system for US acquirers. The city does the expensive, risky work of finding founders, funding early rounds, and proving product-market fit. American companies wait until the risk is de-risked, then buy the winners at discounts enabled by London’s shrinking public markets.
I don't know Aakash Gupta so I can't say if he's lying or just didn't do his research, but I know the IPO figures he cited there are wrong, like very wrong, which puts everything else there in doubt.
Not to mention location of IPO not being all that important. But that's a whole separate thing.
Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital
#53I wonder who are these people willing to work in London and transfer 60% of their net income directly to landlord. Maybe money doesn't matter because most of the time they spend in work and commuting?
The math works out for almost every HCOL area. Your salary is higher. Rent is high too but people either choose to live further away or accept a smaller apartment/condo. London has a big commuting radius with strong regional transit (as maligned as it is).
> London has a big commuting radius with strong regional transit (as maligned as it is).
yes, you can quite easily live 50 miles out and be at your desk in under an hour
Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital
#54Bruder, komm nach Berlin or frère, allez à Paris
I arrive in 2026. Decide to start a startup. By the year 2038, the state mandated reader of legal documents has finished reading out aloud to me and my co-founder. Now we find a VC. His documents need to be read to us both. But the Y2K38 problem strikes. He thinks we are in the year 1970. He needs to read us the "ancient company addendum". While he's reading he chokes and keels over, dead from the emissions from his…
This was crafted with a subtlety that captures the continental combination of infrastructural petrification and untethered pride perfectly. Wonderful
Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital
#55Smells like marketing stuff.. there are plenty of other places that i think are better.
It's not based on marketing, it appears to be based on metrics like amount of venture capital raised.
It should be based on the number of successes relative to the amount raised or ROI and that picture is quite different. In that sense London is way behind SV.
Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not based on marketing, it appears to be based on metrics like amount of venture capital raised.
Having a London domicile often leads to an overstating in venture capital raised for the UK ecosystem. For example, I've funded Polish and Indian startups that chose the UK as their legal domicile because we couldn't be bothered to hire a legal team to draft a contract to Polish or Indian specifications. Builder.ai [0] is a great example of that - it was an Indian startup that was domiciled in London to simplify rais…
Startups like Builder AI use London because a.) they want to raise money from filthy rich Arab investors and b.) those guys are not known for doing much due diligence. They go more by vibes and hype and who's on the existing cap table. Also c.) they are very comfortable with London because it was so much easier back in the day to launder or siphon away funds from their home countries. London is an extremely popular destination for Gulf Arabs.
You'll get a lot of shady startups of that kind in London for this reason.
Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
The math works out for almost every HCOL area. Your salary is higher. Rent is high too but people either choose to live further away or accept a smaller apartment/condo. London has a big commuting radius with strong regional transit (as maligned as it is).
There goes another 15% of your net income on train tickets. Eating out every time (because have no time for proper value shopping) and you are basically working in exchange of food, housing, and commute.
it wasn't even close to 15% of my net income when I was 25
and it certainly isn't now that I'm quite a bit older, and I earn a multiple of what I did then
Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital
#58Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
The math works out for almost every HCOL area. Your salary is higher. Rent is high too but people either choose to live further away or accept a smaller apartment/condo. London has a big commuting radius with strong regional transit (as maligned as it is).
There goes another 15% of your net income on train tickets. Eating out every time (because have no time for proper value shopping) and you are basically working in exchange of food, housing, and commute.
As long as you live within Greater London and can use TFL, it's more like 5%
Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital
#60I am completely biased but I think London is one of the best places to live in the world, everything considered. There's a guy on Instagram who spins a wheel for a random country and goes to eat that cuisine somewhere in London. There are maybe 1 or 2 places in the world you can do that. It's an incredible feat of human diversity to pack hundreds of global cuisines into a 10 mile radius.
Back when I ran the Shenzhen Gastronomic Society I did most of the alphabet in Bangkok one trip, beginning with Afghan. I'd wager it's better food than London on average, purely based on freshness and tropical inputs. I think if you were to pick the best city on earth for food it would have to have resident international populations, a tropical climate, and at least enclaves of wealth with a relatively free visa policy. Bangkok fits the bill. For variety I much prefer it to Singapore, KL, HK, Jakarta, Taipei, etc. Best for drinks has to be HCMC. Paris and New York are up there too, but you have to be 0.1% to enjoy them exhaustively. I spent 10 years designing food robots mostly because so much damn awesome food is ~unavailable outside its origin. Now raising for GTM/growth: https://infinite-food.com