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

#61

Post by rhplus » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 8:07 PM UTC

thong wrote: post #45

As someone who was recently in Ireland for an accelerator, and asked to stay by Enterprise Ireland, here are some of my thoughts: 1. Start-up Incubators - There are more in the US, that are on average, of higher quality. The incubator we went to was good, but still doesn't compare to YCombinator, TechStars or DreamIt in terms of mentorship and networks. 2. Talent - It's harder to find GOOD python and ruby developers…

It's harder to find GOOD python and ruby developers in Dublin than say New York or Boston

Can't you find great C++ or Java or C# developers and turn then into ruby/python developers though? My impression of the tech scene in the UK and Ireland is that a lot of highly skilled software engineers are either in the banking, industrial or games sectors. I'd expect CVs in the talent pool to skew towards those languages rather than web languages.

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

#62

Post by tomjen3 » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 8:33 PM UTC

swang wrote: post #52

Background: Spend most of my life in America, growing up mostly in So. California. Went to Dublin to work for 2 years between '06-'08. I came back right when the financial crisis hit in '08. Good things about Ireland. It is beautiful when it is not cloudy. The people here are very easy to talk to if you want to have a bit of a chat. If you want to go visit Europe, flights are cheap. Bad things Expensive, especially e…

What your banks don't close at 4pm? Every Danish bank that I know of does.

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

#63

Post by tomjen3 » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 8:36 PM UTC

SeoxyS wrote: post #42

These hyperbolic articles about places that are "the best place in the world for a startup" need to stop. For a creative and smart founder, any place in the world will be a fine spot to start up, and might even be better than silicon valley. But if you're going to make a generalization like that, then the bay area is the best place to be. Any article arguing otherwise is doing so purely for the sake of defying conven…

Depends on the kind of startup. A tech startup has certain advantages in people, funding and connections, but a tech startup doing software for oil-exploration, say, might be better located in Alaska.

And I would love to see the best start-up founder try his hand in Sudan, Russia or North Korea.

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

#64

Post by Aloisius » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 8:41 PM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #62

swang wrote: post #52

Background: Spend most of my life in America, growing up mostly in So. California. Went to Dublin to work for 2 years between '06-'08. I came back right when the financial crisis hit in '08. Good things about Ireland. It is beautiful when it is not cloudy. The people here are very easy to talk to if you want to have a bit of a chat. If you want to go visit Europe, flights are cheap. Bad things Expensive, especially e…

What your banks don't close at 4pm? Every Danish bank that I know of does.

In California, bank locations are often open 9am-6pm M-F. Many are open 9-4pm on Saturday as well.

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

#65

Post by serverhorror » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 9:11 PM UTC

alain94040 wrote: post #35

kiloaper wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

The problem is that in the context of startups, you are competing with Silicon Valley, which also has no snowfall, no serious heat waves, and 80% sunny vs. 80% rainy.

So that means Silicon Valley has the 3 most fearful enemies: fresh air, sunshine and the unbearable roaring of birds? -- Thanks, I'll go with the 80% rain :)

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

#66

Post by rickyconnolly » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 9:36 PM UTC

swang wrote: post #52

Background: Spend most of my life in America, growing up mostly in So. California. Went to Dublin to work for 2 years between '06-'08. I came back right when the financial crisis hit in '08. Good things about Ireland. It is beautiful when it is not cloudy. The people here are very easy to talk to if you want to have a bit of a chat. If you want to go visit Europe, flights are cheap. Bad things Expensive, especially e…

"There isn't much to do besides drink. Food is terrible. I heard it's gotten better but if you've lived in SF or LA and you love food, don't work in Ireland. There were a nice row of Chinese places on Parnell that were pretty good though."

I'd like to dispute this, there are some excellent fine restaurants in Dublin. They may be harder to find against the high background noise of fast food joints, but the same is true for all north American cities too.

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

#67

Post by ricardobeat » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 10:02 PM UTC

May be perfect for the Irish. It's no easier to get a work visa there vs the USA.

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

#68

Post by pbiggar » Sat, Mar 17, 2012, 4:28 AM UTC

michaelpinto wrote: post #43

What I've learned from the valley is that there are three tests: 1. Do you embrace failure and those who fail? And are there local investors who think this way? 2. Can nerds bump into each other in a random manner in a central location on a regular basis? 3. Are nerds willing to travel there? So is a nerd from Scotland or Turkey thinking "I have to get to Ireland" I'm not sure that Ireland has those three things yet.…

As someone who left Dublin for SF recently:

1. Actually, Ireland isn't too bad for this. You're much much more likely to head "at least you tried" than anything else.

2. No. The tech community is tiny, though so is Dublin. But no, there are few meetups, and they're poorly attended. A well attended meetup might be 30 people, but that's rare. There are more conferences starting, and some cool ones too, like FunConf and the Dublin Web Summit, which can hold their own with the sort of thing you get in SV. But they are rare - there might be 5 worth going to a year.

3. Yes. There is a bit of a migration to Ireland for tech. That said, nerd are more likely to go to Berlin or London, and probably even Paris. So, maybe.

I don't know the NY tech scene, but I would estimate the Irish tech scene to be maybe 1% of the size of what I see in the valley.

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

#69

Post by pbiggar » Sat, Mar 17, 2012, 4:31 AM UTC

ricardobeat wrote: post #67

May be perfect for the Irish. It's no easier to get a work visa there vs the USA.

If you raise enough money to hire Irish people in Ireland, they will give you a visa, guaranteed. Talk to Enterprise Ireland.

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

#70

Post by pbiggar » Sat, Mar 17, 2012, 4:38 AM UTC

I don't want to be down on Ireland, but it is not a great place to do a startup, though it is a great place and I miss it. I left Ireland to move to SF for the tech scene.

The tech scene there is tiny, and is completely dwarfed by Silicon Valley. That's changing sure, but it has a long long long way to go before it could be considered "the best place in the world".

It does have cheap talent going for it. But it has basically zero VC (look at where Irish companies go to raise, it's not Ireland).

I would say, at best, Ireland can now be considered a "not bad" place to do a startup, but suggesting its the best is lunacy, it's not even the best in Europe (hint: probably Berlin).