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How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

economist.com

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Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#71

Post by sjtgraham »

killingtime74 wrote: post #64
walthamstow wrote: post #26

I 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.

Where else have you lived though? The cost of living is high, healthcare is problematic, crowded, bad weather, low economic growth prospects. It's not even top 10 on most lists. Europe, Australia has way better cities. Example Sydney, life expectancy is at least 5 years more. The poverty rate in London, 26%, is double of Sydney at 13%. E.g. https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2025/06/18/the... https://en.wi…

It was one of the best places to live in up until about 10 years ago.

Places I have lived in: London, Santiago, Rio de Janeiro, Miami, New York, San Francisco.

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#72

Post by dukeyukey »

jacquesm wrote: post #55
kaashif wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The article doesn't dispute that London is way behind SV. What it's saying is that for non-US funding, London dominates.

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#73

Post by bandris »

walthamstow wrote: post #26

I 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.

True. Generally whatever niche interest people have, they usually can find it in London. As a fellow passenger old lady once put it on the tube: "London might not be the prettiest but certainly the most interesting city".

Though personally I find it pretty enough.

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#74

Post by notepad0x90 »

The big disadvantage is wages, and how everything is so...formal and bureaucratic, for lack of better terms.

For example, I couldn't even hope to get employment in tech in the UK or Europe without a degree. Work hours and wages too, less pay given the tradeoffs makes sense, but getting paid more than others for the same role is a big problem, even if you have more skill/talent/experience. Or simply working long hours on salaried jobs, with the understanding that when the spring or whatever hacking cycle is over, you can take it easier, that's hard because of the formalities, laws,etc...

Perhaps the term I'm looking for is "inflexible"?

On the other hand, the reason all of that is not a problem here in the US is "bottom-line oriented" thinking, and that ultimately leads to everything getting enshittified.

It feels like the UK and EU think they're happy with where their society is at, and they mostly want to keep things afloat? The type of thinking that goes with startups involves risk taking and experimentation outside of zones of comfort, or even outright laws sometimes.

Would all these AI companies get away with scraping the internet if they were based in the UK or EU? I'm not saying they should, I'm saying look at the big picture results vs near-term stability and comforts.

If I were British or European, I would want local and/or regional wages to be high, trade surpluses to make sense, foreign dependency to be minimal, military to be strong, so that social welfare subsidies, and all the nice pro-human laws won't require so much sacrifice. The US had been (no longer) in that position, but our deep political divisions and prevalent sub-cultures of cruelty prevented us from going that extra step and having the best of both worlds for everyone.

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#75

Post by jacquesm »

dukeyukey wrote: post #72
jacquesm wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The article doesn't dispute that London is way behind SV. What it's saying is that for non-US funding, London dominates.

But it isn't true. For the rest of the world SV is still the place to go to, one way or another. The difference is just too big. What you could say is that London is the place to try to raise money if you can't raise in SV. But you'll have to realize that your chances of success are dramatically lower that way to the point that you're going to end up a with a small fraction of the stock yourself after the inevitable dilution through follow up rounds because you couldn't raise a large enough round to begin.

VC in London is harsh, both for the start-ups and for the VCs. What does happen is that a company manages to stay alive long enough to raise a secondary round in the USA, but then you can't really make the original claim in the TFA.

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#76

Post by [deleted] »

killingtime74 wrote: post #64
walthamstow wrote: post #26

I 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.

Where else have you lived though? The cost of living is high, healthcare is problematic, crowded, bad weather, low economic growth prospects. It's not even top 10 on most lists. Europe, Australia has way better cities. Example Sydney, life expectancy is at least 5 years more. The poverty rate in London, 26%, is double of Sydney at 13%. E.g. https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2025/06/18/the... https://en.wi…

[deleted]

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#77

Post by bandris »

killingtime74 wrote: post #64
walthamstow wrote: post #26

I 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.

Where else have you lived though? The cost of living is high, healthcare is problematic, crowded, bad weather, low economic growth prospects. It's not even top 10 on most lists. Europe, Australia has way better cities. Example Sydney, life expectancy is at least 5 years more. The poverty rate in London, 26%, is double of Sydney at 13%. E.g. https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2025/06/18/the... https://en.wi…

London has a special microclimate and pleasant weather all year around. No extremes and less rain than other parts of the country.

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#78

Post by dukeyukey »

graemep wrote: post #40
kjellsbells wrote: post #24

Is this really surprising? London picks up all the advantages of the UK (legal system is sound, eg in contract law, native speakers of English, the lingua franca of business, strong university tradition) and adds in its special sauce: access to the City, global-tier culture, excellent public transport (I know we moan about it, but it really is excellent), and a timezone location that easily serves the US and Asia mar…

Is deep enough pool of capital for the vast majority of businesses. Its cultural diversity is a plus for most people (other than people like DHH). The big problem with London is that it is very, very expensive.

Housing is super expensive, but even that is coming down. Transport is a bit expensive, bit it's fine. Everything else is pretty reasonable!

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#80

Post by dukeyukey »

jacquesm wrote: post #75
dukeyukey wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article doesn't dispute that London is way behind SV. What it's saying is that for non-US funding, London dominates.

But it isn't true. For the rest of the world SV is still the place to go to, one way or another. The difference is just too big. What you could say is that London is the place to try to raise money if you can't raise in SV. But you'll have to realize that your chances of success are dramatically lower that way to the point that you're going to end up a with a small fraction of the stock yourself after the inevitable…

> But it isn't true. For the rest of the world SV is still the place to go to, one way or another.

We are using different meanings for the same phrase. SV is the best place to raise, IF YOU CAN AND ARE WILLING TO RAISE THERE. But not everyone can, nor does everyone want to. And of the locations that are not in the US, London dominates.

And hell, Americans raise in Boston, Seattle, NYC, and so on. Not even all Americans move to SV, let alone people who may not even get a visa to enter the US.

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