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Why tiny Stockholm has the most stunning startup ecosystem since Tel Aviv
- filip01 14y agoFWIW: IAmA founder of a startup in Stockholm (sharing offices with Wrapp), AMA.
- hjalle 14y agoOut of curiosity, what company?
- filip01 14y agoAevy
- toyg 14y agoIs it still as freaking expensive as when I was there last time, about 10 years ago ?
- filip01 14y agoYep: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/01/23/travel-like-the-1-top-10-expensive-destinations/slide/5-stockholm-sweden/ http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/01/23/travel-like-the-1-top-10...
- Peer 14y agoThe article missed Tobii, which this year got a $20 million investment by Intel, and has raised over $50 million in total. They're making a very cool eye tracking product that you (among other use cases) can use to control a computer with your eyes.
- symmetricsaurus 14y ago1.4 million in the urban area and 2.1 million in the metropolitan area is not exactly tiny. Tel Aviv is for example smaller, but I guess that the comparison is to the bay area/silicon valley or something like that.
- skreech 14y agoPopulation-wise, San Francisco is also smaller than the city of Stockholm. But it is a tiny tiny tiny startup ecosystem.
- Peer 14y agoTel Aviv is probarbly larger than Stockholm though. The Swedish definition of "metropolitan" area is skewed, it consists of several cities and according to wikipedia its 6,519 km2 that is compared to Tel Avivs metropolian area of 1,516 km2. Still Tel Avivs has a metropolitan population of 3.4 million people compared to Stockholm's 2.1 million.
- adsr 14y agoStockholm is located on a group of islands on the other hand which impacts the surface area.
- ttrt 14y ago6.5k km2 is actually more than 1/4 of Israel's land area (20,770/22,072 km)
- dbaupp 14y agoJust for others' reference, the metropolitan area of Stockholm[0] is the whole of the Stockholm county. Just looking at the map, a slightly better/more conventional measure of Stockholm might be Stockholm municipality[1] + Huddinge, Sundbyberg and Solna, which gives an area of 350 km2 and a population of about 1.1 million. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_in_Sweden#Metropolitan_Stockholm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_in_... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Municipality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Municipality
- mbesto 14y agoI love Stockholm. It's an awesome city and despite the high taxes, it's very progressive in terms of trends. In other words, there are many early adopters there, which is something that is very unique to SV. Also, much of Swedish design is built on simplicity. You can see this everywhere from web design, to store design and of course furniture. The only downside, as others have pointed out, is that its extremely expensive. EDIT: Discrepancies around definitions of conservatism.
- mseebach2 14y agoIn what ways do you consider Sweden a conservative country? It is very socially liberal and while it's finances are run mostly sanely, it has a huge re-distributive welfare state.
- angry-hacker 14y agoOften in many countries conservatives = high taxes, welfare state. Not on the social issues though.
- mseebach2 14y agoDespite the fact that nominally conservative parties implement such policies does not make those policies 'conservative' in any meaningful political-history/ideological sense. Just like Obama renewing the Patriot Act doesn't make it liberal legislation.
- seanmcdirmid 14y agoConservative in the sense of personal and societal responsibility and a strong adherence to tradition. Switzerland is the same way, very conservative by European measures, but by the way we (Americans) rate conservatism, not at all. All these countries are socially progressive with strong safety nets, but relatively liberal economically (again, in the real sense of "liberal"). I would think that the American/New world conservatism is the one that's messed up and twisting the meaning of these words.
- henrik_w 14y agoYay Stockholm! Another Stockholm start-up that looks interesting is Gavagai http://gavagai.se/ http://gavagai.se/
- henrik_w 14y agoAnd there is CLX Networks (http://www.clxnetworks.com/ http://www.clxnetworks.com/), on Wired UK's list of hottest 100 European startups (September issue). And Telepo (http://telepo.se/ http://telepo.se/).
- progn 14y agoAre Swedish startups (or EU startups in general) interested in talented American programmers?
- mindjiver 14y agoYes, I would say so. The software developer pool in Stockholm is running really dry. So the market is really hot and it has been this way for a few years now. Here at $MEGA_CORP we did some recruiting recently and we hired from all over Europe. One good(?) thing is that the political situation in Russia is quite crappy at the moment, so there it is possible to recruit top talent from there. I guess hiring from the across the pond is slightly harder. But if you pass the normal skype/phone/online interviews and you are good it shouldn't be a huge problem to fly you over for an onsite interview.
- robk 14y agoCampanja is another rapidly growing startup in Stockholm.
- flexie 14y agoI think the article forgets one reason why Scandinavian countries do well in IT start ups: Allmost all Scandinavians speak English quite well. Given that most new technology and research is communicated in English, a decent level of English is necessary to adapt new technology. This gives Scandinavians and Dutch entrepreneurs an edge compared to most other European entrepreneurs, except obviously the Irish and British entrepreneurs.
- zalew 14y ago> This gives Scandinavians and Dutch entrepreneurs an edge compared to most other European entrepreneurs how? the world's ranking of english proficiency is dominated by Europeans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EF_English_Proficiency_Index#2012_Rankings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EF_English_Proficiency_Index#2... I am pretty sure among the IT branch the scores are much higher although you don't need perfect language skills to understand technical concepts.
- lambda 14y agoYou do notice that all of the countries listed as "Very High Proficiency" are Scandinavian or Dutch, just like he said, right? And many of the continental European countries, like France, Italy, and Spain are listed at only "Moderate Proficiency." While you don't need perfect language skills to understand technical concepts, not being at full proficiency can be a barrier. I know that when I help people out on StackOverflow, one of the main barriers to answering some people's questions is that they can't formulate it in English in a way that I can understand. Proficiency is a two-way thing; besides being able to read English, you need to be able to speak and write it well to fully interact with the technical community.
- zalew 14y ago> You do notice that all of the countries listed as "Very High Proficiency" are Scandinavian or Dutch, just like he said, right? You do notice they aren't recently startup-famous in any way, right?
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- henrik_w 14y agoAn opposing view, where Stockholm is not in the top 20 startup cities: http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/20/startup-genome-ranks-the-worlds-top-startup-ecosystems-silicon-valley-tel-aviv-l-a-lead-the-way/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/20/startup-genome-ranks-the-wo...
- beagle3 14y agoEvery single experience I've had with a swede, (technical, entrepreneur, or otherwise) has been extremely pleasant. It might be selection bias - most of those that I've met were outside sweden at the time I met them - but from spending some time in Lund, I got the impression that it's a national trait, to the point that I have considered moving to sweden for a few years if the stars align properly. Perhaps we can have a sweded version of NYC in the US? :) That would be ideal.
- skarmklart 14y agoLund native here. If you ever visit again - feel free to hit me up :)
- nlh 14y agoI've had the same experience. Though on an interesting note - I had drinks with one recently and told him as much, and he was taken aback by my observation. "Really? I've found them to be quite difficult at times." Maybe there's something cultural about the way they interact with themselves vs outsiders? Or, as you pointed out, maybe it's the ones who leave Sweden regularly :)
- lrem 14y agoBeware of possible problems when relocating. I know an experienced graphic designer who moved there, due to personal reasons, to see her career go to a sudden stop. At some point she forced a HR person from one of the companies ignoring her CV to answer why. It went more or less like that: - Oh, that's simple, you completely lack experience. - Have you missed the entries in my CV? - No, but none of them was in Sweden. On the other hand, this may be completely irrelevant in startups.
- beagle3 14y agoThanks. This is very interesting; "Stars aligned" means, among other things, that I won't move before I know I have a job.
- purplelobster 14y agoWhere did she gain her experience? I don't want to assume anything, but I think experience from some countries are looked more favorable upon, but I could be wrong.
- paulhauggis 14y agoStartups probably do well. However, because of taxes, government regulations, and the fact that it's very difficult to fire someone, it's tough to grow past the startup phase. This is probably why it's not looked at as a great place to start a business by most.
- _of 14y agoSome downsides with Stockholm: (1) It is difficult to make friends in Stockholm, because Swedish people are generally very reserved; (2) It is very dark and cold most of the year; and (3) Summer is short.
- mindjiver 14y agoWe say that summer in Sweden is the best day of the year!
- jusben1369 14y agoI think that's really only two points not three just FYI.
- SuperChihuahua 14y agoConclusion: productivity++
- progn 14y agoIt sounds just like Seattle, then: perfection.
- _delirium 14y agoLike Seattle but colder and darker. Example: Seattle in mid-December is typically mid-40s F with sunset around 4:15pm, while Stockholm is typically mid-30s F with sunset around 2:45pm. Also, more snow, but actually slightly less cloudy.
- purplelobster 14y agoI've lived in both, and I think I prefer Seattle a little bit. It's pretty close though, because while Stockholm is colder and have shorter days for a longer period of time, Seattle is gray for literally 200 days straight. Stockholm can be pretty gray too, but you get nice winter days pretty often, with white snow and sunny days. Summers in Seattle are preferable though, very dry compared to Stockholm.
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- riams 14y agoI've interviewed with Jacob at iZettle. Great guy and team!