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Running a software company in Stockholm, Sweden is a blast. It is a great place to live, plenty of good people to recruit, a decent domestic market, e.g. many b

Running a software company in Stockholm, Sweden is a blast. It is a great place to live, plenty of good people to recruit, a decent domestic market, e.g. many big companies willing to try out services from startups. There is a vast number of small tech companies here, most of them completely unknown. Every week I learn about some cool new company doing their thing just around the block from us, without ever having heard of the people involved. There are some major caveats: Income taxes are extremely high and tax rules makes it almost impossible to share ownership in a rational way, e.g. it is very hard to setup stock option programs etc. Also, the domestic venture capital market is extremely underdeveloped - a great opportunity for foreign investors! I am a firm opponent of all government programs to stimulate entrepreneurship. My view is that the government should simply get out of the way. And in fact, except for the taxes, this is by and large what the Swedish government is doing. For example, there is very little bureaucracy around running a business, e.g. starting an incorporated company is now done easily over the internet, often the whole process can be completed in a matter of days.

robin_reala 14y ago
Out of interest, do you think it’d be easy to get into the startup scene with minimal Swedish? My wife is Swedish and we have in the past considered a move to Stockholm but my Swedish is absolutely not fluent (although were we to do it I’d enrol in an evening course as soon as we moved).
- Matti 14y ago
  Getting by in Stockholm won't be a problem: you can safely assume that people within the start-up scene are fluent in English. You'll be met with a slightly different kind of problem: as communicating in English is so effortless, you'll have few opportunities to really practice your Swedish.
  - robin_reala 14y ago
    Hah, yeah, I know the Swede’s proclivity for English :) Just wasn’t sure that it’d be acceptable to speak it in a business context. That’s interesting for sure.
- meriksson 14y ago
  I agree with Matti - doing business in Stockholm without knowing Swedish is no problem. Swedes are generally fluent in English and most often they enjoy speaking it. I know several foreigners who run startups here without bothering to learn the local language.
  - to3m 14y ago
    I had to go to Stockholm a few years ago. It was somewhat short notice, so I didn't have time to brush up on my Swedish. I knew how to say "thank you", and "Sweden", and that was that. On the first evening I had a bit of difficulty operating the keycard outside the hotel. A chap came up to me and started talking, presumably explaining how to use it. "Murgle burgle burgle wurgle furgle", he said, or something like that. I must have looked blank for about 0.1 seconds before he slipped, with barely a beat, into flawless, unaccented English. And the first English words out of his mouth were, "Oh, sorry..." :) (This was not a unique experience. Even the petrol station attendants spoke great English. You don't even get that in England.)
- Wilya 14y ago
  I've been in Stockholm for 1.5 years now. When I arrived, I didn't know a single word of swedish (I've taken classes since, but not in a very productive way), and things have been just fine. Like another said, I'm not improving so much because I have very few incentives to do so.
- dalke 14y ago
  Our monthly Python meetings in Gothenburg are almost always in English. In part because it was founded by two native English speakers, in part because there are other non-Swedish speakers who come, in part because many of the software courses are in English, and in part because almost all of the literature and documentation is in English. And of course, in large part because this is effectively a bilingual country. In the years I've been here, I've only talked with a handful of native-born Swedes who did not speak English. Those were older people who had learned German as a student. (There are non-native-born Swedes, like immigrants from Chile who speak fluent Spanish and Swedish, whose English can be poor.) So yes, it would be easy.
berntb 14y ago
How easy/cheap is it to get a small apartment...?
- meriksson 14y ago
  The market for apartments is not a strong point for Stockholm. You can get an apartment rather easily, but it is not cheap compared to similar cities in Europe. Some current listings from the Swedish equivalent of Craigslist: http://www.blocket.se/stockholm?q=&cg=3020&w=1&st=u&ca=11&l=0&md=th&ros=1&roe=3&m=131 http://www.blocket.se/stockholm?q=&cg=3020&w=1&s...
  - subsystem 14y ago
    I wouldn't say it's easy. Most of those ads are for a room, short term or in the suburbs.
    - samuellb 14y ago
      Public transportation is quite good though. For most suburbs it's 15-30 minutes to the city center. If you don't mind (or prefer) living in the suburbs you can definitely reduce your costs a lot.
- dalke 14y ago
  It's crazy hard in Gothenburg, at least for some place I wanted to live. I've heard that Stockholm is worse. If you're a single person, willing to share an apartment with someone else, then you can rent just a room ("inneboende"). That's likely the easiest. You can also look for a sublease ("andrahandskontrakt"). But getting a lease ("förstahandskonrakt") is hard. Parts of town require you to be on a waiting list which can be up to 5 years long. For Gothenburg, I was on the list for 1.5 years for a lease before we gave up and moved to the smaller city of Trollhättan. No startup scene, but a 1,300 sq. ft. apartment in the center of town (3bd, 1.5 ba) goes for only $1,500/month, and the commuter train to Gothenburg takes about 45 minutes. If you have money you can get a "business apartment" for about 2x the normal rate. Those are pretty easy to find. But you'll need to have a business first (even one in the US) to rent it. You can get an idea of what's available using the aggregator http://kvalster.se/Stockholm http://kvalster.se/Stockholm . When a place is "1 rum" it means studio, "2 rum" means "living room and bedroom", etc. As a decent approximation, 1sq meter is 10 sq. feet. Rates in the tech area of Kista look about $700 for a shared room/studio. In Södermalm I see prices more around $800 for a room/studio, though you can pay a lot more. (350 sq. ft studio apartment, furnished, for one month rental while the owner is overseas, $1264 for the month.)
deleted 14y ago
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robin_reala 14y ago

Out of interest, do you think it’d be easy to get into the startup scene with minimal Swedish? My wife is Swedish and we have in the past considered a move to Stockholm but my Swedish is absolutely not fluent (although were we to do it I’d enrol in an evening course as soon as we moved).

Matti 14y ago
Getting by in Stockholm won't be a problem: you can safely assume that people within the start-up scene are fluent in English. You'll be met with a slightly different kind of problem: as communicating in English is so effortless, you'll have few opportunities to really practice your Swedish.
- robin_reala 14y ago
  Hah, yeah, I know the Swede’s proclivity for English :) Just wasn’t sure that it’d be acceptable to speak it in a business context. That’s interesting for sure.
meriksson 14y ago
I agree with Matti - doing business in Stockholm without knowing Swedish is no problem. Swedes are generally fluent in English and most often they enjoy speaking it. I know several foreigners who run startups here without bothering to learn the local language.
- to3m 14y ago
  I had to go to Stockholm a few years ago. It was somewhat short notice, so I didn't have time to brush up on my Swedish. I knew how to say "thank you", and "Sweden", and that was that. On the first evening I had a bit of difficulty operating the keycard outside the hotel. A chap came up to me and started talking, presumably explaining how to use it. "Murgle burgle burgle wurgle furgle", he said, or something like that. I must have looked blank for about 0.1 seconds before he slipped, with barely a beat, into flawless, unaccented English. And the first English words out of his mouth were, "Oh, sorry..." :) (This was not a unique experience. Even the petrol station attendants spoke great English. You don't even get that in England.)
Wilya 14y ago
I've been in Stockholm for 1.5 years now. When I arrived, I didn't know a single word of swedish (I've taken classes since, but not in a very productive way), and things have been just fine. Like another said, I'm not improving so much because I have very few incentives to do so.
dalke 14y ago
Our monthly Python meetings in Gothenburg are almost always in English. In part because it was founded by two native English speakers, in part because there are other non-Swedish speakers who come, in part because many of the software courses are in English, and in part because almost all of the literature and documentation is in English. And of course, in large part because this is effectively a bilingual country. In the years I've been here, I've only talked with a handful of native-born Swedes who did not speak English. Those were older people who had learned German as a student. (There are non-native-born Swedes, like immigrants from Chile who speak fluent Spanish and Swedish, whose English can be poor.) So yes, it would be easy.

berntb 14y ago

How easy/cheap is it to get a small apartment...?

meriksson 14y ago
The market for apartments is not a strong point for Stockholm. You can get an apartment rather easily, but it is not cheap compared to similar cities in Europe. Some current listings from the Swedish equivalent of Craigslist: http://www.blocket.se/stockholm?q=&cg=3020&w=1&st=u&ca=11&l=0&md=th&ros=1&roe=3&m=131 http://www.blocket.se/stockholm?q=&cg=3020&w=1&s...
- subsystem 14y ago
  I wouldn't say it's easy. Most of those ads are for a room, short term or in the suburbs.
  - samuellb 14y ago
    Public transportation is quite good though. For most suburbs it's 15-30 minutes to the city center. If you don't mind (or prefer) living in the suburbs you can definitely reduce your costs a lot.
dalke 14y ago
It's crazy hard in Gothenburg, at least for some place I wanted to live. I've heard that Stockholm is worse. If you're a single person, willing to share an apartment with someone else, then you can rent just a room ("inneboende"). That's likely the easiest. You can also look for a sublease ("andrahandskontrakt"). But getting a lease ("förstahandskonrakt") is hard. Parts of town require you to be on a waiting list which can be up to 5 years long. For Gothenburg, I was on the list for 1.5 years for a lease before we gave up and moved to the smaller city of Trollhättan. No startup scene, but a 1,300 sq. ft. apartment in the center of town (3bd, 1.5 ba) goes for only $1,500/month, and the commuter train to Gothenburg takes about 45 minutes. If you have money you can get a "business apartment" for about 2x the normal rate. Those are pretty easy to find. But you'll need to have a business first (even one in the US) to rent it. You can get an idea of what's available using the aggregator http://kvalster.se/Stockholm http://kvalster.se/Stockholm . When a place is "1 rum" it means studio, "2 rum" means "living room and bedroom", etc. As a decent approximation, 1sq meter is 10 sq. feet. Rates in the tech area of Kista look about $700 for a shared room/studio. In Södermalm I see prices more around $800 for a room/studio, though you can pay a lot more. (350 sq. ft studio apartment, furnished, for one month rental while the owner is overseas, $1264 for the month.)

deleted 14y ago

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