Europe's hottest startup capitals

http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2011/09/european-startups

by maris • 15 years ago

64 78 15 years ago

wired.co.uk

Tomis• 15 years ago

Someone should let Wired know that Tel Aviv is as European as Damascus and Beirut.

lell• 15 years ago

And that Sweden isn't a city (so it can't be a European capital.)

brunnsbe• 15 years ago

And www.dealdash.com, which is listed under Helsinki, is located in California, USA. However they seem to have a Finnish developer (are you Juha on HN?).

ristretto4• 15 years ago

Due in part to cultural differences with the rest of the middle east, Israel is often classed as closer to europe. (As is Turkey as well)

route66• 15 years ago

At least Israel is a recurring participant at the european song contest[1]. This might have influenced wired's judgement profoundly.

[1] http://www.eurovision.tv/page/dusseldorf-2011/about/shows/pa...

Someone• 15 years ago

They also are a member of the Union of European Football Associations, take part in European championships, play in the Europa cups, etc.

I think the situation is the same in other sports such as basketball.

maayank4• 15 years ago

Also, not the capital of Israel. (A main city, sure)

topbanana• 15 years ago

London?

alxtye• 15 years ago

Probably omitted on purpose for reasons unknown.

shazamjad2• 15 years ago

Likely because its a UK website - showing cities on mainland Europe.

T-zex• 15 years ago

It's quite cold in London at the moment (17°C).

jkaljundi5• 15 years ago

Did you read the article? It starts with "London's startup scene is booming -- you need only read Wired to see that. But what are Europe's other hot digital cities -- and which are the companies and founders to watch?" - so it's about what else besides London there is. Not downplaying London at all.

drats• 15 years ago

http://www.crowdcube.com/ looks interesting for the UK: "equity-based crowdfunding". However, it doesn't look like there is a great deal of activity.

relix7• 15 years ago

I was looking into moving to Tallinn as an expat. This just sealed the deal. Any Estonian hackers on here?

ddon• 15 years ago

i moved from Tallinn last year :) many positive things can be said about this place, but having a snow (mostly dirty) for about 7..8 months a year, and seeing this mess made me move: http://public.fotki.com/dmitri_don/tallinn-2011/

relix7• 15 years ago

You're the first guy I read who addresses negative points of Tallinn, thanks!

I knew about the snow, but not about the derelict state of some of the surroundings. However, isn't it normal for a reasonably large city to have vandalized parts like that? I'm sure you could find similar scenes in cities like Paris, Brussels or Berlin.

If you have any other resources about Tallinn (biased or not ;-) ) I'd love to take a gander, it's actually quite hard to find good intel about it. I noticed you're Canadian - did you use a guidebook when you first arrived? I'm wondering which one I should get.

jkaljundi5• 15 years ago

Same as any city. New York for example is so much dirtier and uglier than Tallinn, would never imagine living there.

As for snow, 7-8 months is exaggerating, if not pure lying :) It's true, that the weather is not African, then again it is really varied and one of the few places where we do have 4 really distinct seasons.

karls2• 15 years ago

i am! in tallinn during the summer, in the UK during uni.

relix7• 15 years ago

Sweet, unfortunately I'll arrive somewhere in the fall :)

jkaljundi5• 15 years ago

You're welcome! Have a look at what we do on our startup scene: http://garage48.org/ (events + startup co-working hub) http://startupleadersclub.com/ https://www.facebook.com/occtallinn

relix7• 15 years ago

Awesome that you're on here! Garage48 was already on top of my "Tallin To Do" list for once I'm there :) I'll probably see you around then.

maayank4• 15 years ago

Sounds interesting!

I'm unable to find a more subtle way to ask this, so I'll be blunt. (pardon! :)

How is the English literacy in Estonia and in Tallinn in particular? Of course, if someone expects to live somewhere s/he should be expected to learn the local language and customs, but if you're there for only a month or two then it's challenging.

Strom• 15 years ago

I've lived in Tallinn for most of my life.

relix7• 15 years ago

Do you like it?

eoghan• 15 years ago

Dublin?

leon_• 15 years ago

> Europe's hottest startup capitals: Sweden

Come and visit the wonderful town of Sweden ...

arethuza4• 15 years ago

That town has some really impressive parks!

shazamjad2• 15 years ago

An error in the title but the article itself actually discusses Stockholm.

presty• 15 years ago

Well, Barcelona is not the capital of Spain..

iwwr• 15 years ago

It's the capital of Catalonia, who many people in Spain would not mind to see as an independent republic :)

johnyzee• 15 years ago

> Europe's hottest startup capitals: Moscow

> Europe's hottest startup capitals: Tel Aviv

> Europe's hottest startup capitals: Bangalore

(Ok I made the last one up)

ristretto4• 15 years ago

common error. Everybody knows Ikea is the capital of Sweden where they make the best wines.

adnam• 15 years ago

Poorly researched filler piece. For example, the article on Barcelona failed to mention ANY of the truly interesting startups, like Privalia, ExperienceOn, Letsbonus, Groupalia, and all the companies seeded by Grupo Intercom.

toumhi• 15 years ago

These articles are of very unequal depth. 2 pages for Paris, and only a list of startups for Amsterdam. Not even a mention of recentlylaunched new york times-featured appsterdam: http://www.nytimes.com/external/venturebeat/2011/06/27/27ven...

Nice to read about less popular cities though (Tallinn, Helsinki).

smiler2• 15 years ago

The reason for the unequal depth is that the article was originally written for the print magazine - if you see the design of the magazine, you will see that they have a few featured cities with longer articles and others in brief. Obviously limited on page count.

atomicdog• 15 years ago

You're really pushing it if you're classing Moscow and Tel Aviv as "European" cities...

chico_dusty• 15 years ago

Say what? Moscow is most definitely European. It's located something like 850 miles west of the Urals.

arethuza4• 15 years ago

So what continent do you think Moscow is in?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe

smiler2• 15 years ago

Israel is thought of European because its football team is aligned with UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) and also it participates in the Eurovision song contest, so a lot of Europeans, myself included, definitely see Israel as quasi-European

marcf6• 15 years ago

Israel is fairly European in a lot of aspects except when it comes to its occupation of the Palestinian territories and its denial of rights to the inhabitants of those territories. Israel's behavior with regards to the West Bank is so bad that it being referred to more and more as an apartheid situation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_the_apartheid_analog...

harryf2• 15 years ago

Throwing in a Swiss boot - http://startupchart.ch/ - of course Switzerland is a country, not a capital. But then so is Sweden...

SoupIce• 15 years ago

Israel is not in Europe. Why is it on the list?

arethuza4• 15 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest

ristretto4• 15 years ago

Please stop using that kitsch abomination known as eurovision for reference. Use UEFA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA

philwelch6• 15 years ago

It's culturally closer to Europe than to its Muslim neighbors. Israel competes in the Eurovision song contest and in the European soccer confederation.

dazzawazza• 15 years ago

If you are going to use that standard then the UK is in North America as it's culturally closer to US/Canada than France/Germany.

kierank• 15 years ago

The reason Israel competes in European football instead of the regional equivalent is to avoid matches such as Israel vs. Syria and Israel vs. Iran.

marcf6• 15 years ago

Except when it comes to its apartheid-like policies in the West Bank, but then again formally Apartheid South Africa was long accepted as part of the West too...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_the_apartheid_analog...

nivertech2• 15 years ago

Geography is a cultural and political construct.

Why Morocco considered East, while Greece West? Geographically Morocco is 2500km to the west from Greece, culturally Morocco is predominantly Muslim, while Greece Christian.

Also geographically almost whole Republic of Azerbaijan, parts of Russia, Turkey and Kazakhstan are considered in Europe.

The Kazakhstan case is funny, considering it's bordering China.

jkaljundi5• 15 years ago

One of the great things in the article is choosing both Helsinki and Tallinn, neighboring cities with just 50 miles apart. That region is really buzzing with startup activity.

robjohnson• 15 years ago

I wish there was more depth to these articles - it could have been a very interesting read.

mvalente• 15 years ago

Lisbon, the West Coast of Europe.

Better beaches, better food and better wines than the other West Coast.

Plus: better trams and a better bridge.

Perfect geographic location, halfway between Europe and US.

-- MV

andynosebone• 15 years ago

Tallinn and Helsinki truly booming! Garage48 Tartu (http://garage48.org/events) is on next weekend and after that Steve Blank is visiting Finland for a week (www.steveblank.fi). Truly great stuff happening here!

Europe's hottest startup capitals

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