Europe's hottest startup capitals

[adnam]

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]

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).

[smiler]

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.

[relix]

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

[jkaljundi]

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

[ddon]

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/

[Strom]

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

[karls]

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

[harryf]

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

[mvalente]

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

[drats]

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.

[jkaljundi]

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.

[andynosebone]

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!

[robjohnson]

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

[topbanana]

London?

[jkaljundi]

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.

[T-zex]

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

[alxtye]

Probably omitted on purpose for reasons unknown.

[eoghan]

Dublin?

[leon_]

> Europe's hottest startup capitals: Sweden

Come and visit the wonderful town of Sweden ...

[presty]

Well, Barcelona is not the capital of Spain..

[arethuza]

That town has some really impressive parks!

[shazamjad]

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

[ristretto]

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

[johnyzee]

> 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)

[Tomis]

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

[lell]

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

[brunnsbe]

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?).

[route66]

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...

[maayank]

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

[ristretto]

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)

[SoupIce]

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

[philwelch]

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

[nivertech]

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.

[arethuza]

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

[atomicdog]

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

[arethuza]

So what continent do you think Moscow is in?

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

[smiler]

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

[chico_dusty]

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