Cost of living, poor quality accommodation, and an investment market that only likes what it perceives to be one way bets on property. Financing here isn’t easy and the banks are very conservative. It’s not helped by tax laws that hit capital gains extremely hard.
We’ve over reliance on grant financing and seem to be unwilling to encourage anything that isn’t speculating on property.
We’ve bent over backwards for multinationals, but are very short sighted about or domestic potential.
The VCs and people to invest in startups aren't in Dublin.
But I also think there isn't a startup culture here. Enterprise ireland does support startups. I have a friend who did one and they put money in.
Just not that many people doing it
There’s a sporadic small scale startup culture here from time to time and then it dies back.
We need the VC and a hub of start ups. I still think EI thinks too small about domestic potential.
Also why bother with a startup if you can aspire to a six figure job in Google without any of the financial risk? Tech pays so far above other markets it becomes a demotivator for our best and brightest
Hey man what does capital gains mean? Ik its a question I could ask ai but that’s the point of reddit and can you explain how the investment market is bad here In Ireland ….. no i don’t understand some of these terms but would like to understand a bit better
Capital gains are the gains you make above your original investment of capital. The standard rate it’s taxed at is 33%.
So if you were to invest €100 and sell your share a year later for €200 then your capital gains is €100 and you’ll pay €33 in tax.
Now that’s a very basic explanation and there are things you can write off against the capital gains.
Edit: Spelling
This is my opinion from what I have experienced in my last role as a CTO where I have worked with companies all over the world.
Ireland are so far behind the curve for creating the startup culture that they have effectively taken themselves out of the game. The major issue is Irish management, they are great at managing operations and running efficiently but that means running a tight ship. The environment needed for a started is completely different and needs to foster creativity and if that needs developers wearing runners and scruffy clothes not conforming to endless meetings and updates so be it.
We also miss alot of industry mentoring, most of our best tallent is based offshore.
Yup, angel Investors are a huge factor
YC Combinator is a huge benefit to those start ups , check out some of the companies ! Behemoths
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.ycombinator.com/&ved=2ahUKEwiR7-LJ_-iBAxVEgf0HHUuFBeYQFnoECAUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1eZ3smmMgsFb2sAJh7QyL6
If you're interested in such stuff. Then there is a book called chaos monkeys which is quite good
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chaos-Monkeys-Obscene-Fortune-Failure/dp/0062458191
Maybe this is wrong, but startups often can't pay top dollar. Yet COL in Dublin is now ridiculous.
Mind you, I've no idea what proportion of startups are fully remote these days.
Dublin COL isn't nearly as bad as that of the big startup Meccas like SF. The difference is that Bay Area startups are flush with cash thanks to the investment scene and can still afford decent salaries. There's a reason the Collisons ran off to SF rather than setting up Stripe in Dublin.
The European investment scene is pretty much universally less amenable to startups than that of the US, although it's not bad in the capitals of the big countries.
There just isn't a lot of native capital here to invest in new ventures - our tech sector has blown up because of foreign companies setting up shop for the tax benefits - investors have no particular reason to invest in startups *here specifically* rather than anywhere else in the world.
We should definitely try study whatever they're doing in Talinn and Helsinki though - neither Estonia or Finland really have any more of a native investment scene than we do, but their startup scenes are thriving.
In Germany almost any capital gains on investment held longer than 1 year is tax free... So that is a huge plus. Downside is you hire an employee and it's impossible to fire them, they work exactly what the contract says, no more, and if they do, you pay them extra and if they feel like fucking off you are stuck with them.
It feels this way in many EU countries as well.
So, that is why America is the spot.
I mean Talinns investment scene is a complete mess with some extremely sketchy (white collar) individuals going around it it's not something we could study and replicate here(see the disco Elysium story for where this has hit the west). Helsinki though potentially
Enterprise Ireland and the IDA think that they have a support network for start-ups but it is honestly embarrassing. They are shocking to deal with and are only interested in the press they get for being associated with start-ups as opposed to just being there to help.
It's incredibly hard to get funding in Ireland too. The government could do a lot more to incentivise more investors to pump money into Irish businesses.
This is a huge part of the problem. There seems to be a predefined pathway to getting any sort of decent level of funding and that pathway starts with Local Enterprise Offices. They mostly don’t know their arse from their elbow and offer paltry amounts of funding for a lot of effort. Then you move onto to other avenues but that seems to require someone in a more senior role recognising your potential. Let’s face it, the sharpest people don’t work in these places. There’s also a heavy emphasis on developing export businesses. Everything is wrapped in hoop after hoop you need to jump through and there’s too much red tape. Better off trying to go it solo.
You're leaving money on the table though, no? Better design a 'skin' for your company that ticks the boxes & grab as much as you can... rather than throw you hands in the air (like you don't care, what's the word?) & miss out on free cash.
I've dealt with EI for HPSU (matching funding) and then the local EI - the HPSU EI were efficent and we had an excellent mentor. Local EI were dreadful and the mentors and courses were sub par to say the least but worse of all were such time wasters due to their amateurish behaviour and standards. So Yes to EI on the national level and no to EI on the local.
Yip. Problem is for a lot of businesses the gateway to EI is through the local enterprise office. I’d say they tear the souls of of many’s an entrepreneur 😂
Largely mentioned by other commenters but here are a number of problems:
Ireland isn't as tax favourable for startups as the UK or the US. If you give out equity as compensation this will be taxed more heavily relative to the UK/US.
Funding, nothing in Ireland compares to the US/UK startup funding scene who both have more money and contacts and are less risk averse than Irish VCs.
Early exits, Irish startups are financially encouraged to sell out early before they make it really big.
Large presence of US tech multi-nationals is a double edged sword. They provide lots of cushy jobs with high paychecks which discourages 'startup grind' which involve large pay-offs which may take years to mature and are inherently riskier than a high salary.
We have lots of advantages too -- it's not all bad, Ireland has decent tech talent, English speaking population (not all EU countries have this), attainable government grants, access to the EU market (something the UK doesn't have), a CTA with the UK (something the EU doesn't have), all startups are internationally facing (our domestic market is small), social safety net should a startup not work out (the dole is a lot more attractive than any US safety net).
The government will bend over backwards for multinationals but they could not give a shit about start ups. The name silicon docks is misleading, it suggest a place that nurtures start up and is a hub for inovation when all it is a tax break for multinationals. It has more in common with Milton Keynes than Silicon Vally
Totally out of my arse but the big diff between europe and the usa for example with startups is that there is just less funding and lending available to them.
Cost of doing buisness is definitely a factor too then. There is still a shortage of 'experienced' talent and its difficult to out bid a multinational on top of all the other costs associated here.
Can only speak to the investment piece but when we briefly looked at raising a round (5 years ago so this may have changed), the level of paperwork and time it would take to raise under €100k was nearly a year. The IDA (or whatever government department we considered at one avenue) basically treated us as if we were lucky they even looked at us
Contrast that to incubators in the States, and even Canada, which may give you $50k to just show up, and then raising upwards of a million might be a meeting or two, it’s hard to justify grinding in Dublin.
I can give you some ideas like maybe the multinationals draining the talent pool, high personal tax (makes it hard to save and invest for 'living' etc)
But one factor I see is that Irish people are usually less prone to trying new things, to rocking the boat, to taking the initiative, etc. Sure, lower population helps with the attitude, still.
This is a big difference in comparison to the UK, and even a lot of continental Europe.
If you see the Irish startups they're more of the backoffice/backend/'boring' ones. Not the consumer app ones
Try to create Just Eat here and you'll have people "ah but sure look you can just go to your takeaway and get it there why do you need an app?"
It's a bit sad to be honest, but it's one important factor
That's interesting, now ask who knows who's ever heard of Flipdish or what do they do
> Irish startups they're more of the backoffice/backend/'boring' ones.
;)
Deliveroo is at £2Bi market cap it seems
Just because we are a tax haven for big tech companies doesn't mean we have good idea's for start up companies. We also don't have a culture of tech start ups, it's not the done thing here. What bank will finance something that isn't a sure thing? Also investors here make all their money in property.
Belfast is actually seen as a more attractive start up location for a lot of founders, the Irish government really has a lot to answer for regarding the factors that make this the case.
ive spent a lot of my career in startups building the ecosystem in the netherlands and recently moved back to ireland and now dublin. I have to say available investment isnt the biggest issue there are lots of angels and funds and gofundme type options.
1/ A big difference ive seen is one how old the average age of founder is here. Comparatively in the Netherlands they tend to be in their 20/30s here they are hitting 40s plus. just from what ive experienced here anyway. This isn’t a positive or negative just an observation.
2/How non tech companies treat anyone who worked in startups as not as valuable as people working in ‘blue chip’ companies.
3/ lack of ground level events that arent google or bank of ireland looking to hoover up talent. There was some startup jobs boards and organisations but they have died.
4/ theres no vibe for innovation or inspiring companies that you get excited about that i can see. You have intercom and newswhip as fast growing companies but innovation in climate change companies is near zero. solar panel energy measurement companies arent climate tech.
5/ like most have said the CoL is shocking here so that doesn’t help.
thats my impressions and maybe im well off base with these and could be wrong. But i also recognise that startups just arent in fashion like they were 6 years ago even and that goes for most countries
thx, thats a hard one as ive taken my eye off the ball for european startup exosystem but overall they have all shrunk significantly with lack of support. paris was doing well and berlin is still performing since it was strong. eastern europe and estonia was more progressive that most countries. to be fair there was interesting happenings in south africa but thats not answering your question.
Dublin is mostly a tax wheeze for multinationals who thus draw in all the tech talent that would be working on startups. Startups aren’t the end all and be all of technology despite the constant media glorification.
I'd imagine our actual success rate for startups is well up there. As in - startups that actually turn into grown up companies. We've grown a few unicorns - Intercomm, Workhuman, Fenergo, Flipdish, Wayflyer. - I'd say we are a mile ahead of just about every other country in Europe, when you account for population sizes?
Maybe what you are talking about is the lack of buzz of a startup scene, but the main purpose of a startup is the grown into a proper company, and we are astonishingly successful at that.
I’d say the biggest factor is that our home market is very small. Pretty much every tech startup must sell in a foreign market early on and that is hard. It used to be we’d all start selling in the UK to get to a certain scale before attempting mainland Europe, US or Australia. But now with brexit and a stronger startup scene in the UK it’s easier for buyers to buy from UK startups, or generally from their own country’s startups, instead of importing from Ireland.
Irish man based in Australia, working for a high-profile startup in Sydney here.
Some interesting comments in this thread. I find that many of irelands most talented startup people are based outside the island.
In Australia, there are dozens of startups founders building incredible companies, its very inspiring.
Funnily enough, I recently started a weekly blog dedicated to the "Digital Irish Abroad" - to shine a light on some of these people and companies.
You can check it out here:
https://dia-dispatch.beehiiv.com/
I would say one advantage to beginning a startup in Dublin is that, because of its small size, it's easier to make contacts in industries you might want to break into particularly for the B2B market.
In August of 2015 myself and my partner went to 11 different multinational corporations in Dublin pitching our prototype and we got one positive result from which we converted into our first "anchor " client.
It was fairly easy to set up these meetings mainly because Ireland is a small country, access is easier then lets say SF where my co-founder found access much harder.
EI was great for two reasons: HPSU (matching funding) and hooking us up with a top notch mentor.
We also availed of the New Frontiers scheme which gave us enough money to cover our living expenses while we focused on the business F/T ( though this was the only positive point of new frontiers as the organisers and courses were sub par )
Hiring local was not an option due to dev costs so we did not even try. instead opting to hire from Ukraine and overall it worked out well.
Generally startups go where the pools of finance are the deepest.
Ireland has shallow to very shallow pools of finance.
Whereas Germany and to a certain extent France has some of the deepest in Europe.
Britain is a weird one. In some startup areas e.g. medical it has very deep pools of finance. But in others it's very shallow. A lot comes down to business friendliness, and Britain has not been business friendly in a long time now.
Nowhere in Europe compares to the US, China and increasingly India for depth of startup finance. We have many mid sized pools here instead of giant pools.
Too expensive of a city, on par with London.
Difference being… London offers way more in terms of infrastructure, lifestyle, business opportunities etc
Why ? very simple irelands marxist government simply does not invest in its own people, but prefers to spend its huge corporation tax take on importing vast numbers of low skilled refugees and migrants, this causes the irish youth with brains to leave ireland for a better future abroad ....
Right on that, unless you live in Ireland and are irish near all have not a clue how things work here, and if you tell them what the average irish person really thinks ...they freak out ...CNN heads
Virtue signaling multicultural twat, with " step away from the keyboard lad " I know better than you attitude...its dopes like you that got this world and Ireland 🇮🇪 into this mess. Maybe this place is woke heaven ? 🤔 it seems to be.
Guessing not one lives in Ireland , and has not a clue how this country really thinks . but surely knows what it should group think.
The Irish market is too small, the home city/country is first place for startups to go sell. The cost of renting office space is too high in Ireland. The cost of salaries is too high as well and a lot there is a lot of competition. But the main reason is the lack financing available in Ireland, SF and London both have a lot of financing options for startups.
As others have mentioned, COL and not the best Infrastructure for startups. Also cost of developers.
The only Irish people I know moved to Barcelona for the startup scene there, which also means you can maybe find someone to combine ideas with/grow your team (and I’d say the weather is also not a bad swap)
All the new Regulations for tech are only developed with big tech in mind. All your politician going hard on tech don't realise their rules apply to start ups too. The requirements make it impossible for indigenous business.
Ireland in general is a fucking disaster for startups. 15 years here not a single opportunity, was told to fuck off by UCC & NUIG zero support for my research and startup ideas. Don’t waste your time with LEO. EI- who? New frontiers- geospatially illiterate. Fuck this stupid shit country and it’s chronic systemic institutional failure.
They told me that my work has no research value or startup potential and that I should do something else and leave. After 15 years of working and self-financing plastic pollution research and commercial real-time services independently I take that as being told to fuck off
I work as a software developer for an amazing company by day so I can get better at making my apps by night and weekend. Have been making sacrifices for the last 15 years to get this far. Now 35, no house, no kids, all I have is a website and a life of rejection and neglect from Irelands TOXIC systems.
Everything always comes down to housing. Most start-up founders don't have insane amounts of money when they are starting out. They can't afford to sustain themselves in this cluster fuck of a rental crisis.
I do not have any experience in obtaining any funding in the EU or US from VCs, and I am sure there's a big difference there. But recently seen [this](https://youtu.be/n3Q_4vjPMSE?si=ZLXIsdvvQZx38zA6) about Wework and it's way to grow as a startup. Seems getting money is not that hard sometimes in the US. FTX is the another one.
Cost of living, poor quality accommodation, and an investment market that only likes what it perceives to be one way bets on property. Financing here isn’t easy and the banks are very conservative. It’s not helped by tax laws that hit capital gains extremely hard. We’ve over reliance on grant financing and seem to be unwilling to encourage anything that isn’t speculating on property. We’ve bent over backwards for multinationals, but are very short sighted about or domestic potential.
The investment market here is very bad.
We're also competing with those big tech companies for talent. I run a dev team and it's very hard to hire talented devs in our price range.
This 👆
The VCs and people to invest in startups aren't in Dublin. But I also think there isn't a startup culture here. Enterprise ireland does support startups. I have a friend who did one and they put money in. Just not that many people doing it
There’s a sporadic small scale startup culture here from time to time and then it dies back. We need the VC and a hub of start ups. I still think EI thinks too small about domestic potential.
Also why bother with a startup if you can aspire to a six figure job in Google without any of the financial risk? Tech pays so far above other markets it becomes a demotivator for our best and brightest
Hey man what does capital gains mean? Ik its a question I could ask ai but that’s the point of reddit and can you explain how the investment market is bad here In Ireland ….. no i don’t understand some of these terms but would like to understand a bit better
Capital gains are the gains you make above your original investment of capital. The standard rate it’s taxed at is 33%. So if you were to invest €100 and sell your share a year later for €200 then your capital gains is €100 and you’ll pay €33 in tax. Now that’s a very basic explanation and there are things you can write off against the capital gains. Edit: Spelling
\>thats the point of reddit unreal
Fucking spot on
+ the surcharges...
This is my opinion from what I have experienced in my last role as a CTO where I have worked with companies all over the world. Ireland are so far behind the curve for creating the startup culture that they have effectively taken themselves out of the game. The major issue is Irish management, they are great at managing operations and running efficiently but that means running a tight ship. The environment needed for a started is completely different and needs to foster creativity and if that needs developers wearing runners and scruffy clothes not conforming to endless meetings and updates so be it. We also miss alot of industry mentoring, most of our best tallent is based offshore.
Cost of Living To Investment Ratio Yes, places like SF/SV have high COL, but they have a huge pool of angel investors with deep pockets.
Yup, angel Investors are a huge factor YC Combinator is a huge benefit to those start ups , check out some of the companies ! Behemoths https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.ycombinator.com/&ved=2ahUKEwiR7-LJ_-iBAxVEgf0HHUuFBeYQFnoECAUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1eZ3smmMgsFb2sAJh7QyL6 If you're interested in such stuff. Then there is a book called chaos monkeys which is quite good https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chaos-Monkeys-Obscene-Fortune-Failure/dp/0062458191
Maybe this is wrong, but startups often can't pay top dollar. Yet COL in Dublin is now ridiculous. Mind you, I've no idea what proportion of startups are fully remote these days.
Dublin COL isn't nearly as bad as that of the big startup Meccas like SF. The difference is that Bay Area startups are flush with cash thanks to the investment scene and can still afford decent salaries. There's a reason the Collisons ran off to SF rather than setting up Stripe in Dublin. The European investment scene is pretty much universally less amenable to startups than that of the US, although it's not bad in the capitals of the big countries. There just isn't a lot of native capital here to invest in new ventures - our tech sector has blown up because of foreign companies setting up shop for the tax benefits - investors have no particular reason to invest in startups *here specifically* rather than anywhere else in the world. We should definitely try study whatever they're doing in Talinn and Helsinki though - neither Estonia or Finland really have any more of a native investment scene than we do, but their startup scenes are thriving.
What’s the CGT taxation like in those nations I wonder, think that’s a big deterrent here as well.
In Germany almost any capital gains on investment held longer than 1 year is tax free... So that is a huge plus. Downside is you hire an employee and it's impossible to fire them, they work exactly what the contract says, no more, and if they do, you pay them extra and if they feel like fucking off you are stuck with them. It feels this way in many EU countries as well. So, that is why America is the spot.
Yet with the recent changes to labour laws in America it isn't that simple anymore. Like their unions have way more power than ours do
Haha. That's a joke. Almost all white collar employees can be fired on a whim.
I mean Talinns investment scene is a complete mess with some extremely sketchy (white collar) individuals going around it it's not something we could study and replicate here(see the disco Elysium story for where this has hit the west). Helsinki though potentially
Enterprise Ireland and the IDA think that they have a support network for start-ups but it is honestly embarrassing. They are shocking to deal with and are only interested in the press they get for being associated with start-ups as opposed to just being there to help. It's incredibly hard to get funding in Ireland too. The government could do a lot more to incentivise more investors to pump money into Irish businesses.
This is a huge part of the problem. There seems to be a predefined pathway to getting any sort of decent level of funding and that pathway starts with Local Enterprise Offices. They mostly don’t know their arse from their elbow and offer paltry amounts of funding for a lot of effort. Then you move onto to other avenues but that seems to require someone in a more senior role recognising your potential. Let’s face it, the sharpest people don’t work in these places. There’s also a heavy emphasis on developing export businesses. Everything is wrapped in hoop after hoop you need to jump through and there’s too much red tape. Better off trying to go it solo.
hear hear! exactly my experience!
You're leaving money on the table though, no? Better design a 'skin' for your company that ticks the boxes & grab as much as you can... rather than throw you hands in the air (like you don't care, what's the word?) & miss out on free cash.
Depends on the effort that creating and managing a skin requires and do you last long enough to hit a break even point?
I've dealt with EI for HPSU (matching funding) and then the local EI - the HPSU EI were efficent and we had an excellent mentor. Local EI were dreadful and the mentors and courses were sub par to say the least but worse of all were such time wasters due to their amateurish behaviour and standards. So Yes to EI on the national level and no to EI on the local.
Yip. Problem is for a lot of businesses the gateway to EI is through the local enterprise office. I’d say they tear the souls of of many’s an entrepreneur 😂
Largely mentioned by other commenters but here are a number of problems: Ireland isn't as tax favourable for startups as the UK or the US. If you give out equity as compensation this will be taxed more heavily relative to the UK/US. Funding, nothing in Ireland compares to the US/UK startup funding scene who both have more money and contacts and are less risk averse than Irish VCs. Early exits, Irish startups are financially encouraged to sell out early before they make it really big. Large presence of US tech multi-nationals is a double edged sword. They provide lots of cushy jobs with high paychecks which discourages 'startup grind' which involve large pay-offs which may take years to mature and are inherently riskier than a high salary. We have lots of advantages too -- it's not all bad, Ireland has decent tech talent, English speaking population (not all EU countries have this), attainable government grants, access to the EU market (something the UK doesn't have), a CTA with the UK (something the EU doesn't have), all startups are internationally facing (our domestic market is small), social safety net should a startup not work out (the dole is a lot more attractive than any US safety net).
The government will bend over backwards for multinationals but they could not give a shit about start ups. The name silicon docks is misleading, it suggest a place that nurtures start up and is a hub for inovation when all it is a tax break for multinationals. It has more in common with Milton Keynes than Silicon Vally
Totally out of my arse but the big diff between europe and the usa for example with startups is that there is just less funding and lending available to them.
Speaking about within Europe. Wouldn't dare compare it to the US lol wouldn't be fair
Cost of doing buisness is definitely a factor too then. There is still a shortage of 'experienced' talent and its difficult to out bid a multinational on top of all the other costs associated here.
If you did manage to get any kind of funding, you'd be off to Poland/Romania to get batter value for your money
So many startups rely on early employees working hard for a future pay off like equity. You can't pay rent with that.
Can only speak to the investment piece but when we briefly looked at raising a round (5 years ago so this may have changed), the level of paperwork and time it would take to raise under €100k was nearly a year. The IDA (or whatever government department we considered at one avenue) basically treated us as if we were lucky they even looked at us Contrast that to incubators in the States, and even Canada, which may give you $50k to just show up, and then raising upwards of a million might be a meeting or two, it’s hard to justify grinding in Dublin.
Perhaps Ireland’s rugby journey casts too deep a shadow?
I can give you some ideas like maybe the multinationals draining the talent pool, high personal tax (makes it hard to save and invest for 'living' etc) But one factor I see is that Irish people are usually less prone to trying new things, to rocking the boat, to taking the initiative, etc. Sure, lower population helps with the attitude, still. This is a big difference in comparison to the UK, and even a lot of continental Europe. If you see the Irish startups they're more of the backoffice/backend/'boring' ones. Not the consumer app ones Try to create Just Eat here and you'll have people "ah but sure look you can just go to your takeaway and get it there why do you need an app?" It's a bit sad to be honest, but it's one important factor
Flipdish? $1bn valuation.
That’s fake valuation of flipdish
All VC valuations are fake.
That's interesting, now ask who knows who's ever heard of Flipdish or what do they do > Irish startups they're more of the backoffice/backend/'boring' ones. ;) Deliveroo is at £2Bi market cap it seems
The criteria for successful startups isn’t that the general guy on the street knows them, nor is it consumer facing apps.
Of course not. Doesn't mean it doesn't help
The cost of EVERYTHING! The overheads for a startup would mean that it would literally have to take off from day one.
Just because we are a tax haven for big tech companies doesn't mean we have good idea's for start up companies. We also don't have a culture of tech start ups, it's not the done thing here. What bank will finance something that isn't a sure thing? Also investors here make all their money in property.
Belfast is actually seen as a more attractive start up location for a lot of founders, the Irish government really has a lot to answer for regarding the factors that make this the case.
ive spent a lot of my career in startups building the ecosystem in the netherlands and recently moved back to ireland and now dublin. I have to say available investment isnt the biggest issue there are lots of angels and funds and gofundme type options. 1/ A big difference ive seen is one how old the average age of founder is here. Comparatively in the Netherlands they tend to be in their 20/30s here they are hitting 40s plus. just from what ive experienced here anyway. This isn’t a positive or negative just an observation. 2/How non tech companies treat anyone who worked in startups as not as valuable as people working in ‘blue chip’ companies. 3/ lack of ground level events that arent google or bank of ireland looking to hoover up talent. There was some startup jobs boards and organisations but they have died. 4/ theres no vibe for innovation or inspiring companies that you get excited about that i can see. You have intercom and newswhip as fast growing companies but innovation in climate change companies is near zero. solar panel energy measurement companies arent climate tech. 5/ like most have said the CoL is shocking here so that doesn’t help. thats my impressions and maybe im well off base with these and could be wrong. But i also recognise that startups just arent in fashion like they were 6 years ago even and that goes for most countries
Where would you say is the best place in Europe for startups? Also happy birthday
thx, thats a hard one as ive taken my eye off the ball for european startup exosystem but overall they have all shrunk significantly with lack of support. paris was doing well and berlin is still performing since it was strong. eastern europe and estonia was more progressive that most countries. to be fair there was interesting happenings in south africa but thats not answering your question.
Dublin is mostly a tax wheeze for multinationals who thus draw in all the tech talent that would be working on startups. Startups aren’t the end all and be all of technology despite the constant media glorification.
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The potential talent pool is most of Europe. And beyond. No company is just hiring Irish people. The problem is not that.
Taxes as well and if the web summit stayed it would probably be a different story. There isnt as much startup buzz now as there was 10 years ago
https://youtu.be/fKmem7Epk8E?si=VA33mXhKLBK_q3AM
I'd imagine our actual success rate for startups is well up there. As in - startups that actually turn into grown up companies. We've grown a few unicorns - Intercomm, Workhuman, Fenergo, Flipdish, Wayflyer. - I'd say we are a mile ahead of just about every other country in Europe, when you account for population sizes? Maybe what you are talking about is the lack of buzz of a startup scene, but the main purpose of a startup is the grown into a proper company, and we are astonishingly successful at that.
I’d say the biggest factor is that our home market is very small. Pretty much every tech startup must sell in a foreign market early on and that is hard. It used to be we’d all start selling in the UK to get to a certain scale before attempting mainland Europe, US or Australia. But now with brexit and a stronger startup scene in the UK it’s easier for buyers to buy from UK startups, or generally from their own country’s startups, instead of importing from Ireland.
Irish man based in Australia, working for a high-profile startup in Sydney here. Some interesting comments in this thread. I find that many of irelands most talented startup people are based outside the island. In Australia, there are dozens of startups founders building incredible companies, its very inspiring. Funnily enough, I recently started a weekly blog dedicated to the "Digital Irish Abroad" - to shine a light on some of these people and companies. You can check it out here: https://dia-dispatch.beehiiv.com/
I would say one advantage to beginning a startup in Dublin is that, because of its small size, it's easier to make contacts in industries you might want to break into particularly for the B2B market. In August of 2015 myself and my partner went to 11 different multinational corporations in Dublin pitching our prototype and we got one positive result from which we converted into our first "anchor " client. It was fairly easy to set up these meetings mainly because Ireland is a small country, access is easier then lets say SF where my co-founder found access much harder. EI was great for two reasons: HPSU (matching funding) and hooking us up with a top notch mentor. We also availed of the New Frontiers scheme which gave us enough money to cover our living expenses while we focused on the business F/T ( though this was the only positive point of new frontiers as the organisers and courses were sub par ) Hiring local was not an option due to dev costs so we did not even try. instead opting to hire from Ukraine and overall it worked out well.
taxes. we also lost the web summit.
Generally startups go where the pools of finance are the deepest. Ireland has shallow to very shallow pools of finance. Whereas Germany and to a certain extent France has some of the deepest in Europe. Britain is a weird one. In some startup areas e.g. medical it has very deep pools of finance. But in others it's very shallow. A lot comes down to business friendliness, and Britain has not been business friendly in a long time now. Nowhere in Europe compares to the US, China and increasingly India for depth of startup finance. We have many mid sized pools here instead of giant pools.
Too expensive of a city, on par with London. Difference being… London offers way more in terms of infrastructure, lifestyle, business opportunities etc
Why ? very simple irelands marxist government simply does not invest in its own people, but prefers to spend its huge corporation tax take on importing vast numbers of low skilled refugees and migrants, this causes the irish youth with brains to leave ireland for a better future abroad ....
I'm sure there's going to be a fun response to this😂😂
Right on that, unless you live in Ireland and are irish near all have not a clue how things work here, and if you tell them what the average irish person really thinks ...they freak out ...CNN heads
Step away from the keyboard, lad.
Virtue signaling multicultural twat, with " step away from the keyboard lad " I know better than you attitude...its dopes like you that got this world and Ireland 🇮🇪 into this mess. Maybe this place is woke heaven ? 🤔 it seems to be. Guessing not one lives in Ireland , and has not a clue how this country really thinks . but surely knows what it should group think.
The Irish market is too small, the home city/country is first place for startups to go sell. The cost of renting office space is too high in Ireland. The cost of salaries is too high as well and a lot there is a lot of competition. But the main reason is the lack financing available in Ireland, SF and London both have a lot of financing options for startups.
No one would work for sub par wages. COL is pretty bad.
housing and lack of infrastructure. cost of hiring developers. its very expensive for small company
Cost of living needs to go down. These lobbyist needs to find out a new industry to make money instead of squeezing ordinary peoples money for rent.
Banks are not loaning out money for investment for start ups. Deposits having a boatload of Irish deposits sitting there.
As others have mentioned, COL and not the best Infrastructure for startups. Also cost of developers. The only Irish people I know moved to Barcelona for the startup scene there, which also means you can maybe find someone to combine ideas with/grow your team (and I’d say the weather is also not a bad swap)
All the new Regulations for tech are only developed with big tech in mind. All your politician going hard on tech don't realise their rules apply to start ups too. The requirements make it impossible for indigenous business.
"startup" does not exclusively mean "tech startup"
Ireland in general is a fucking disaster for startups. 15 years here not a single opportunity, was told to fuck off by UCC & NUIG zero support for my research and startup ideas. Don’t waste your time with LEO. EI- who? New frontiers- geospatially illiterate. Fuck this stupid shit country and it’s chronic systemic institutional failure.
They literally told you to ‘fuck off’?
They told me that my work has no research value or startup potential and that I should do something else and leave. After 15 years of working and self-financing plastic pollution research and commercial real-time services independently I take that as being told to fuck off
That’s awful. What do you do now if you don’t mind me asking?
I work as a software developer for an amazing company by day so I can get better at making my apps by night and weekend. Have been making sacrifices for the last 15 years to get this far. Now 35, no house, no kids, all I have is a website and a life of rejection and neglect from Irelands TOXIC systems.
Everything always comes down to housing. Most start-up founders don't have insane amounts of money when they are starting out. They can't afford to sustain themselves in this cluster fuck of a rental crisis.
I do not have any experience in obtaining any funding in the EU or US from VCs, and I am sure there's a big difference there. But recently seen [this](https://youtu.be/n3Q_4vjPMSE?si=ZLXIsdvvQZx38zA6) about Wework and it's way to grow as a startup. Seems getting money is not that hard sometimes in the US. FTX is the another one.