From a business perspective, everything the author says makes sense. From a human perspective, as someone who was born & raised in Ireland and subsequently left the country 6 years ago at the age of 24 I can promise you, Ireland is far from a vibrant, positive place to live.<p>Every single element of the media is drowned in the desperation of the economic crisis, the cost of living is exorbitant and the weather is truly depressing.<p>The education system is by far Irelands biggest selling point, aside from the fact that it's mostly free, the standard of education and the amount of school leavers undergoing degree courses is continuing to rise mainly because there are no jobs available so the nation is instead looking to educate itself in the hope that when the economy improves they will stand a chance of earning a half decent wage.<p>I would love to see the tech culture in Ireland experience a revival, we were once the worlds largest exporter of software second only to Japan and our CS Graduates were some of the most sought after candidates on the planet but for those of you considering a move, remember, whilst he timing may be right from a business perspective, the atmosphere and culture is a huge barrier to overcome.
The article neglects to mention two of the primary reasons why it's good to do business here:<p>- 12.5% corporate tax rate. Also if you are big enough to afford good tax advice, e.g. Google or Microsoft you can bounce your revenue from Ireland to the Netherlands and into the Caribbean tax-free islands - <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/google-2-4-rate-shows-how-60-billion-u-s-revenue-lost-to-tax-loopholes.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/google-2-4-rate-sho...</a><p>- Young, native English-speaking workforce. For historical reasons we don't generally speak our native tongue at all. We've a high birth rate, so our population demographic is quite young compared to other developed western nations.<p>If a multinational (or startup) is looking to expand into the EU, Ireland would be a good bet for a place to open an office for these reasons. The city I live in (Cork) is just an hour flight from London, and it costs €30 ($40) return including taxes and charges on Ryanair. That's cheaper than a train from Cork to Dublin, our two biggest cities. So Europe is highly accessible, and you can freely travel within the EU without customs hassle.
As an Irish individual, I can tell you that the author is overlooking one very crucial downside to operating a startup in Ireland. As you may know, our banking sector was decimated in the financial crisis. This has made it extraordinarily difficult for startups to obtain even modest business loans from financial institutions. Remember this is Europe we are talking about, where VC financing is much less common than 'mainstream' financing through bank loans. Many businesses are closing their doors and opportunities are being lost simply because startups do not have access to the liquidity needed to keep the lights on.
On the flip side, this could be a great opportunity for you VCs to buy into promising startups for a veritable pittance.
"There are even government initiatives such as the JobBridge scheme that allow start-up companies hire people free of charge"<p>JobBridge has been roundly derided as a source of cheap/free labour for less than scrupulous restaurants , shops etc. under the guise of internship (as well as a useful way to fudge unemployment figures); "Learn to deal with problem customers..."<p>The short of it is, you'll need to offer a fair incentive to get good people - the IT sector is still pretty healthy here and decent graduates can expect to walk into a job from third-level.
I visited Dublin in September a few years ago. While I enjoyed myself a great deal, and liked the people and places we saw, it was such a relief to land in Bologna (Italy), and see strong, bright <i>light</i> coming from the sky. I could never live that far north.
These hyperbolic articles about places that are "the best place in the world for a startup" need to stop. For a creative and smart founder, any place in the world will be a fine spot to start up, and might even be better than silicon valley. But if you're going to make a generalization like that, then the bay area is the best place to be. Any article arguing otherwise is doing so purely for the sake of defying conventional wisdom.
Background: Spend most of my life in America, growing up mostly in So. California. Went to Dublin to work for 2 years between '06-'08. I came back right when the financial crisis hit in '08.<p>Good things about Ireland.
It is beautiful when it is not cloudy.<p>The people here are very easy to talk to if you want to have a bit of a chat.<p>If you want to go visit Europe, flights are cheap.<p>Bad things
Expensive, especially electronics and food. I believe the rent's dropped since the economic crisis but that was pretty expensive too.<p>There isn't much to do besides drink.
Food is terrible. I heard it's gotten better but if you've lived in SF or LA and you love food, don't work in Ireland. There were a nice row of Chinese places on Parnell that were pretty good though.<p>Customer service is shite.<p>It rains a lot, which isn't too bad since most of the time it's a light drizzle but then it's always cloudy. The worst part though is the winds that usually comes with the heavy rain as it makes it difficult to carry an umbrella since they'd just break.<p>Banks open from 10-4 with an hour lunch break during that time (where they'd completely close down) and on some days they'd open half an hour later for "training." When I was there none of the banks were open weekends, with a new bank that was opening up advertising, "OPEN ON SAT" as a benefit of their bank. I didn't have a car and my work was too far from a bank so it was a pain to do any kind of banking that required me to head down there.<p>This makes it sound like I had a rough time in Dublin, honestly it was pretty fun and enjoyable for the most part. All the bad points are pretty minor but having to deal with it day in day out was not fun.
I'm sure Ireland is a great place for start-ups, but doesn't seem likely to be the best place on earth.<p>Start-up incubators - Every major city in the US has them, most of them are terrible. The things that I believe make an incubator good are mainly the talented people willing to spend their time with entrepreneurs and the connections which help close future rounds. Simply having incubators isn't a reason to call Ireland a great place to start a startup.<p>Talented labour available for work - Every major city in the US has labor available. Not paying for an education does not make someone more qualified. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/22/countries-with-the-most-c_n_655393.html#s117390&title=Ireland_322" rel="nofollow">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/22/countries-with-the-...</a><p>According to this article, only 32.2% of Irish citizens are college educated, compared with over 40% in the US and 44% of SF residents <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco</a><p>Access to successful entrepreneurs - Ireland may be small, but so is the Valley and so is Boston, and so is DC etc. As long as you start meeting the right people and are smart and have a good idea, doors open. It may be true that the Irish community helps you, but I don't think this makes this "the best place in the world to start a start-up"<p>State run organizations dedicated to helping your business - In almost every case state run organizations do not help your business.<p>Community of likeminded individuals - These communities exist in every city in the US. Start-up communities are full of likeminded individuals.<p>EDIT: The guy that wrote the post seems to have a good idea for a start-up. There is definitely demand from mid size business in that are.
I'd definitely question the talented labour available for work.<p>There's nothing like the talent in SF and we're currently saturated with Google/Facebook/Amazon/LinkedIn/Zynga sucking up a significant chunk of the best talent here and also bringing people from the UK and mainland Europe.<p>This would be a significant challenge for anyone looking to push the bleeding edge of technology. There aren't many brilliant young 20 or 30 somethings willing to work in a startup environment sacrificing pay for equity in the same way as there is in SF.<p>Honestly, I'd see available talent as a significant struggle depending on how you're scaling and what kind of people you would need.
Enterprise Ireland just announced their "New Frontiers" scheme which is going to give 15K euro to 100+ startups. It does seem that the government is working hard to support new startups.
What I've learned from the valley is that there are three tests:<p>1. Do you embrace failure and those who fail? And are there local investors who think this way?<p>2. Can nerds bump into each other in a random manner in a central location on a regular basis?<p>3. Are nerds willing to travel there? So is a nerd from Scotland or Turkey thinking "I have to get to Ireland"<p>I'm not sure that Ireland has those three things yet. Although to be honest I'm in NYC and I'm not sure we have that yet either (or have it 100%).
Irish person with a CS background here. I think Ireland has similar problems regarding churning out 'talent' to the UK
in that there are initiatives in schools for people to use computers but that's about it.<p>The fact we have a much smaller population also means that the small percentage of really good hackers you'd normally expect generally is a small number. To compound things further, those in this category are also more likely to immigrate, not because of some hardship, but because there are simply better opportunities elsewhere. To put it bluntly, those who dedicate large amounts of time hacking and getting better are a lot less likely to be 'tied down'.<p>Universities, yes the number of relevant applicants have gone up, and that's good and all, but to me this looks more reactionary than anything else. I think the primary problem is more of an image one, CS itself remains a mystery subject to many. I realise that this problem may also exist elsewhere, but to me it seems a lot more pronounced here.<p>I'm glad the government is at least doing something about it, but I feel that simply chucking money at it probably isn't the most effective way to tackle it.
As someone who was recently in Ireland for an accelerator, and asked to stay by Enterprise Ireland, here are some of my thoughts:<p>1. Start-up Incubators - There are more in the US, that are on average, of higher quality. The incubator we went to was good, but still doesn't compare to YCombinator, TechStars or DreamIt in terms of mentorship and networks.<p>2. Talent - It's harder to find GOOD python and ruby developers in Dublin than say New York or Boston. Scores of average developers exist, but if you're hunting for extremely good coders, you will have a hard time.<p>3. Access to successful entrepreneurs - This is the one that annoys me most. Yes - Ireland is a small place. Networking can be done in a matter of weeks and you'll have hit the entire country's tech guys. However, the truth is there were only about 10 founders that really made money during the last tech bubble - the rest largely lost more than they made in the housing crash. That being said, older entrepreneurs may be helpful, but both the successful and now-bankrupt are often starting businesses of their own again. The article is misleading on this point.<p>4. State run organizations that help - This is true and they are largely referring to Enterprise Ireland. However, what they won't say is that the state money is contingent on the seed funds/angels investing first - they simply match. Raising money in Ireland takes 3x the effort, and 4x as long as it would in London, New York, Toronto, and especially compared with Boston and the valley. The major problem is that these investors are extremely risk-averse. I feel they want to get in on companies series B kind of stability, but at seed level prices. That being said, they are also more interested in better mousetraps than potentially disruptive ideas, in my opinion.<p>5. Community of like-minded individuals - The people are fine.
There are many good reasons why startups should consider Ireland as their choice location:
The World Bank, recently ranked Ireland as the top country in Europe for starting a company.<p>As well as hosting some of Europe’s top accelerator programs, Ireland has a high rate of seed and venture capital availability.<p>Ireland’s population is young, highly innovative, well-educated and multi-lingual.<p>Strategically located with easy access to the important markets in Europe, US and the middle east. Ireland is the only English speaking country in the Euro-zone.<p>Ireland is a great place to live and work.
download the reasons why <a href="http://mammothdigital.tv/clients/enterpriseireland/startinireland/3/pdf/startinireland.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://mammothdigital.tv/clients/enterpriseireland/startinir...</a><p>or check out www.startinireland.com
I don't want to be down on Ireland, but it is not a great place to do a startup, though it is a great place and I miss it. I left Ireland to move to SF for the tech scene.<p>The tech scene there is tiny, and is completely dwarfed by Silicon Valley. That's changing sure, but it has a long long long way to go before it could be considered "the best place in the world".<p>It does have cheap talent going for it. But it has basically zero VC (look at where Irish companies go to raise, it's not Ireland).<p>I would say, at best, Ireland can now be considered a "not bad" place to do a startup, but suggesting its the best is lunacy, it's not even the best in Europe (hint: probably Berlin).