It's easy to forget how small the UK is, which leads to London centric commentary when people talk about the UK tech scene. In reality, a startup could be based comfortably outside of London where the cost of living and the cost of operating are a lot cheaper, creating not only a better deal for founders and employees, but investors money would be going where it's needed and not on rent or rates. I've recently had the opportunity to see what rents people are charging for office space at the moment and it's obscene.<p>The London investors will still be there. The talent in London is usually from somewhere else in the UK or Europe anyway. It's a cool city, but it's not as cool as having a successful startup of your very own.
Hopefully the elections next year will bring back the more sensible highly skilled migrant immigration policies from the past that will allow highly skilled foreigners to participate in and contribute to this boom.<p>Current policy introduced by the coalition government, as I understand it [1], is that a highly skilled migrant in the UK from outside the EU would simply not be allowed to build a revenue generating side project, either by themselves or in a partnership. The best they can legally do is find somebody to take their IP and hire them into a new business - an unlikely prospect, and a risky one - and even then they'd be limited to 20 hours of work per week unless the new business goes through a complicated legal process to become a visa sponsor. And after 5/6 years the foreigner may be declined leave to remain and forced to return to their home country, regardless of what they may have built up in the mean time.<p>[1] This is what my research shows. I'd love to learn that I'm wrong, being somebody who has to make a decision about whether to take this 5/6 year gamble while starting a family.
I have been very impressed with the London HN meetup:<p><a href="http://www.meetup.com/HNLondon/" rel="nofollow">http://www.meetup.com/HNLondon/</a><p>~250 attendees, pizza, beer, comedians and great talks from people like Stripe, Facebook & CityMapper. Well worth travelling to from outside London.
London is the place to be in Europe. I only wish there were proper large tech companies head-quartered here and capable of competing with financial sector in salaries.
London's coming along although we're a bit lacking in big hits compared to the US with Google, MSFT, Facebook et al worth ~$406bn, 391bn and $202bn respectively. The London areas biggest hit (if you include Cambridge as it's an hour away) is ARM worth about $22bn. Things are definitely on the up here but with some catching up to do.
I've been working in tech in London for just over a year, and even in that short time I feel the spirit has evolved. People are thinking bigger and smarter.<p>There is also a rudely healthy crypto currency scene in London, which I suspect will explode once they find a way through the banking/regulation maze.
Neat, I happen to be in London (Shoreditch) reading this. Just in town for the day (Sunday). Any HN peeps up for meeting up? @euwyn on Twitter or email in profile.