A couple of months ago our CEO Boris was interviewed by Tech City News, an UK publisher, to talk about why Amsterdam and The Netherlands became such a hype place for startups.
The topic has been explored a number of times, as cities in Europe furiously compete for the title of tech capital of the continent. While London and Berlin are considered top of the pile, when companies like Tesla, Uber and Netflix decided to base their European operations in Amsterdam, things changed.
There are many reasons why the Dutch city is attractive for business. There is a whole raft of insightful articles outlining the environmental, political and even historical conditions that sparkled such a tech driven scene in the country and specially in the capital.
The city has been labelled Europe’s West Coast startup capital and Forbes went so far to say Amsterdam is a genuine alternative to Silicon Valley.
This superlatives have come about thanks to initiatives like StartupDelta, an important program that stimulates the startup environment in the city and connects companies with investor and talents.
The “Start-up Visa” is also a big facilitator to bring startups to the city. It is a new type of visa that allows entrepreneurs to apply for a one year resident permit to develop their ideas in the country.
Another great initiative is StartupAmsterdam – a public/private scheme that joined forces with the government to improve the benefits and incentives for startups to come to Amsterdam – with the aim of catapulting the city into the top three startups hubs in Europe.
While big multi-nationals have been lured to the city, there’s an ever-growing list of home-grown startups to emerge including Booking.com, TomTom and of course, The Next Web that help the city attract investment and professionals from all over the world.
The Next Web itself has more than 20 different nationalities – most of which now call Amsterdam home.
But what does the city have to offer all these immigrants and internal migrants moving to the city? We asked around the office what people thought about living in the Venice of the North.
“Rent in Amsterdam isn’t cheap, it takes up a lot of your paycheck. But you can do a lot with what is left. You can buy so much more with your money and if you decide to stay for good, the government helps you out with the costs of buying a property, for example. That makes the choice of staying a lot easier.”
“As a “digital nomad”, I love that Amsterdam is a relatively affordable international city with lots of history and culture. I’m not a fan of all of the bureaucracy (who is?) and having to pay for public libraries/museums.ousing is extortionate. However, there’s this great “don’t care” attitude here compared with elsewhere. Coming from the UK where social class and where you went to school is still a huge deal, it’s super nice and inspiring.”
"everyone speaks English"
Read more: Startups are moving to Amsterdam, but should you?
The topic has been explored a number of times, as cities in Europe furiously compete for the title of tech capital of the continent. While London and Berlin are considered top of the pile, when companies like Tesla, Uber and Netflix decided to base their European operations in Amsterdam, things changed.
There are many reasons why the Dutch city is attractive for business. There is a whole raft of insightful articles outlining the environmental, political and even historical conditions that sparkled such a tech driven scene in the country and specially in the capital.
The city has been labelled Europe’s West Coast startup capital and Forbes went so far to say Amsterdam is a genuine alternative to Silicon Valley.
This superlatives have come about thanks to initiatives like StartupDelta, an important program that stimulates the startup environment in the city and connects companies with investor and talents.
The “Start-up Visa” is also a big facilitator to bring startups to the city. It is a new type of visa that allows entrepreneurs to apply for a one year resident permit to develop their ideas in the country.
Another great initiative is StartupAmsterdam – a public/private scheme that joined forces with the government to improve the benefits and incentives for startups to come to Amsterdam – with the aim of catapulting the city into the top three startups hubs in Europe.
While big multi-nationals have been lured to the city, there’s an ever-growing list of home-grown startups to emerge including Booking.com, TomTom and of course, The Next Web that help the city attract investment and professionals from all over the world.
The Next Web itself has more than 20 different nationalities – most of which now call Amsterdam home.
But what does the city have to offer all these immigrants and internal migrants moving to the city? We asked around the office what people thought about living in the Venice of the North.
“Rent in Amsterdam isn’t cheap, it takes up a lot of your paycheck. But you can do a lot with what is left. You can buy so much more with your money and if you decide to stay for good, the government helps you out with the costs of buying a property, for example. That makes the choice of staying a lot easier.”
“As a “digital nomad”, I love that Amsterdam is a relatively affordable international city with lots of history and culture. I’m not a fan of all of the bureaucracy (who is?) and having to pay for public libraries/museums.ousing is extortionate. However, there’s this great “don’t care” attitude here compared with elsewhere. Coming from the UK where social class and where you went to school is still a huge deal, it’s super nice and inspiring.”
"everyone speaks English"
Read more: Startups are moving to Amsterdam, but should you?
