Comment by jcdreads | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jcdreads | Hacker News Reader

Our pg has, of course, had much to say about the feasibility of this kind of thing:

* http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html

* http://www.paulgraham.com/startuphubs.html

* http://www.paulgraham.com/maybe.html (a proposed recipe for how to do maybe create a new startup hub; that's actually somewhat more modest than what the tc article describes)

The most salient quote from those articles, IMO: "Of course, a would-be silicon valley faces an obstacle the original one didn't: it has to compete with Silicon Valley."

I would note that if the UK are serious about this "entrepeneur visa" then that could get very interesting. Currently I can't imagine fighting through the federal paperwork required to start a company in California if I weren't already an American. Should this hub nucleate properly I can imagine most non-UK non-US citizens vastly preferring dealing with UK immigration to what has to be a frustrating US system. (Any non-UK non-US folks care to comment more informedly on this?)

And real estate is stupidly expensive in London, so they're halfway to Silicon Valley already.

[Edit: formatting]

Working in the UK seems to be relatively easy for people from Commonwealth countries, e.g. India. For EU citizens it's even simpler. I don't know about the conditions for Americans working here, though.

So, I agree, easier immigration is one point to base your leverage on, when competing with silicon valley.

The area around Cambrige, UK, already toys with the slightly pretentious name of Silicon Fen.

Pretentious, maybe, but it hosts a world-class company (ARM).

More than one. But it takes quite a few swallows to make a summer. (I am working in the Cambridge Science Park.)

It's pretty trivial to get a Tier-1 visa if your a programmer, you have a year or so before you have to get a job, and you can work for your own company as long as you're earning a competitive wage.

There is very little paperwork required to get a resident permit and register a limited company in UK. In the last 6 years the administration has taken measures to prevent abuse of unemployment benefits and child support by self-employed ppl (mainly immigrants from Poland). But as far as one can sustain himself and pays taxes he is trouble free.

My impression is that most of the Asian, African, Balkan, etc newcomers to London are self-employed or LTD owners. That route is far easier than getting a work permit.

However, isn't this bit like saying you can't beat IBM, Altavista, Friendster/MySpace or other established companies.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com