Amsterdam's Startup Manifesto

The main reason why Amsterdam isn't a startup hub, and won't be for some time, is really simple: money.

First of all compared to SV there is no easy access to capital. Want to raise 100k (an insignificant amount by SV standards)? Well you better get a good price for your kids in the black market because there's barely any VC to speak of and banks do not give money to anything more complicated than a clothing shop.

Next is housing. Amsterdam is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, but it's also one of the most expensive ones. Living inside the city ring (what people typically understand when you talk about Amsterdam) is extremely expensive. A 50-sqm-one-bedroom appartment will easily cost you $1500 (over 1000€) and for the average person that means almost 50% of your netto salary. Go under that and you're not really living in Amsterdam proper but the newer, and much less desirable, outer boroughs.

Finally there's the issue with compensation. Amsterdam is plagued with yuppies in the finance/consulting/sales sectors for one reason: it's what pays. In consulting 60k is almost entry level, and I'm talking about middle of the road companies. A senior engineer, someone with more than 5-7 years of real experience, is lucky to break 55k and will never get a raise once there. Lack of talent you say? Go 120km to the southeast and you have access to fairly hardcore technical guys. If you need more you have Germany right next to it which also has lots of technical talent. There is no shortage of talent here, there is a shortage of pay and of interesting work. And let's not get into the highly unfavorable contracts offered, like mandatory non-compete agreements for up to two years and automatic ownership of everything you make in your own time with your own equipment.

In short, nothing will change unless there's more money flowing around.

I'll throw in my two cents on the education side of things. My supervisor is a professor of entrepreneurship. I asked her how she teaches it since she has never started a business herself. She said "When I start the course the first thing I tell them is that most of them are not going to start a business." What she believes is that she teaches them a way of thinking that will help in the future. This was weird to me. Basically, despite "expertise" in the topic, it still boiled down to teaching theory and not how to start a business. But that's just a snapshot of one conversation, take from it what you will.

Generally, there is a division in young graduates: the part that want security and benefits and "not having to think about it" to the idealists who have the potential but are clueless as to how to get started. Divisions between disciplines in the classroom mean that in the past year I've spent more time with anthropologists than engineers. A ridiculous amount of time. Who knows what ideas could have been sparked if I'd hung out after-hours with a few techies instead?

The irony is that many of the top graduates from my class will go on to work for McKinsey and other consultancy companies (it was the top career of choice) somehow deluding themselves that they can offer top advice on something they've never fucking done. Isn't that pretty amazing? I think so. They are not bad or dumb people, but they've been taught that they CAN do it like this.

What other industries can you be a consultant in without prior experience?

"Seriously: McKinsey? WTF do they know about starting your own company?"

Eh.. I don't know, maybe they've been consulting and guiding startups since before you were born?

They've even written an excellent book on starting a business called "Starting Up" (http://www.scribd.com/doc/4505824/Mckinsey-Starting-Up-Busin...)

Anyway, I don't think that the problem with Dutch startups is ambition. It is lack of action taking. If I look at people with awesome and ambitious ideas, they almost never go out and persue it full time. They also almost never try to find a cofounder. If they do, usually it's a group of friends that go at it part time.

So perhaps what we need to convince people of is that it's not so risky to stop what you're doing for a year and pursue a startup idea full time. The Netherlands is actually a very startup friendly country, people just don't know it. They don't know about tax advantages and subsidies available to entrepreneurs. Banks make it seem like getting money is hard.

BTW how did you manage to write a blog post about startup culture in Amsterdam without mentioning Bubbleconf? (http://www.bubbleconf.com)

Great Piece. FYI: last year we brought 500 female led startups together througout the year, to connect with the eco system of investors. we organized 2-monthly Pitch training programmes that won the recognition of the European training Foundation. We have monthly coffee chats for female entrepreneurs. We bring a fresh approach to the startup female entrepreneurs, connecting them with investors. We are building an inclusive startup eco-system, and indeed, if there would be more corporates, VC's, who would support this, we would go faster - and so would the female entrepreneurs. Every country in the world understands that female entrepreneurs are key to future growth of the economy, ( do a google search and you will know) but the Dutch government is not yet there. Next week we'll talk again

I'd love to hear the one, the first, most important (or with the highest leverage or MVPability) thing we could start to change. Tell me and I'll help.

Startup tour and media attention for it was not bad either btw. At Springest we get a lot of visiting students who want to know what it's like to work at a startup or start your own. I feel a bit like we're also underplaying how much is good already. Maybe a first step is a good directory-style site that gives info on all kinds of startup ecosystem parts? Then we can fill in the gaps or accept them where they can't be filled in. And make sure nobody gives bullshit reasons for not starting something :)

I don't know were you got your information about higher éducation and startups, but a lot of good things are already happening at ACE. http://www.ace-amsterdam.org/ Greetings, @martinharing

To be sure: With this manifesto we don't mean that the ecosystem is completely shit. We've written this post in order to recognise current weakness in the Amsterdam ecosystem, discuss and learn form them, and build something great from it.

You're talking about talking to the government, but you'd need a clear agenda if you want to partake in such an endeavor. So what will the main talking points be and do you have something clear and actionable in mind?

In Amsterdam, there's almost no houses with garages. Put bluntly, this is why Amsterdam will never be anything like SV.

It's started a conversation at the very least ;)