ElDragonRojo

This represents about the nicest apartment in Amsterdam. Things get cheaper the further you move from the center. And what "most rental agencies" require doesn't affect us. We have our own agency.

It's not by foreigners for foreigners. Our attendees, and our volunteers, are about half expat, half local. Appsterdam will be a benefit to App Makers around the world, and also a tremendous boon to the Netherlands.

Appsterdam events are in English. Other tech events in the city are usually some mixture of English and Dutch, depending on whether the audience is international.

You are, if you will pardon the expression, talking out of your ass.

I brought Appsterdam to Sofa. I kept Appsterdam when Sofa left. Even if I died tomorrow, Appsterdam would continue. This isn't a product. It's a movement. Its power doesn't come from its founders, it comes from its people, and our people are amazing.

Rain doesn't bother me. Smog bothers me. Tasers bother me. Not being able to afford healthcare bothers me. My family has been in California for six generations, and I love it, but you can have it. I'll take the Netherlands.

Appsterdam also has an amazing housing agent who specializes in expats.

I have a ground level apartment with a courtyard on the canal at Groenburgwal, which is in my opinion the nicest neighborhood in Amsterdam, right smack in the middle of everything, but quiet, and beautiful.

Furnished, all inclusive: €1300/mo.

I lived in San Francisco. An apartment this nice in a neighborhood this nice was well out of my price range, and I made six figures at Apple.

Actually the Netherlands has amazing tax incentives for technology companies. It's quite common for tech companies here to pay essentially no payroll taxes. Things like VAT passthrough are also a huge tax break.

You are not a tax expert. I understand that. We actually do have tax experts, who are available to Appsterdammers, and are working on a nice write up of this information for publication in the near future.

That's good feedback and we will have more of that sort of thing in the future, as well as direct help. A lot of this stuff is on my blog, http://mur.mu.rs.

One clarification though, we're not really in the business of stating we want to be the next anything. We just want to get App Makers together in one place, and we'd prefer that place be nice. What other people label us is their problem.

How is it growing as a hub exactly? Did you actually read the article? ;)

Luckily Appsterdam is not limited to Amsterdam. This isn't a pissing match between Dutch cities. It's about international branding. Appschede doesn't sound as good. Most people associate Delft with pottery. Americans have never heard of Utrecht.

As far as most people are concerned, these places are features of Amsterdam. But if you're in the Netherlands, we're a train ride away, and you're always welcome to come up for an event or a meeting.

Your pessimism seems endemic in European culture. It's actually a bigger problem, to my mind, than anything else you've mentioned here. As I like to say, Americans need to calm the hell down, and Europeans need a kick in the ass. Hopefully the Appsterdam movement will help us help each other, and we can find cultural bliss in the middle.

I will say this though, every gay person I know is a lot less worried about being beaten up by a cultural stereotype and a lot more worried about when they are going to be able to get married. That's something Amsterdam has that even San Francisco doesn't.

And hey, if you're right and the government (AKA the people) manage to turn the Netherlands into an intolerant police state, we'll move the whole thing to Germany.

First, the funding here is metaphorical. What we're trying to do is capitalize a company as if it were angel funded.

The metaphorical return on that investment is a company vetted by an established member of the community that will produce good products.

The other option is to let all good companies be forced to compromise their vision to meet investor expectations, or operate slowly to be drowned by crapware.