

Ask HN: Stockholm Startups? - dsimard

I recently moved to Stockholm for my wife's job. I'd like to work at a startup, and I've heard that there's supposed to be a decent community for that here (not like the valley, but better than most places).  However, I'm starting from zero, with no network of people to talk to.  I'm learning how easy it is to feel lost in a new country.<p>So, does anybody know of any good startups here?  Or any communities I should try to get involved with?
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RyanMcGreal
I thought this was going to be about startups whose owners had grown to love
the tyrannical VC funders who were ruining their lives.

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lukego
The Erlang community has historically spawned a lot of interesting startups in
Stockholm (Bluetail, Synapse, Kreditor, tail-f, Mobile Arts, ...). There are
pub nights.

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enra
Check out <http://www.arcticstartup.com/> and our index of Swedish startups
<http://www.arcticindex.com/companies?search[country_id]=1>

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willmacdonald
I'd love to find to startup or developer communities here too. Do you speak
Swedish ? I'd feel a bit awkward going to some meeting and being one of the
few people who don't speak Swedish. I moved to Stockholm a couple of years ago
but haven't had a chance to do any searching yet, busy with babies.

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dsimard
I'm learning fast, but it'll be a while before I'm really comfortable with it.
Every time I think I'm getting good somebody will say something that sounds to
me like a long unparsable stream of borka-borka like the swedish chef and I'll
get all depressed about my progress for a couple of days. :)

Rumor has it that most of this kind of work is done in English, which would
help. I haven't been able to verify that yet though.

Anyway, maybe we can help each other out. Email me if you feel like it. It's a
gmail account and I'm "davesimard".

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willmacdonald
I am self employed, and 99% my clients are in UK, so I speak English all day.
When I'm at home I need to to speak English with my children so they learn
some English. I have trouble finding any time to learn Swedish.

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mmelin
One big thing that's happening soon is 24 hour business camp in late October.
The event is already full (120 participants) but there will probably be an
after-party the weekend after the event where you can build your network.
edit: link for that is <http://www.24hbc.com/>

Mattias Swenson of Bloglovin maintains a Ning network at
<http://swedishstartups.ning.com/> \- it's not extremely active but if you
sign up for a membership you'll get emails when new stuff happens, mostly in
Stockholm but also in the rest of Sweden.

I'm in Stockholm, feel free to drop me an email (contact info in profile) if
you'd like to chat or have any questions. Welcome and gear up for the coming
winter ;)

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dsimard
Start a business in 24 hours? Interesting... does that actually work for
people?

Anyway, thanks for the links!

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mmelin
Yeah, people build a first version of their app, not a whole business in the
24 hours. I participated in the first iteration as well, which was back in
January. Check out the list of projects after the informal vote:
[http://www.24hourbusinesscamp.com/2009/01/vote-for-your-
favo...](http://www.24hourbusinesscamp.com/2009/01/vote-for-your-favourite-
start-up.html)

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erikstarck
My own little humble database of Swedish startups is at
<http://www.sweden100.com> Drop me an email if you feel like meeting up, my
contact details are on the about-page on the blog.

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tuukkah
Spotify R&D is in Stockholm, they have users and are in the headlines, I hear
they use Debian in their backend, and they let paying customers access their
DRM service using third-party clients too. Draw your own conclusions.

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unwind
Not a startup recommendation, but if you're not aware of
<http://www.thelocal.se/>, you probably should be. :)

It's a news site in English, and has what seems to be a quite lively forum
section, which might be a good place to ask, too.

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JohanLange
HI - freelancers/entrepreneurs meet at www.2lance.net - online and meetings,
there's and Internation community, an entrepreneur community at ning.com and a
few more...

Niclas Carlsson runs "founders alliance" with an amazing bunch of startups.

Just to start the seach - welcome to Shining Stockholm!

Johan Lange

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aik
With the exception of Stockholm, where in Sweden would be a good place to find
startups?

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enra
I think Malmö(in Southern Sweden) is next to Stockholm.

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mmelin
Definitely, since Malmö and Copenhagen are almost the same city nowadays.

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Feeble
What are your skills? What type of business areas are you interested in?

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dsimard
A little bit of everything I guess. I'm a developer for sure, but I'm a
generalist at heart which is why a small start-up sounds appealing to me.

As for specific skills, lately I've been defaulting to Python. I've been going
through all the SICP lectures too which is re-exciting me about lisp, but I'm
not too optimistic about finding a job using that.

As for business areas, I'm feeling pretty open-minded right now.

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appl3star
checkout jameslist.com - they are in stockholm ...

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berntb
Other people have give good answers. Here are a couple of things you might
want to do the first few years.

Education is free in Sweden. Check for if your background allows you to get
into university courses. (The evening/distance courses are generally for older
people that already works. Good contacts.)

You have checked for user groups of your favorite development environement(s)?

Disclaimer: I left the area for a nice job, a few years back. :-)

