

Show HN: A community for Swedish Startups - jp1989
http://www.swedishstartupspace.com/

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sk00byd00
I'm in currently in Sweden and I get a 502 bad gateway... so I can't comment
on the site, but out of curiosity, if this is targeted at the Swedish
entrepreneur, why call it 'Swedish' anything rather than Svensk/Sverige which
would be the first phrase typed in by a Swedish person on Google (one would
assume)?

I know some people speak English in Sweden (you can even hear people modelling
their accents on a British or American variety), but not everyone. I know that
English is a requirement of Swedish universities but if the American way of
doing things taught me anything, its a lot of very capable people don't go to
university. It just seems to me like an unnecessary barrier, you might be
missing out on input from the next Ingvar Kamprad.

~~~
ninjin
> I know that English is a requirement of Swedish universities

Sure, to enter you need to meet certain requirements. But according to at
least policy (if not law) all lectures for at least the bachelor level must be
available in Swedish (if there is consensus among the students the lecturer
may switch to English). Course materials is a different matter however, few if
any books on advanced topics are translated into Swedish.

> if the American way of doing things taught me anything, its a lot of very
> capable people don't go to university.

Sure, but most capable American drop-outs that I know of dropped out at
earliest in high school (in fact, finishing upper-secondary school is
mandatory for Swedish children, by law). At that point a Swedish student will
have studied English for at least six years and should be more than capable to
write and read English. Add the enormous cultural influence from America to
that.

Now, I agree with your point regarding the name. Perhaps a Swedish noun with
an English sub-title would be better, "Raket: Monitoring the Swedish Start-up
Scene". But I think the main reason it is in English is to cater to an
international audience and possibly to be more accessible for expats living in
Sweden (from what little personal experience I have, most of them don't even
feel the need to learn Swedish due to the level of English spoken by the
common man). Perhaps even foreign investors, who knows...

~~~
sk00byd00
You would think 6 years is enough to learn English but in my day-to-day
experience in Sweden (anecdotal) there are a fair amount of Swedes who speak a
little to no English, especially in rural areas (and rural areas in Sweden are
cheap, beautiful and fibred to the gills, so I have to assume there are some
worthwhile start ups out there).

It certainly is an interesting state of affairs when you don't need to learn
Swedish in Swedish cities (personally I feel guilty). At this rate I wonder if
there will be a Swedish language at all in 100 years.

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skarmklart
The Swedish HN should also be mentioned:
[http://hackernytt.se](http://hackernytt.se)

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dschiptsov
Offtopic, but.. I have a great interest in Swedish startups, due to situation
in my family.

[http://karma-engineering.com/lab](http://karma-engineering.com/lab) is what
I'm capable of.

It is all about working visa, of course.

~~~
Yrlec
Your site is down so I can't comment on that.

Sweden has reasonably liberal laws when it comes to working visas. You need to
get a job offer with a salary that isn't below the market rate in Sweden. If
you can get that then your chances are very good. If you're interested to
learn more about the Sweden's startup community I suggest come by the next
Startup Pub at The Royal Institute of Technology:
[https://www.facebook.com/groups/426048174127676](https://www.facebook.com/groups/426048174127676)

~~~
dschiptsov
_You need to get a job offer with a salary that isn 't below the market rate
in Sweden._ \- That is exactly the thing I'm looking for.)

As for my site, it is hosted on Linode, so now and again connections are timed
out.)

~~~
hkj
What he is saying is, if you get a job offer with a salary above the market
rate in Sweden then you almost automatically get a visa otherwise you won't
have a chance. Yes salary is the most important part of getting a work visa in
Sweden.

~~~
Yrlec
Exactly. IANAL but as far as I know there are no quotas or educational
requirements. Just as long you get a fair salary (which has to be approved by
a trade union) then you're good to go. Edit: why the down vote? I am honestly
curious what I did wrong.

~~~
dschiptsov
A set of documents must be supplied to the immigration authorities, which
consists of a guarantee of a job offer from a registered enterprise and
detailed financial information. Education and age aren't concerned in this
case. It is important when one applies to student visa.

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ValentineC
Site seems to be inaccessible due to the HN effect. Text version from Google
Cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:swedish...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:swedishstartupspace.com&num=50&safe=off&strip=1)

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znowi
I expected a more nordic look :) Like bluish, lots of white, simplistic layout
with green accents :) And why not host the Swedish community on .se domain?

~~~
jp1989
Good point! We've been working with a few design ideas and I'm sure over time
it will become more 'scandinavian feeling'. In terms of the domain - because
we are trying to also promote Sweden to the world, we thought it more logical
to use .com - we do have .se however. Great feedback though!

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jp1989
Sorry guys, the site actually crashed due to a non-HN related issue just after
posting :S

We just updated the design and would love some feedback on it.

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JimWestergren
I like it and I am also Swedish. I will be moving back to Sweden in a number
of years (Stockholm). I look forward to the meet the startup community :)

~~~
jp1989
Awesome!

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utvecklare_2131
Site is down :(

