Should I start up in Barcelona?
10 months ago I moved from London to Barcelona as part of a restructuring in the start up I was working on at the time, Amuso.com. Since arriving, I have fallen in love with the city, and it is undoubtably one of the most amazing places to live in on the planet, with year round sun, beaches a-plenty, food to die for and world famous sights. But is it a good base for a tech Start up? I recently did a SWOT analysis with @robbiehudson of Barcelona's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to help us answer this question with regards to our own startup we are working on. Our thoughts are below...
Strengths Great weather
Amazing food
Living costs are lower
Beach
Tech scene is expanding
Government funding for startups
Creativity Weaknesses Language barrier
Underdeveloped entrepreneurial scene (well, compared to London anyway)
Isolation from UK
Smaller pool of technical talent
Working culture is more 'relaxed'
Cost of keeping touch with friends, family and network in UK Opportunities Learn Spanish and/or Catalan
More relaxed working culture improves perspective
Access to Spanish speaking markets
Isolation from rest of tech scene may improve focus, originality
A British startup based in Barcelona is (almost) unique, would help us to stand out
Help lead the growth of the Barcelona tech scene by founding events, bringing community together Threats Great weather + beach can be a distraction!
Missing out on networking opportunities
Environmental cost of having to visit UK often
Bear in mind these ideas are pretty raw and I'm sure we overlooked some big positives and negatives, but the process certainly helped my thinking with regards to setting up shop in Barcelona. The main negative points with such a move seem to focus around being left out of the vibrant and ever-expanding tech scene in London. There really seems to be something happening with startups in the UK right now, and being left behind is a scary thought. Except that being left behind is not really something to be worried about. London is just under 2 hours by air from the most central airport in Barcelona; Skype and Twitter enable relationships to be nurtured and improved over time in spite of great distances (heck, I've been going out with a girl who lives in Poland for 3 years now), and let's face it, there are usually only two or three events worth attending each month - a good excuse to fly over for some meetings.. Space and time are no longer the barriers they used to be, and if we now have wonderful, affordable tools and services that help us take control of where and when we interact with other people, then why not take the opportunity to live where you want? Well, I love going to the beach, so that's settled then.....
Further reading
http://thebln.com/2009/06/where-you-live-matters-a-lot-you-also-get-to-choose/
Strengths Great weather
Amazing food
Living costs are lower
Beach
Tech scene is expanding
Government funding for startups
Creativity Weaknesses Language barrier
Underdeveloped entrepreneurial scene (well, compared to London anyway)
Isolation from UK
Smaller pool of technical talent
Working culture is more 'relaxed'
Cost of keeping touch with friends, family and network in UK Opportunities Learn Spanish and/or Catalan
More relaxed working culture improves perspective
Access to Spanish speaking markets
Isolation from rest of tech scene may improve focus, originality
A British startup based in Barcelona is (almost) unique, would help us to stand out
Help lead the growth of the Barcelona tech scene by founding events, bringing community together Threats Great weather + beach can be a distraction!
Missing out on networking opportunities
Environmental cost of having to visit UK often
Bear in mind these ideas are pretty raw and I'm sure we overlooked some big positives and negatives, but the process certainly helped my thinking with regards to setting up shop in Barcelona. The main negative points with such a move seem to focus around being left out of the vibrant and ever-expanding tech scene in London. There really seems to be something happening with startups in the UK right now, and being left behind is a scary thought. Except that being left behind is not really something to be worried about. London is just under 2 hours by air from the most central airport in Barcelona; Skype and Twitter enable relationships to be nurtured and improved over time in spite of great distances (heck, I've been going out with a girl who lives in Poland for 3 years now), and let's face it, there are usually only two or three events worth attending each month - a good excuse to fly over for some meetings.. Space and time are no longer the barriers they used to be, and if we now have wonderful, affordable tools and services that help us take control of where and when we interact with other people, then why not take the opportunity to live where you want? Well, I love going to the beach, so that's settled then.....
Further reading
http://thebln.com/2009/06/where-you-live-matters-a-lot-you-also-get-to-choose/
