- Extremely easy and cheap (no cost) to set up a limited company (can be done in 1 day)
- English speaking
- Access to huge pool of talents (not just European talent but also talent from many other cultures which is not that common on Mainland Europe)
- Huge tech scene, every tech company has a footing in the UK somewhere. You roam around likeminded people and other "successful" startups/businesses which is hugely motivating.
- UK is quick to adopt technology, especially in FinTech (for example many of my friends in mainland Europe still have no idea of Revolut or other challenger banks, with Germany being an exception)
- conferences, tech meetups, etc. you'll find a community for every niche here
- Access to funding good for Europe (obviously not as great as on the US West coast, but for this part of the world it's great)
- With the current rate of Sterling it is easy/easier to draw in investment from abroad (e.g. attract US investors as they get more for their $)
- Now this is very subjective, but I find the people in the UK are a lot more "entrepreneurial" than in Mainland Europe. I grew up in Europe and lived there until I was 25 and the whole system is set up to make people believe that the pinnacle of life is to get a university degree and then get a stable job in a 9-5 office job. In the UK so many people have a can-do-attitude and desire to create something for themselves, even if it's just a tiny business, but at least they work for themselves. It also shows in how people in the UK really value ownership and property as opposed to being content with renting (which is the default in Mainland Europe)
I'm based in Italy and our startup scene lags behind the UK one imo.
Starting a limited company in Sweden is relatively easy, though you do need something like 20,000 SEK to deposit into your company bank account. I'm just a one-person limited company use case not looking to raise funding or anything, but in terms of more ambitious projects where you raise funding and have employees etc, I see quite a few tech startups of that kind around. I get the sense that taking the risk to branch out and try to build something of your own is a less scary decision to make here than in some other places, because even if you fail you have a bit of a safety net to fall back on. It helps people be more willing to take risks of that kind, and Sweden has quite a few tech success stories.
Going from the broad "tech startup" term to something more specific, Sweden seems especially good for game development (that's actually why I moved here ten years ago). Lots of small indie studios popping up and getting funding, as well as larger ones. Lots of game dev talent around (though seemingly never enough). Large studios help get game developers into the country, which then get siphoned off to smaller studios or go off to try to do their own thing. There are local schools helping bring up new game dev talent as well, whose government funding is dependent on their students' success in the industry. It's generally a very vibrant scene.
I've recently moved to Gothenburg from Stockhom where the car industry is all the rage, with Volvo and various smaller companies around. There are tech co-working spaces both big and small for freelancers and startups, some small and independent, some funded and run by Volvo's parent company. Generally a super active scene for tech startups.
Assuming that a tech startup will mostly be around a digital product there are no borders on the internet or trade barriers. I can just as easily take international payments using Stripe as I did before. If TikTok can go global from China then any other tech startup can go global from the UK too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAFT
I've really only explored Amsterdam since Americans don't get a lot of vacation, but out of the EU capitols I visited it was the nicest. (Berlin is overrated, do not move to Berlin.)
The other option is Italy, if you have any Italian grandparents:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_nationality_law#Attrib...
It's my understanding if you "become Italian" you can live and work throughout the EU, though it's not clear how long that would be the case since the "Five Star Movement" keeps fucking things up there[1] - they have some good ideas but are also Eurosceptic and split things in a bad way with their ~15%.
Once you become Italian, maybe move to Italy? Apparently not many people do. If you do your business on the internet maybe you can set up some solar panels, buy some internet, and then... do business?
(Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. Happy spooky season!!) -- [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Star_Movement#Electoral_r...
The worst, from my experience, is Germany (actually impressive how averse to technology the majority of the country is) and Switzerland (very high COL, crazy developer salaries + very hard to get work visas). The caveat for Switzerland is that if you are extremely well funded then I think the tech infrastructure is the best, but it is very expensive.