The Nordic region is becoming a hothouse of entrepreneurship

This might be a common myth. The tax levels in the nordic countries might be higher than the US but not by that much. We also have free health care and education (university attendance is free) and other benefits included in our taxes.

Earning $100k in Norway you'd pay around 32% tax.

Edit: We have progressive taxes. To pay over 50% taxes in Norway you'd have to have a regular salary above $551k, with no deductibles. Capital gains are taxed at 27%.

I pay an overall tax rate around 35-40% in Denmark. A flat 8% of that is for healthcare coverage, which is comparable to the percentage of my salary I paid for healthcare in the U.S., so the "non-healthcare" part is more like ~30%. Which is about what California taxes are like, after you add federal income tax, payroll taxes, and state income tax, so I'm not seeing much of a difference. My disposable income after "necessities" (taxes, healthcare, groceries, transportation, and rent) is a considerably higher percentage of my nominal income, all told— although that part really varies depending on where in the U.S. you live (e.g. Pittsburgh is much cheaper than the Bay Area).

Americans have a perception that Europeans pay much higher taxes than we do. It's perhaps true in certain countries in certain times for certain kinds of income but generally speaking the rates are quite comparable.

What's worse is: Europeans get way more for their taxes: namely medical which is 18% of the American GDP. In other words even if our taxes were way lower than their's (which they aren't) the medical piece likely would make up for it.

The key reason our taxes are so high compared to their's (I believe) boils down to military spending. I think you can make an argument that America's massive (more than everyone else combined) military spending is benefiting the whole world's stability and in that sense Americans subsidize the whole world through our taxes. But this means our taxes are inherently quite high.

There were certain areas in Berlin where speaking English seemed almost mandatory, especially in Bars and Cafes but that said I don't know how the situation is with gov institutions etc.

I would guess though that it can't be such a big deal as there seemingly are a lot of non German speakers everywhere (in the mentioned areas it felt like German native speakers actually were a minority) and consequently at least some of the local businesses were owned by non Germans too.

Vienna is definitely less pronounced international but telling from my experiences at coffee shops as well as the "Wien" subreddit at least there must be a thriving expat community.

Sorry for not having more info about the official lang requirements in Germany/Berlin but do check out the cities' corresponding subreddits:

http://www.reddit.com/r/berlin http://www.reddit.com/r/wien

There was a legislation about a maximum period of 7 years for doing both the bachelor's and the master's degree. This would mean a student could lose his permission to be enrolled in the university as a student and graduate:

http://yle.fi/uutiset/seitseman_vuoden_takaraja_hiillostaa_n...

http://www.mtv3.fi/uutiset/kotimaa.shtml/opintoajan-rajaus-o...

I couldn't find an English source for this, sorry. Perhaps Google Translate will help.

There is a caveat in the law, which is that universities can give extensions to the studies as they wish, and most students who request it do get it. But it's still a strong message from the government and there are ~400 students at the moment that have their studies interrupted because of this law.

Also Anita Lehikoinen from the Ministry of Education says that "funding to universities are partly decided by the amount of students who achieve 45 study points (points awarded for completing parts of the curriculum) in a given year" ( http://ylioppilaslehti.fi/2010/02/pitka-ura/ ) So there is a clear incentive for universities to push students into graduating quickly.

edit: Found an English source, this is an instructional material of Aalto University for exchange students, mentioning the study right: https://into.aalto.fi/display/enmasterarts/Study+right+and+t...

As far as I know there is no "favoritism" for goverment grants . Like any fundraising, there are those are better / more experienced with it and those who aren't.

But the real problem is that the government officials are not investors. Steve Blank said this well on his visit:

Ironically one of the things that’s holding back the Finnish cluster is Tekes, the government organization for financing research, development and innovation in Finland. It’s hard enough to pick which existing companies with known business models to aid. Yet Tekes does that and is trying to act like a government-run Venture Capital firm. At Tekes, government employees (and their hired consultants) – with no equity, no risk or reward, no startup or venture capital experience – try to pick startup winners and losers.

http://steveblank.com/2011/10/07/the-helsinki-spring/

I'm from Finland, from what I have heard and seen about the government funding companies is that they usually fund companies with a clear plan and with founders with a lot of experience in their field (that is have worked their whole life in the field/phds).

Getting by in Stockholm won't be a problem: you can safely assume that people within the start-up scene are fluent in English. You'll be met with a slightly different kind of problem: as communicating in English is so effortless, you'll have few opportunities to really practice your Swedish.

I agree with Matti - doing business in Stockholm without knowing Swedish is no problem. Swedes are generally fluent in English and most often they enjoy speaking it. I know several foreigners who run startups here without bothering to learn the local language.

I've been in Stockholm for 1.5 years now. When I arrived, I didn't know a single word of swedish (I've taken classes since, but not in a very productive way), and things have been just fine. Like another said, I'm not improving so much because I have very few incentives to do so.

Our monthly Python meetings in Gothenburg are almost always in English. In part because it was founded by two native English speakers, in part because there are other non-Swedish speakers who come, in part because many of the software courses are in English, and in part because almost all of the literature and documentation is in English.

And of course, in large part because this is effectively a bilingual country. In the years I've been here, I've only talked with a handful of native-born Swedes who did not speak English. Those were older people who had learned German as a student. (There are non-native-born Swedes, like immigrants from Chile who speak fluent Spanish and Swedish, whose English can be poor.)

So yes, it would be easy.

The market for apartments is not a strong point for Stockholm. You can get an apartment rather easily, but it is not cheap compared to similar cities in Europe.

Some current listings from the Swedish equivalent of Craigslist:

http://www.blocket.se/stockholm?q=&cg=3020&w=1&s...

It's crazy hard in Gothenburg, at least for some place I wanted to live. I've heard that Stockholm is worse. If you're a single person, willing to share an apartment with someone else, then you can rent just a room ("inneboende"). That's likely the easiest. You can also look for a sublease ("andrahandskontrakt"). But getting a lease ("förstahandskonrakt") is hard. Parts of town require you to be on a waiting list which can be up to 5 years long. For Gothenburg, I was on the list for 1.5 years for a lease before we gave up and moved to the smaller city of Trollhättan.

No startup scene, but a 1,300 sq. ft. apartment in the center of town (3bd, 1.5 ba) goes for only $1,500/month, and the commuter train to Gothenburg takes about 45 minutes.

If you have money you can get a "business apartment" for about 2x the normal rate. Those are pretty easy to find. But you'll need to have a business first (even one in the US) to rent it.

You can get an idea of what's available using the aggregator http://kvalster.se/Stockholm . When a place is "1 rum" it means studio, "2 rum" means "living room and bedroom", etc. As a decent approximation, 1sq meter is 10 sq. feet.

Rates in the tech area of Kista look about $700 for a shared room/studio. In Södermalm I see prices more around $800 for a room/studio, though you can pay a lot more. (350 sq. ft studio apartment, furnished, for one month rental while the owner is overseas, $1264 for the month.)