In 1956, William Shockley opened Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory to innovate on the then-current transistors. Shockley was a great talent magnet but a crappy manager so a core group of Shockley employees (the famous the traitorous eight) left to start Fairchild Semiconductors and from that, start 65 other companies. That was

Kristinn - goes by Kiddi - is the founder and editor of Northstack and has analysed the Icelandic tech and venture ecosystem for the last five years. As a real job he works in tech. When people think about Iceland, the things that probably come to mind are stunning – and

(or: what would you do with €100 million?) I’m fascinated by the rise and fall of civilizations. Guns, Germs and Steel, a Roberto Caro-esque account of how geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world, is my favorite book. When a friend mentioned there was a book on why

It’s not uncommon in history that a single set of policies (often pushed by a few) turn around the future of an entire country, changing its downward trajectory propelling it into the Big Leagues. It happened in Asia, where countries like Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan used land

“Berlin ist arm, aber sexy.” - Klaus Wowereit, Mayor of Berlin 2001 - 2014 “Berlin is poor, but sexy." Next month is the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. Crazy. This physical and political barrier single-handedly shaped the city to become the post-capitalist contradiction it is today.

SeedTableEarlier this week, Dealroom released a report on UK tech. The conclusion: the UK has become the world’s hottest tech hub in 2019. Here's how they make that case: Venture capital invested in UK startups during January to July 2019 is $6.7 billion, a 43%+ YoY growth compared

Different cities send different messages. After living in Buenos Aires, Cincinnati, Milano, Paris and now Barcelona, I realized that each message resonates with different people. Paul Graham writes: "Great cities attract ambitious people. You can sense it when you walk around one. In a hundred subtle ways, the city sends

If you visit ever have the fortune of visiting China, you’ll grasp something fairly quickly: it runs on an immense scale. China is home to 1.5 billion people, and internet penetration is over 50%: over 770 million Chinese have internet access, and use it every day to communicate,

A couple days ago, @jason tweeted about China vs. the US, and a Twitter battle ensued. Here's what a brief extract of his ideas: "Founders, we're up against Jack Ma (& China) enforcing a 72-hour work week ... but I will tell you that you need a plan to fight heads

I’m sitting at a coffee shop on the 5ème Arrondisement right now. I spent the better part of this week having coffee with startup founders, employees and investors in the Paris ecosystem. Some were French, most of them weren’t. After living for more than a year over here,

A few days ago, The French government unveiled a complete overhaul of the French Tech Visa for employees: they are making it easier to come work for a tech company in France. This is for real, not a PR stunt. The visa is free, nationality-agnostic, you don't need a diploma,