> Zurich is in fact a tech hub, Google is there, and many interesting startups come from their outstanding technical school.
That is exactly what I mean. Zurich has prestigious schools and foreign companies that you have to attend because otherwise you can't get things like good housing or health care. In 00s Stockholm you didn't really have to do that. Which is why Stockholm have the homegrown companies and exits.
Daniel Ek didn't attend university. He tried to apply to Google but wasn't accepted. Now Spotify has had a $30 billion IPO. Presumably more than all contemporary Swiss startups exits ever. His co-founder had a degree in civil engineering (as roads and water infrastructure) but had instead founded and exited an adtech company.
Markus Persson didn't attend university either. The company behind Minecraft which he owned ~70% of sold for $2.5 billon to Microsoft. He was a former employee of King, the company behind Candy Crush Saga, which sold to Activision Blizzard for $5.9 billion.
That was the difference between Stockholm and Zurich. And between Stockholm and most other self-proclaimed tech hubs for that matter.
>His co-founder had a degree in civil engineering (as roads and water infrastructure)
I think this might be something that got lost in translation - at least according to Wikipedia, Martin Lorentzon studied Industrial Economics at Chalmers University.
The Swedish word Civilingenjör translates to Master of Science in Engineering, not to Civil engineer.
I was referencing Swedish Wikipedia which says he studied actual civil engineering (väg- och vattenbyggnad numera samhällsbyggnad) at Chalmers. NyTeknik writes that he applied for industrial economics but didn't get accepted.
So in essence, every other tech hub is an exception to Sweden…
There are however a dozen other places with good social support and public services where startups did not happen on that level.
As it stands, the only real common threads I see among all the startup hotbeds (SV, NYC, Boston, London, Stockholm, etc) are a tradition for trade/commerce/entrepreneurship, good universities for talent, and fairly laissez-faire regulations.
> Daniel Ek didn't attend university. He tried to apply to Google but wasn't accepted.
Amazing, so he combines two Silicon Valley founder narratives of 1) being a college dropout (or lacking a degree at any rate) and 2) being rejected by an established big company.
2) WhatsApp founder Brian Acton was famously rejected by Facebook (and Twitter), and is the canonical example, but there are others. There's even a website:
Other tech hubs like Paris, Tokyo, Austin, or Boston have not seen the circumstances you describe as far as I know.