1) At least token engineering presence by every major tech company
2) Tech-savvy VC, legal, audit and tax services you can get on a short notice
3) A pool of talent to fill any engineering position
4) A funnel from a big engineering university to the industry that generates startups
5) Tax authorities willing to work through complicated situations like acquihires, IP riders in contracts for a consideration in the form of stock, etc.
It’s much smaller than the Bay Area, of course, but it’s the only place in Europe that has everything you need in one spot. (Except maybe London, but that’s more like the New York of Europe, minus the high salaries.)
Also, “IT hub” is a place where salaries are low and you plop down a call center. IT are the support roles that install antivirus, not a profit center. There’s a huge difference between that and a “tech industry.”
>>A pool of talent to fill any engineering position
Is it true for Zurich? Due to extremely high cost of living I guess there is small amount of unemployed IT people there.
And yes, Switzerland, but especially Zurich, is on another level compared to the rest of Europe. (Except maybe London.) I’ve been a hiring manager at multiple large tech companies: Europe in general has less tech talent than the US, but in London and Zurich you can fill any role, from kernel, through ML, computer vision, hardware, manufacturing, robots, quantum computing, etc.
