[FuckOffNeemo]

I believe the article is suggesting London or the UK, is hindered when trying to compete with SV or other similar start-up\technology based cities. That most companies (though the examples in the article aren't the greatest) are bought out or shifted off shore inhibits the UK from developing that scene further.

I'd suggest it's a little more complex than just starting a company and not selling out to a larger competitor. London is not Silicon Valley. Never has been and any opportunity to cultivate that type of culture within the city will surely be even more challenging with the Brexit?

But I digress. When the Brexit vote is enacted, I suspect we'll find business and investment into start-ups in the UK continuing to diminish in favour of EU based states or else where.

Actually. You could really say this about almost every industry in the UK with the exception of the Banking and Financial sector, they're all diminishing in favour of offshore? If they haven't already anyway? That's profound.

Source: ex-pat from the UK

Edit: words, additional statements.

[zigzigzag]

When it comes to exports and national GDPs perception and reality often rarely align.

Example: almost everyone thinks UK manufacturing has been in decline for decades. In reality when measured in absolute amounts the UK manufactures more than ever before. People think it's declined only because it employs fewer people (but still manages to make more). A more optimistic way to look at it would be to say that UK manufacturing has become wildly more productive than in the past.

So when you say they're "diminishing" you need to square that with the fact that the UK economy is actually doing pretty well, by European standards, hence the large migratory net inflows as people vote with their feet.