[rich_sasha]

I saw a list of European unicorns (on HN in fact I think) and probably about 2/3 were UK/London based. That’s right now. The other ones are scattered around, so this might be your best bet in this part of the world.

As another comment says, you’ll mostly get political comments, so here goes: UK universities, while still very good, are dropping quite significantly in various league tables since Brexit. This is for a range of reasons: non-UK applicants now get a full US-style price, with little support or loans. They are less attractive for academics too. 2/3 of UK unis dropped since the Brexit votes, Cambridge is at a historical low of 7th in the world, behind ETH. Student visas are sth like £1000 per year on top of that. If you think this will continue, and talented and driven young people will choose other countries, this will extinguish, in the long term, the supply of talent to startups and tech.

UK’s attitude to immigration will also be unpredictable. On the one hand, it states that it is keen to attract talent etc, on the other hand visas will be largely awarded based on salaries (maybe not so good for early stage startups). Also there are no guarantees that eg the partner of a visa taker will be awarded one, or that visas will be extended. This is another reason why people might give the Uk a wide berth - and these would be potentially your cofounders, colleagues, investors.

On the flip side, finance was thought to leave London en masse, and didn’t. Banks etc established a presence in EU countries, but most of the business logic staff are actually staying out.

Also UK is at heart a country of innovation, where novelty and innovation are welcome, and entrepreneurship runs in the blood, more so than in many other places. Brexit won’t change that.

So... who knows? I’m an EU citizen, now also British and well settled here. I like it, but probably wouldn’t choose it now.

[foldr]

>On the flip side, finance was thought to leave London en masse, and didn’t

It's a bit early to say, isn't it? Finance is still working under temporary arrangements. Most of the regulations regarding services remain to be negotiated.

[rich_sasha]

Banks moved a skeletal staff to EU offices already a long time ago, and no one else.

As far as regulated business goes, it was clear from the start pretty much that there will be no passporting. The extent of other regulatory burdens remains unclear.

The point is, unless some highly unexpected new regulation comes in, it looks like banks at least kept the business and decision making in London, and only moved enough operational staff to EU to support operations there.

Funds for sure seem to have stay put in London, some moved but this is definitely a minority.

[ben_w]

> Funds for sure seem to have stay put in London, some moved but this is definitely a minority.

I’ve seen it reported that £1 trillion of assets were being moved out. Was that report incorrect, or was it a misleading number that is somehow vastly less relevant than it appears at first glance?

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/20/business/brexit-economy-b...

[rich_sasha]

Assets are often held somewhere very different than the jobs, business, taxes etc. Banking licenses for example require holding enough capital in the jurisdiction to cover for unexpected shocks. But where the decisions physically take place is a whole different question.

In practice, for the Brexit/London question, it seems London banks set up small offices in the continent to ask as a front for regulators and EU clients, moved capital as necessary, but kept all significant business in London - so far at least.

Remember, this is finance, capital is transferred via a wire. It’s not mining, real estate or farming.

[ben_w]

Your answer, while interesting, hasn’t changed my confusion.

When you wrote that “funds” mostly stayed put, what do you mean by “fund”? An ELI5 style explanation would be great, because to me (with no economics/finance qualifications) a “fund” is the money.

[thr0waway2]

Assets != jobs

[ben_w]

Didn’t say they were. Are “funds” not assets? Because that would be another explanation I had not previously considered.

[foldr]

It would hardly make sense to move more than a skeletal staff before the terms are known. I think we will have to wait and see.

It's also questionable in the long run whether the EU will permit all of these transactions to take place if the bank has only a token presence within the EU. At the moment everything is happening under temporary authorization.

[jonwinstanley]

Yes and the actual deal with the EU was only made public yesterday.

[raverbashing]

I think you have the right idea there

> I saw a list of European unicorns (on HN in fact I think) and probably about 2/3 were UK/London based

While unicorns are an interesting measure (even though it favours the biggest startups - are 2x 500Mi startups "worse than" 1x 1Bi startup?), I always wonder how much of it is some form "language blindness". How much value is on startups or companies that don't get on HN or "don't speak English" much?

[rich_sasha]

Agreed, this was the first proxy that came to mind.

This is probably quite good for VC funded companies, as there is some transparency in this. But, apart from the arbitrary 1bn cutoff, what is a startup? What about more established, but still innovative companies? What about ones that are not VC funded?