Summit proves this is the place to be (and not just for the tax)
The main message from the Web Summit is that companies are here for the tech talent – and not just for corporation tax
In a continent of slackers, Dublin and its Web Summit are shining exceptions. Or so said the world’s most powerful venture capitalist, Peter Thiel. The man most likely to fit author Tom Wolfe’s famous description ‘Master Of The Universe’ summed up what many senior American technology illuminati repeated throughout this week’s Web Summit.
And Thiel, the man who set Facebook on its commercial way, was not mincing his words.
“Europe is a slacker with low expectations, held back by a poor work ethic and held back by politicians who strangle technological progress,” he said. “The Web Summit is not representative of Europe at all.”
Whether Thiel is right or not about the entire continent, his positivity towards Ireland wasn’t an isolated expression. This was most evident when the Web Summit’s only real news line – whether Ireland has unshackled itself from the notion of being a tax-first, talent-second offshore tech base – was being discussed.
Investors, start-ups and mid-tier tech executives all queued up to say that the abolition of the ‘Double Irish’ tax avoidance loophole would have little or no effect on Ireland’s future as a tech location.
“We can’t not be in Dublin any more,” said Russell Acton, vice-president of US database software firm Pivotal, which is thinking of setting up shop here. “It’s reached a tipping point and is clearly one of the cities where we need to be if we’re going to compete for getting the best people
Not everyone at the event agreed. Apple’s former chief executive, John Sculley, made an off-the-cuff remark about Ireland possibly losing its investment “edge” with the abolition of the ‘Double Irish’. But it was virtually a lone voice among the thousands of investors and tech galacticos – the ones with the actual money to invest – gathered for the event.
The only others to chime in with Sculley’s remarks were a cabal of UK financial journalists sent over to cover the event and still far more interested in pursuing an off-shore tax haven narrative than a slightly less exciting industrial revival one.
There were some tangible results. There was a handful of job announcements and some product launches. But the event’s main impact on anyone who was there was to reinforce what opportunities are actually starting to come this country’s way, for those who can cast off cynicism and fatalism.
“We chose Dublin for a number of reasons,” Drew Houston, founder of Dropbox, told a collection of journalists on Tuesday. “But tax wasn’t really one of them. The main reason we came here was because there are a number of big internet companies like us already here. And hiring was easy. We went from a landing team to well over 50 people in a year. Normally, that’s really hard to do. Hiring top talent isn’t easy. And we’ve been able to do it here.”
Twitter’s second most powerful global executive, Adam Bain, said something similar. As did Evernote chief executive Phil Libin.
“That [the ‘Double Irish’] is not one of the top five criteria for us in deciding whether or not to come to Dublin,” he said. “We think that we need to be in the top centres for technology around the world. Dublin is one of those places. Our company is about getting the best talent. And what we’re seeing here is great talent in engineering and other areas that are important to Evernote.”
Does this sound just a little too good to be true? There are two camps on the issue: those inside the industry and those outside. Most of us in the latter group are still trying to establish the bona fides of the contentions of the first group. It just seems too much like marketing spin.
And yet I heard this narrative repeatedly from people who would not have any reason to spoof about it.
“Ireland is kind of an amazing story,” said Min Tan, founder and chief executive of Razer, a gaming firm that creates wearable devices.
“I do some work with the Singapore government on how to drive Singapore’s industrial strategy forward. We used to talk about how to replicate Silicon Valley. Instead, we’re now talking about how to replicate Ireland. It seems to have advanced beyond being just a low tax country into one that is developing a real tech ecosystem.”
Away from the bigger picture, there were lighter moments. Arguably the most entertaining Web Summit-related exchange of the week came from the US broadcaster CNBC’s extraordinary ‘Squawkbox’ television interview with IDA chief Martin Shanahan. For those who missed it, Mr Shanahan, who was on television to promote Ireland as an investment location during the Web Summit week, was repeatedly asked by CNBC co-anchor Joe Kernen why Ireland uses the euro when it is “part of the UK”.
