Why do I live where you live?

I live in London. I came here in 2018 after 2 years stint in Amsterdam. And another in France and before that my hometown: Damascus, Syria.

Now to the why. Simply, London is, along with Berlin I think, the best place for startups (in Europe. But Europe is dying sadly and that’s a discussion for another time.)

Outside Europe, it’s the US and China which are the best places to be I believe.

Now, why London again? Simply, again, at least for me, is the Freedom.

Freedom? To get this resolved, we have to go through a bit of history.

I’m originally Syrian.-2013: I had done all my studies up to and including my bachelor program in Syria. I had a 5-year bachelor degree in Information Technology and AI.-2015: I moved to France to do my MSc. in Ubiquitous computing and AI.-2018: Working in Amsterdam in EdTech startup, Squla. (I love Amsterdam and I love the Dutch. They are both, serious workers like ze Germans, yet still playful like the Italians.) At least the ones I knew.2018-now: Moved to the UK, I only had my Syrian part up to that point – a non-EU citizen.

Still didn’t get where the Freedom in all of this?

A bit of context: if you are not a citizen of the EU/UK, you have to be employed by a company in order to stay. If you’re not employed, you can’t stay.

When I lived in Germany, Netherlands and France, my stay was tied of me being a student or having a employment contract, which means I’ll be an employee, instead of being an employer (i.e. starting my own startup.)

With the UK Exceptional Talent visa (now renamed to Global Talent visa) this is no longer the case. You’ll have 5 year stay permit to do what you want. I can be an employee or an employer (starting your own startup.) And that’s exactly what I did in the last 6 years.

I moved to London and I was the employee #5 in Neurofenix (startup), started my startup (Almeta and pivoted to TheAlphazed.com.) Later I head the engineering function at Noon as Head of Engineering. And now back to being a tech cofounder (SpatialX) curing cancer.

Freedom is hard. And should be cherished above all else. And that’s why I moved to the UK.

Salam, peace.