A good post Paul! Let me just add a few ideas: 1. I live in Czech Republic but am surrounded by Silicon Valley environment. I consume the leading tech/startup/socnet news on a daily basis. Most of conversations I join is in English. It is quite easy to jump in, be it Twitter, Facebook or FriendFeed, and "talk" (after you have listened carefully of course). This way I can keep up with the industry news and trends although I live in Europe. 2. I also believe there are many great startups in Europe overlooked by top VC funds. True, these businesses are harder to find thus it might be risky for VCs. On the other hand such smart and innovative European companies could generate higher returns for investors, especially the startups from Central and Eastern Europe built on cheap. - Jan Horna from FriendFeed MT Plugin