>extreme bureaucracy
As someone doing business in Germany since the age of 17, I would actually like to know, what you mean by that. Of course employment works different here (like generally in Europe), and I also give you that it is much harder for non-Germans, but if you know the language you can generally just call the folks at our IRS and they are happy to help you.
Starting to freelance is literally just filling out a one page online form at the Gewerbeamt, after that do not call them, they call you.
Setting up an entity is a bid harder, but come on, registering an UG or a LTD (in the UK, this is Europe after all, you can register your company pretty much where you want to) is not black magic either. It could be easier, but I do not buy that we are missing opportunities, because you have to google it first.
> poor funding opportunities, poor exit opportunities.
>Germany is probably one of the WORST places for a start-up.
I give you lacking funding opportunity, but the notion seems to be, that early stage funding is pretty okay, mid and later stage rounds seem to be the problem. We do have an exchange in Frankfurt and car companies are buying startups in their space, the problem is more, that there simply are not that many of them.
There is also the possibility to join Rocket, their E-commerce and (locale) marketplaces seem to do just fine, funding-wise.
I think we are pretty okay, even without the short-lived social stuff, that SV creates, which some people call a scheme anyway. What I would like to see more of are SaaS products in many different spaces. I do not think that missing funding or a bureaucracy are the reasons why we do not have more of them. I think the reasons are rooted deeper in society, which is slowly changing over time, thanks David Fincher.
Also: Compared to what? SV or the 192 other countries that exists besides Germany and America?