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Germans don’t do tech startups – more access to capital might change that

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Re: Germans don’t do tech startups – more access to capital might change that

#51

Post by kayoone »

_petronius wrote: post #5

We do have tech startups here in Germany, and quite a few of them. It's just that they tend to be funded differently, and with less of the wild valuation-speculation that goes on in the US. I'm not sure that's a bad thing. As a corollary, the article cites European data protection law (in the context of not being able to collect usage data to improve the product) as a barrier to building startups which ... is also ve…

Well, I am a german and i'd argue we'd need to do it the SV way to have the same kind of global success stories. Sure your small german startup can be GDPR compliant and find it's niche, but making products of massive global scale is inherently harder here than it is in the US because of a number of things, only one of which is data privacy.

Not saying as a consumer i do not prefer EU privacy laws, I do, but it will be hard to compete on a global scale being handcuffed in a lot of these smaller areas. (privacy, language barriers, taxes, salaries etc)

Re: Germans don’t do tech startups – more access to capital might change that

#52

Post by jacquesm »

roadbeats wrote: post #48
jacquesm wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Endeit Capital and Capnamic should be on your list, as well as Project-A ventures and Partech.

Could you send a PR?

No. I don't see why I should log in to another website or make an account there when you already have all the info you need right here.

Re: Germans don’t do tech startups – more access to capital might change that

#53

Post by baxtr »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #47
baxtr wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to disagree. We don’t do tech startup like in the US or China. Yes, we do have a lot of great B2B industrial startups. But ask yourself this questions: as a developers where would you want to work? In the US that’s easy to answer, Google, MS, Apple, amazon. Where do you want to work in Germany? Which tech company provides the opportunity to earn a lot of money while working on really interesting topics at a la…

“In the US that’s easy to answer, Google, MS, Apple, amazon. ” That’s a dangerous thing though to push as a one-stop solution I think. There is huge advantages to work for one of these companies, but the drawbacks are also there, and they’re definitely not made for everyone

Well it worked for us in the car space. As engineer coming from university it is clear where you want to work in Germany: Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Audi, great places to start a career.

Re: Germans don’t do tech startups – more access to capital might change that

#54

Post by tjungblut »

mrhackerpoland wrote: post #11

It's because they don't need to. Startups often include difficult and intense work environment. For exactly what? Better than average compensation discussion is frowned upon in Germany. There is ramphant latent descrimination against people from other countries. Which German company has a foreign born CEO? In US, Google and Microsoft have foreign born CEOs. This is my own experience, so downvoting is only silencing a…

> Which German company has a foreign born CEO?

"William R. "Bill" McDermott is an American businessman and the CEO of the technology company SAP SE" [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_McDermott

Re: Germans don’t do tech startups – more access to capital might change that

#55

Post by mrhackerpoland »

Startups need immigrants. Germany only accept immigrants from EU, not from China or India which produce cheapest empoyees offering max value.

One key difference is that Startups lack fund.

So either:

1. Funding be made more generous by offering tax advantages to invesitors

2. Or, biggest expense are employees, so we need employees accepting a dream stock unit and very low wage, so we can hire more of them.

But I've talked with German employees, literally, none of them will accept more money for more work. There is very strong emphasis on work life balance unlike US. So only way to overcome this issue is to get larger funding and that's smth government needs to fix.

That way startup can become more competitive.

Re: Germans don’t do tech startups – more access to capital might change that

#56

Post by hef19898 »

tjungblut wrote: post #3

More money alone won't solve this particular issue. The link that is referenced at the bottom of the article [1] highlights more of these challenges: - Government Policies: Taxes and Bureaucracy - Governmental Policies: Support and Relevance - Entrepreneurial Education at School Stage The first is a much bigger issue than missing capital. [1] https://www.gemconsortium.org/country-profile/64

It is still in the EU, so there is no resson why you wouldn't incorporate in, say, Estonia and be based out of, say, Berlin. You would still have to pay taxes in Germany.

Government support is, as far as I can tell, not a deciding factor in SV. In setting up an start-up friendly ecosystem it can definitely help, France is good example for that.

Re: Germans don’t do tech startups – more access to capital might change that

#57

Post by destartupop »

hef19898 wrote: post #40
Jdam wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I‘d have been eligible for EXIST, but that program is a bad joke. 100k for 3 persons for one year before tax? C‘mon. That is financial sucide, if you’re in tech these days.

Yeah, and than you have to pass a panel deciding whether your "idea" is innovative enough. It reminded me more of a game of buzzword bingo than a viable investment procedure. As your not allowed to incorporate before enter EXIST it is just a waste of time. Not to mention that it all depends on how well you are connected at your university, and if government funds are available.

I'd say the chances of getting a grant are very good, back in the day the success rate was around 50 % and you could apply up to three times (to my knowledge), which made it highly likely that you'd get the money if you were persevering. It's true that you have to choose a good university as the quality of the provided coaching and mentorship varies wildly. I can recommend LMU & TU Munich as well as TU Berlin or one of the other well-known technical universities (e.g. RWTH Aachen), to my knowledge they have very good programs. You don't need connections at your university either, you just need to convince a professor to support your application, which they are often happy to do as it counts towards the amount of funding they raised, which is a relevant metric to them.

If you can get that money it's really an excellent opportunity and will help you to get further funding, as I said before I just find it sad that nothing comparable exists for experienced people from industry.

Re: Germans don’t do tech startups – more access to capital might change that

#58

Post by johannkaupen »

baxtr wrote: post #39
_petronius wrote: post #5

We do have tech startups here in Germany, and quite a few of them. It's just that they tend to be funded differently, and with less of the wild valuation-speculation that goes on in the US. I'm not sure that's a bad thing. As a corollary, the article cites European data protection law (in the context of not being able to collect usage data to improve the product) as a barrier to building startups which ... is also ve…

I have to disagree. We don’t do tech startup like in the US or China. Yes, we do have a lot of great B2B industrial startups. But ask yourself this questions: as a developers where would you want to work? In the US that’s easy to answer, Google, MS, Apple, amazon. Where do you want to work in Germany? Which tech company provides the opportunity to earn a lot of money while working on really interesting topics at a la…

While I tend to agree, I am confused by the examples. If you are looking at GAFA, you are not looking at startups. Tech =! Startup

If you are looking at it that way, you have only one company in Germany which is SAP.

Re: Germans don’t do tech startups – more access to capital might change that

#59

Post by roadbeats »

baxtr wrote: post #39
_petronius wrote: post #5

We do have tech startups here in Germany, and quite a few of them. It's just that they tend to be funded differently, and with less of the wild valuation-speculation that goes on in the US. I'm not sure that's a bad thing. As a corollary, the article cites European data protection law (in the context of not being able to collect usage data to improve the product) as a barrier to building startups which ... is also ve…

I have to disagree. We don’t do tech startup like in the US or China. Yes, we do have a lot of great B2B industrial startups. But ask yourself this questions: as a developers where would you want to work? In the US that’s easy to answer, Google, MS, Apple, amazon. Where do you want to work in Germany? Which tech company provides the opportunity to earn a lot of money while working on really interesting topics at a la…

I worked in Bay Area for 6 years and never wanted to work for Google. Amazon? That’s a terrible place to work at.

Instead, I worked for seed stage startups with ambitious missions such as changing the world. Even some crazy ideas can get funding in US because today’s angels are used to be engineers of yesterday.

Germany is not there yet. The market here needs to evolve years to get there. For example, if I could get my startup funded and successfully exit, then the next generation startups could have better angel options as I’d be willing to invest in startups with crazy & ambitious goals.

Re: Germans don’t do tech startups – more access to capital might change that

#60

Post by bayesian_horse »

_petronius wrote: post #5

We do have tech startups here in Germany, and quite a few of them. It's just that they tend to be funded differently, and with less of the wild valuation-speculation that goes on in the US. I'm not sure that's a bad thing. As a corollary, the article cites European data protection law (in the context of not being able to collect usage data to improve the product) as a barrier to building startups which ... is also ve…

Tech "startups" are supposed to be profitable almost right away.

Which precludes much of what is worth trying. The problem is that this attitude severely limits the potential upside.

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