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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

#61

Post by mrhackerpoland »

tjungblut wrote: post #54
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

You answered that question. But Americans are being offered more compesation in American, why would they follow this CEO and move to Germany?

You need examples from countries which are less prosperous than Germany.

Where are Chinese, Indian, Ethopian CEOs of German companies?

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

#62

Post by roadbeats »

jacquesm wrote: post #52
roadbeats wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Gotcha. I’ll add it then.

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

#63

Post by kayoone »

Jdam wrote: post #27
destartupop wrote: post #2

I've been trying to build deep tech startups in Germany for 6 years. I managed to sell the first one I built to a US company (for a very small amount of money) and started afresh after taking a break as an employee. Right now I'm at the point of giving up again because it's so damn hard to find customers here. In my opinion, for deep tech startups the problem is not primarily access to capital but access to customers…

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.

Doing a startup is usually a financial mistake, that's why it's risky. I founded a startup in Germany and got a similar amount of seed funding of 150k for 2 founders and spread that money over a team of 5 living on a minimum salary. For me that was a risk i was willing to take to pursue my dream and I don't regret it despite not making it in the end.

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

#64

Post by merb »

prablenha wrote: post #22
mprev wrote: post #9

Has the author not heard of Rocket Internet? Hello Fresh? Zalando? Contentful? SumUp? Wooga? Deepstreamhub? Delivery Hero? N26?

I'm European and I have never heard of any of those.

you never heard of zalando?!

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

#65

Post by [deleted] »

mrhackerpoland wrote: post #55

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 t…

[deleted]

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

#66

Post by baxtr »

johannkaupen wrote: post #58
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…

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.

You’re right. Probably not the best examples. But it’s not like we started doing startups yesterday. We should have 5 SAPs by now

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

#67

Post by iforgotpassword »

mk89 wrote: post #30

The mindset in SV is to fail fast - yes, with all the consequences for the investors. That's why investing in startups is a high risk investment. And that's also why the cautious way of doing business in Europe doesn't help with the startup economy. Being too cautious prevents from taking high risks. I interviewed several times with startups proud of not having any funding behind. Very nice. Still, my question is...…

I agree. The way to run startups and maybe to some extend tech companies in general seems not that compatible to the German mind set. Every industry Germany is or was internationally successful in rewards you for being precise, optimizing a lot and generally investing a lot of time. It's pretty much the opposite of the fail fast approach where you quickly cobble something together, throw it at the wall and hope it sticks, if it does, you start to think about everything else.

(Inb4 counter-examples. Yes this is oversimplified, exaggerated, stereotyped)

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

#68

Post by mrhackerpoland »

The largest German startup is Wirecard.

If you received a prepaid card from online service like Payoneer, highly likely you've consumed services of this startup indirectly.

There is also Dr. Bentz, creator of Bentz Bone which many people in Silicion Valley have used.

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

#69

Post by prablenha »

merb wrote: post #64
prablenha wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm European and I have never heard of any of those.

you never heard of zalando?!

I haven't. Where are you from? I live in Southern Europe and I have never heard of them. I looked at their website and everything is stupidly expensive.

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

#70

Post by jayalpha »

jayalpha wrote: post #8
destartupop wrote: post #2

I've been trying to build deep tech startups in Germany for 6 years. I managed to sell the first one I built to a US company (for a very small amount of money) and started afresh after taking a break as an employee. Right now I'm at the point of giving up again because it's so damn hard to find customers here. In my opinion, for deep tech startups the problem is not primarily access to capital but access to customers…

Agreed. * Lack of capital There is just much less VC available, even if normalized for the difference in size. I know the VC scene a little bit in Germany. Total monkeys. * Lack of attitude Germans are much more hierarchical. Both in science and entrepreneurship I found the American personality much more suited. * Lack of vision You will find money in Germany for a personalized cereal/granola mix shipment service (wa…

Why the down-vote? I think I know what I am writing about.
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