11–20 of 99 posts
The biggest problem is that we dont have "easy money" in europe and there is no real tech hub like the valley around here. Investors want to know upfront how you plan to make money and phrases like "we will figure this out later" wont help you if you need to raise money. If this sort of thinking changes maybe we will see more billion dollar companies in europe.
This is a classic example of "if only more people would be like us, the world would be better!". Sure enough, the experts are all entrepreneurs and investors. Well, in this particular case, they may very well be right. But things like this really bother me: "traditional engineering-driven approach to business, with its emphasis on perfection, longevity, pride in ingenuity and culture of deep-thinking put the country…
Only in internet startups that have international appeal do you find a little bit of startup funding, but these investors are hardly ever Dutch firms.
This is a classic example of "if only more people would be like us, the world would be better!". Sure enough, the experts are all entrepreneurs and investors. Well, in this particular case, they may very well be right. But things like this really bother me: "traditional engineering-driven approach to business, with its emphasis on perfection, longevity, pride in ingenuity and culture of deep-thinking put the country…
Americans don't like to talk about it, but they should better learn how emulate Europe rather than the opposite. The USA is nowadays more similar to Europe than to new developing economies. While Europe hasn't the high growth it once had, they know how to maintain an economy that retains prosperity for most of its people.
I'm not anti/pro america/europe. I'm also not very good at geography, but are you talking about the same Europe as I think you are? Are you suggesting that Europe, as a whole, is an economic model to follow right now? Or when you say Europe do you really just mean Germany ?
Those people are responsible for the culture of impulsivness and creativity in the USA, kinda like role models. So migration is responsible for the lack of this kind of entrepeneurial approaches in Europe and responsible for the surplus of the same in the USA.
Simple, he? What do you think about this theory?
The question of whether this is a chicken and egg problem WRT European culture is up for debate.
tl;dr: Cultures are different. News at 11.
Yet here we are and looking around my neighborhood in Oregon I see VWs, Audi's, Mercedes and Porsches, our dishwasher is a Bosch and any serious Oregonian owns a Stihl chainsaw.
While I agree that a shocking number of young Germans (and likely other Europeans) are looking for the security of a "Beamter" (civil servant) job, there are definite pros to the German system and I think to keep the balance maybe it's not so bad we have countries with different systems.
Here in the USA almost everyone is an amateur at almost everything we do and that breeds excellence from a few but also a lot of shoddy work. In Germany it's the opposite, the general skill level in industry, science and even culture is relatively high but there are few international standouts.
I think software and software entrepreneurship is particularly well suited to the American system.
Interestingly, in my work as an embedded systems engineer there are a lot of German companies offering development tools (Keil and Hitex come to mind) and other specialty hardware. Not everyone has to develop the next Groupon or Facebook, there are a lot of other possibilities.
When I was growing up in Germany I remember hearing this exact same complaint about lack of entrepreneurship a good 30 years ago. My dad, who is a solid state physicist, was a kind of cheerleader for modern technology and was exasperated how companies were not adopting and adapting more quickly. His predictions that the economy was going to go down the tubes while the rest of the world pulled away still ring in my ea…
Well, depending on which bit of Oregon they're from, they might abhor the idea of a device to "denude mother gaia's old growth forests" or something to that effect...
Said as someone who grew up in Oregon.
the biggest obstacle is that the government won't go out of your way.
1. i could start my company now
2. but it would be stupid, as i would miss out on the "unternehmensgründerförderung" (start up support)
3. for getting "unternehmensgründerförderung" you have to attend a sh#tload of courses (for about 2 months) which tell you nothing about starting a business, but a lot of "what you have to do so that you don't get into trouble with the government later"
3.1. and they tell you a sh#tload of things about things you have to do to get a 'unternehmensgründungs' grant for your business
3.2. during that period your business is forbidden to earn money
4. as soon as you start your startup you have at least half a month of work outlined on what you now have to do to please your government
5. even if your company would just exists for 1 minute, you will get herrases by the government and insurance companies for the next 3 years.
oh, and every time the government discusses that fact that there are not enough new companies, they talk about another 'development program' (a.k.a. grant) which you then get educated about, if you want to or not.
sometimes i think i'm becoming an anarchist, an entrepreneur-anarchist.
This is a classic example of "if only more people would be like us, the world would be better!". Sure enough, the experts are all entrepreneurs and investors. Well, in this particular case, they may very well be right. But things like this really bother me: "traditional engineering-driven approach to business, with its emphasis on perfection, longevity, pride in ingenuity and culture of deep-thinking put the country…
Americans don't like to talk about it, but they should better learn how emulate Europe rather than the opposite. The USA is nowadays more similar to Europe than to new developing economies. While Europe hasn't the high growth it once had, they know how to maintain an economy that retains prosperity for most of its people.