Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle • Hacker News Board

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#81

Post by jacoblyles » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 5:36 PM UTC

keiferski wrote: post #6

. Making money, he said, was not seen as a good thing to do. “The culture is changing, but it will take time.” There's your marketing problem. If being an entrepreneur was only about making money, I wouldn't want my culture to encourage it either. They should focus less on materialism and more on making a difference and creating jobs.

Making money occurs when you divert resources from a lower-valued use towards a more highly-valued use. Making money is the root of all prosperity. If your culture despises the making of money, it is philosophically sick.

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#82

Post by jacoblyles » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 5:37 PM UTC

shareme wrote: post #36

A question for European readers: Do you see the culture of the Welfare State as an obstacle to changing culture to accept that being successful, doing new business ventures is a good thing?

Support for a social safety net and anti-market ideology don't necessarily have to go together, but in practice they do.

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#83

Post by bugsy » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 5:55 PM UTC

The criticism of Germany's culture of designing well made products that are an excellent value is a bit odd. Germany's economy has done much better than most others during the Great Depression II, and has avoided the problems with crime, fraud and corruption of the US.

The only reasonable explanation for the article is the author is threatened by Germany's success and hoping to confuse them by writing an article advocating they do dumb things instead.

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#84

Post by white_devil » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 7:32 PM UTC

jbooth wrote: post #35

jerf wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the global race to have the worst economy, Europe (as a whole) currently has a significant edge over the US, although the US is certainly running the race with gusto. There's serious talk of having to break the EU up over the economic crisis it is having. The traditional "US should be more like Europe" rhetoric should be packed away in storage for a while, conditions are not ripe for it.

Most of the European problems right now are problems that the US just plain cannot have -- Greece, Spain and Italy running up huge debts because they have the credibility of the eurozone without any of the responsibility. America's different, we're one country. Those problems aside, we could do a lot worse than modeling europe, way less gas usage, higher health insurance coverage, 2 months of vacation a year. Sounds…

Most of the European problems right now are problems that the US just plain cannot have -- Greece, Spain and Italy running up huge debts because they have the credibility of the eurozone without any of the responsibility.

Right, and America hasn't been running up huge debts with the credibility of being the US and having the world's reserve currency?

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#85

Post by jasiek » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 8:00 PM UTC

narag wrote: post #71

shareme wrote: post #36

A question for European readers: Do you see the culture of the Welfare State as an obstacle to changing culture to accept that being successful, doing new business ventures is a good thing?

It's not the Welfare State but bureaucracy and tax greed. Today I've read a blog post by Jesús Encinar, CEO of idealista.com, the go-to site for renting and buying real state in Spain. The article is in Spanish, short summary below): http://www.jesusencinar.com/2011/06/10-ideas-concretas-para-... "Ten ideas to promote startups in Spain" - Limited liability - The State shouldn't keep VAT returns for a year. - Not over…

I agree with your tax greed argument. In Poland, the state will take any and every opportunity to increase tax revenues, while doing nothing to cut expenses. I'm not sure how it works elsewhere in the EU, but here you have to pay VAT on unpaid invoices as well, effectively making you liable for your customers' inability to pay. This, coupled with the fact that courts are inefficient and generally extremely slow in rulings (in the case of delayed payments), is a sure recipe for disaster.

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#86

Post by jdietrich » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 8:12 PM UTC

marknutter wrote: post #40

jdietrich wrote: post #37

My favourite company in the world is a German engineering firm called Rohloff. Their motto is "No slogans, just facts" and their business is really just a single product - a beautifully engineered internal gearbox for bicycles called the Speedhub, that costs €1000 and lasts 100,000km. Rohloff make a product as finely engineered as any swiss watch, but in doing so create an anti-consumerist product. Their product is b…

I hope Rohloff is aware of the irony that "No slogans, just facts" is a slogan. While I admire companies who make products that last forever, most people aren't that interested in spending a ton of money on something that will last forever. If you're sure you're going to be using your bike for 70+ years, $1000 isn't a bad investment. If you're like most people, you probably bike once every few months, if that, and th…

> If you're like most people, you probably bike once every few months

If you're like most Americans. In much of Europe, cycling is seen primarily as a mode of transport rather than a leisure activity. Rohloff's target customer rides several thousand kilometres a year, often because cycling is their sole mode of transport or because they live long-term as a cycle tourist.

There's a term in the bicycle trade, "Bicycle Shaped Object". It refers to bicycles built as cheaply as possible for exactly the customer you have in mind - people who ride a few times a year, usually buying a bike on impulse at a supermarket. Most BSOs are built to such a poor standard that they are unsafe to ride in traffic and will last no more than a few hundred kilometres.

To a lot of people in the bike business, the BSO represents everything they loathe in the world. The bicycle is a machine of pure liberation - a mode of transport that is practically free, that prolongs your life, that doesn't harm the environment and that helps you better engage with the world around you. The BSO crudely imitates the bicycle, selling a vision of freedom and health to people who will never experience either.

I'm not a leftist, in fact my politics border on Thatcherism, but I believe that business exists to serve humanity and not vice-versa. We get the sort of business we demand. Personally, I prefer businesses that treat their employees properly and do right by their customers, that value sustainability and longevity, that seek to serve their community. Rohloff care about cycling and see profit as something that allows them to continue doing what they love. If that isn't worthy of admiration then stop the world, I want to get off.

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#87

Post by FrojoS » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 8:54 PM UTC

T-zex wrote: post #72

FrojoS wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So who are your co-founders? Are there any? To me, the problem is finding co-founders not bureaucracy. As others have pointed out, you don't need to get the "Gründerzuschuss". None of the German founders, I know, says that bureaucracy is the biggest problem. Sure they complain and they might hire more if they could fire more. But the real problem, as the article says, is culture. Germany was once the country of the "…

He's starting a business in Austria not Germany.

Thanks, I'm aware of that. But where is the difference? I don't know what of my answer would not apply to Austria. But I'm happy to learn.

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#88

Post by jquery » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 9:00 PM UTC

mephju wrote: post #15

I think the reason for Silicon Valley being in the USA and their entrepeneurial approach is that the USA as a country of immigrants has got higher concentration of people with ADD. ADD people from Europe migrated into the USA since people with ADD are more likely to migrate. Those people are responsible for the culture of impulsivness and creativity in the USA, kinda like role models. So migration is responsible for…

I think there is a large truth here, in that Americans have the entrepreneurial spirit in their blood and in their culture. Most of our ancestors were highly dissatisfied with the status quo, to the point where they were willing to travel thousands of miles to a faraway land, back when that was a much bigger deal than it is today.

But I think this is another discussion entirely.

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#89

Post by FrojoS » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 9:05 PM UTC

leyfa wrote: post #46

fbnt wrote: post #10

Absolutely spot on. It's not lack of funds or the absence of a proper ecosystem, it's a huge cultural gap. The whole school system is fundamentally broken. Since elementary school to the very last stages of university education I've been told to study, work hard and eventually, with time, gain access to some big and famous corporate in a responsability position, get a lifelong contract, settle down and enjoy life. Th…

Fortunately, there are sparks of cultural changes lately, especially with the younger folks, but it's a change that won't happen overnight for sure. I would like to contribute my personal data point on this. I'm a student in a smallish Dutch town at a university that's mostly focused on economics/business and medicine. It feels like there's a considerate entrepreneurial spirit among the students here. Many seem to wi…

My personal data point is also, that most people who are interested in startups, including those who do them, are buisnes guys. And we do have three big tech university here in Munich. I know plenty exceptions but overall this is what I see.

Re: Lack of Entrepreneurial Culture Seen as Europe’s Biggest Obstacle

#90

Post by FrojoS » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 9:09 PM UTC

jquery wrote: post #88

mephju wrote: post #15

I think the reason for Silicon Valley being in the USA and their entrepeneurial approach is that the USA as a country of immigrants has got higher concentration of people with ADD. ADD people from Europe migrated into the USA since people with ADD are more likely to migrate. Those people are responsible for the culture of impulsivness and creativity in the USA, kinda like role models. So migration is responsible for…

I think there is a large truth here, in that Americans have the entrepreneurial spirit in their blood and in their culture. Most of our ancestors were highly dissatisfied with the status quo, to the point where they were willing to travel thousands of miles to a faraway land, back when that was a much bigger deal than it is today. But I think this is another discussion entirely.

Really? I think its spot on. This trend continues to today. As PG has pointed out in his advocacy for a founder visa [1], about half of vc-backed company founders are immigrants [2].

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/foundervisa.html [2] http://venturebeat.com/2006/11/15/note-to-washington-about-h...