Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

CEO: Europe needs tech entrepreneurs 'whose project is not to sell' to US[video]

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 36 posts

Re: CEO: Europe needs tech entrepreneurs 'whose project is not to sell' to US[video]

#11

Post by csomar »

nxm wrote: post #8
csomar wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe is not less competitive. US companies/startups just happen to have more capital and also network effects (lots of tech companies are already there).

But it is - a few examples: - bankruptcy laws in the US encourage more risk taking by not financially punishing founders/investors in case of failure - more dynamic labor market… hire fast but also fire fast if required - less of a work/life balance culture - fewer government regulations

Most of the tech is concentrated in California. If this was about regulation/labor market, it would have happened some place else in the US. That was not the case. Regarding taxes/gov. regulations, the US also has its own share of crazy.

I don't think all of these elements matter much (otherwise Estonia and Malta would be the tech hubs of Europe).

Re: CEO: Europe needs tech entrepreneurs 'whose project is not to sell' to US[video]

#12

Post by pfannkuchen »

csomar wrote: post #11
nxm wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it is - a few examples: - bankruptcy laws in the US encourage more risk taking by not financially punishing founders/investors in case of failure - more dynamic labor market… hire fast but also fire fast if required - less of a work/life balance culture - fewer government regulations

Most of the tech is concentrated in California. If this was about regulation/labor market, it would have happened some place else in the US. That was not the case. Regarding taxes/gov. regulations, the US also has its own share of crazy. I don't think all of these elements matter much (otherwise Estonia and Malta would be the tech hubs of Europe).

I believe California was much less regulated as you go back in time. Once a hotspot has started it might persist even into conditions that would have choked it early on.

Re: CEO: Europe needs tech entrepreneurs 'whose project is not to sell' to US[video]

#13

Post by junofan »

PeterStuer wrote: post #9
avmich wrote: post #4

What are the conditions regarding creating and running a modern tech company in France, Germany, Spain, Italy in comparison with California - or Delaware? I mean, if European society - and particularly European governments, as "conscious" agents of that - wants to have better startup results, do they make it's easier to achieve from their side, do they see any problems with European modern approach which they can imp…

It is not a tech problem, not a culture ptoblem, but a monetary one. Reserve currency status and the petrodollar gives the US accrss to unlimited consequence free cash. This is why they can just treat the EU as a free research lab and buy up every promising result.

I thought there was a big compliance burden with AIFMD. The money’s often in the Caymans. I could be way off.

Re: CEO: Europe needs tech entrepreneurs 'whose project is not to sell' to US[video]

#14

Post by 847448rr »

csomar wrote: post #5
avmich wrote: post #4

What are the conditions regarding creating and running a modern tech company in France, Germany, Spain, Italy in comparison with California - or Delaware? I mean, if European society - and particularly European governments, as "conscious" agents of that - wants to have better startup results, do they make it's easier to achieve from their side, do they see any problems with European modern approach which they can imp…

Europe is not less competitive. US companies/startups just happen to have more capital and also network effects (lots of tech companies are already there).

Investors don't care where you are as long as they're confident you match a certain risk/reward profile. If they're piling money into US and US-acquired companies it implies expectations are lower for the European counterparts. The most emblematic trend in recent times to signal this is how Europe has had to focus on legislating ai to seem remotely relevant while the US and China dominate actual innovation in the field. If that's not admittance that the industry is uncompetitive I don't know what is.

Re: CEO: Europe needs tech entrepreneurs 'whose project is not to sell' to US[video]

#15

Post by kfk »

Europe also needs some way to regulate US startups (and big tech a la Microsoft) price dumping “competitive” practices. Underpricing applications, SaaS and Cloud services for years is a sure way to kill EU startups. EU tech companies do not have the capital to play price wars. The customer, in the end, loses, once vendor-locked and forced to receive significant price increases.

Re: CEO: Europe needs tech entrepreneurs 'whose project is not to sell' to US[video]

#16

Post by jjeaff »

NoZZz wrote: post #10
nxm wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it is - a few examples: - bankruptcy laws in the US encourage more risk taking by not financially punishing founders/investors in case of failure - more dynamic labor market… hire fast but also fire fast if required - less of a work/life balance culture - fewer government regulations

This. Many banks as a condition of giving out a loan require a house as collateral. A house that's underwater also tacks a debt to your personal name for instance.

Very few tech startups are working with bank loans. Banks in the US will almost never loan to a new business without a personal guarantee and collateral.

Re: CEO: Europe needs tech entrepreneurs 'whose project is not to sell' to US[video]

#17

Post by expertentipp »

kfk wrote: post #15

Europe also needs some way to regulate US startups (and big tech a la Microsoft) price dumping “competitive” practices. Underpricing applications, SaaS and Cloud services for years is a sure way to kill EU startups. EU tech companies do not have the capital to play price wars. The customer, in the end, loses, once vendor-locked and forced to receive significant price increases.

Nobody is forcing EU companies to use AWS/GCP/MS/Oracle, the developers and managers are eating their architecture evangelism like crackheads and listening to platform and framework influencers as if they were prophets. We have dedicated positions for managing AWS permissions and user models. Short research will easily reveal a range of EU based service providers with APIs and SDKs.

Re: CEO: Europe needs tech entrepreneurs 'whose project is not to sell' to US[video]

#18

Post by Kinrany »

kfk wrote: post #15

Europe also needs some way to regulate US startups (and big tech a la Microsoft) price dumping “competitive” practices. Underpricing applications, SaaS and Cloud services for years is a sure way to kill EU startups. EU tech companies do not have the capital to play price wars. The customer, in the end, loses, once vendor-locked and forced to receive significant price increases.

The problem is the winner-takes-all market. Fix that, and VCs won't waste nearly as much money.

Re: CEO: Europe needs tech entrepreneurs 'whose project is not to sell' to US[video]

#19

Post by AnonymousPlanet »

expertentipp wrote: post #17
kfk wrote: post #15

Europe also needs some way to regulate US startups (and big tech a la Microsoft) price dumping “competitive” practices. Underpricing applications, SaaS and Cloud services for years is a sure way to kill EU startups. EU tech companies do not have the capital to play price wars. The customer, in the end, loses, once vendor-locked and forced to receive significant price increases.

Nobody is forcing EU companies to use AWS/GCP/MS/Oracle, the developers and managers are eating their architecture evangelism like crackheads and listening to platform and framework influencers as if they were prophets. We have dedicated positions for managing AWS permissions and user models. Short research will easily reveal a range of EU based service providers with APIs and SDKs.

It's nearly impossible to find a company in Europe that is not completely dependent on Microsoft technology. And Microsoft is aggressively pushing companies towards Azure.

Re: CEO: Europe needs tech entrepreneurs 'whose project is not to sell' to US[video]

#20

Post by k99x55 »

There is a misconception that innovation comes mainly from the private sector. Its the opposite: innovation comes from the public sector.

"We pretend that the government was at best just in the background creating the basic conditions (skills, infrastructure, basic science). But the truth is that the involvement required massive risk taking along the entire innovation chain: basic research, applied research and early stage financing of companies themselves.”

https://time.com/4089171/mariana-mazzucato/

Post reply on HN