Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The major two exceptions are New York and Texas in that order. Umm. Boston(MA)?
Boston is a second-tier startup city along with Pittsburgh, Chicago, Seattle, etc. It's too expensive, it's hard to recruit good talent (too cold, too far from everywhere, etc), and there's not a ton of VC. You can do it, but you'll have an easier time of it in NYC or Texas. Texas has a warm climate, cheap housing and low taxes, which draws a lot of startups there. Raising money can be a problem, but you also don't n…
Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
181–190 of 338 posts
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#182Why is there no Silicon Valley of Europe? Because programmers and other IT professionals are paid laughably low wages and shown even less respect than they are in the US. It's a similar situation in Japan and Australia. Yet whenever politicians talk about the need for startups to compete with Silicon Valley, you never hear them say a word about the insultingly low wages that are the norm in Germany, France, UK, Belgi…
And some laws against offshoring and "business visas".
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#183It is quite easy question actually. In short, US is unified market with one language, laws for business are same across all states, one currency, one culture, low taxes, no social system and a lot of money. In EU you have 28 countries, 24 languages which equals to same amount of cultures. 11 currencies. Every country got own laws so once you make business across many countries, you have taxation and law hell. EU trie…
There is one currency, there are no import taxes, VAT is per country. (assuming EEC) This ofcourse assume that you are operating in one country and providing goods to another. Employment is another issue. Thats almost the same as in the US(excluding employment). The issue of low taxes is frankly utter bollocks, yes the US's taxes might be lower but so is your life expectancy, and productivity. The main issue with sta…
"productivity is lower" ??? wtf?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PP...
We're Number 3 !!!!
Life expectancy appears to be about what is the European Union. U.S. is 79 years ( source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expe... ) ( Euro stats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_in_Eu... )
Europe doesn't have import taxes? what?
Did you fact check any of your statements?
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#184I've posted this before, but since I think it's relevant here: People seem to forget that Europe is not a country. Europe does not have a single uniting language. What happens, is that every country starts their own smaller versions and they stay mostly within that country. If they want to move to another country, there's often already a major player there, and they might not have the means to kick them out. I think…
About a quarter of the world speaks reasonably fluent English, so SV's initial market is even bigger than that. Having access to a similarly large initial market is also part of the reason China has a rapidly expanding and flourishing startup environment and culture.
China's largest businesses are extremely state-connected, and it's hard to imagine any successful business in China not being deeply connected to the government. I basically consider those entities as extensions of the Chinese state.
I don't know if China would look the same if they allowed western companies to just swoop in to extend monopolies.
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because the network effect of Silicon Valley is profound. Investors are looking to fund companies with global reach that will break down communication barriers, render national boundaries meaningless and bring us all close together. . . as long as they are located in California.
Yes and so the question is why does Europe not have anything like that. It does have some places liked London, Berlin and Stockholm but they are all missing a few things. This is what I am trying to explore.
You're looking at a power law. Just like Cities in a country follow a power distribution of population (I just doubled checked that rule for UK and they indeed follow an almost perfect power distribution) so "Start up" areas will also follow a power distribution - but due to the extreme mobility of start-up founders and capital that will be applied globally not nationally.
Silicon Valley being the pre-eminent location for start-ups is a positive feedback loop which puts it at the extreme tip of the power distribution.
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The major two exceptions are New York and Texas in that order. Umm. Boston(MA)?
Boston is a second-tier startup city along with Pittsburgh, Chicago, Seattle, etc. It's too expensive, it's hard to recruit good talent (too cold, too far from everywhere, etc), and there's not a ton of VC. You can do it, but you'll have an easier time of it in NYC or Texas. Texas has a warm climate, cheap housing and low taxes, which draws a lot of startups there. Raising money can be a problem, but you also don't n…
Boston isn't NYC or SF, but I think your buckets are kind of hosed. It's hard to recruit good talent and it's certainly not cheap, but there's a lot more going on in Boston than a city like Pittsburgh and to me Seattle seems choked-out by the big companies in the area.
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#187It is quite easy question actually. In short, US is unified market with one language, laws for business are same across all states, one currency, one culture, low taxes, no social system and a lot of money. In EU you have 28 countries, 24 languages which equals to same amount of cultures. 11 currencies. Every country got own laws so once you make business across many countries, you have taxation and law hell. EU trie…
There is one currency, there are no import taxes, VAT is per country. (assuming EEC) This ofcourse assume that you are operating in one country and providing goods to another. Employment is another issue. Thats almost the same as in the US(excluding employment). The issue of low taxes is frankly utter bollocks, yes the US's taxes might be lower but so is your life expectancy, and productivity. The main issue with sta…
Nobody says it is impossible, you can provide goods to other country with EUR but you are competing with other markets. French local company has advantage over German company that tries to sell good in France because French company has smaller shipping cost (it is not unified through EU), they offer localized goods, they have local visibility, they know local laws, they can provide localized support and these things are hard when you are new company and you want to grow.
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#188Awesome read, but you write that Europe has no SV or NYC. I'd say that it does have a NYC: London. London is the centre of finance in Europe. It utterly dominates.
Plus I don't think location really matters that much; startups don't need an environment with thousands of hip enterpreneurs, all it takes is a small team with a good idea.
London actually has no "startup scene", the dirty little secret is there is no silicon in Silicon Roundabout. Lots of ad brokers, social media strategists, hairdressers and bakers with Twitter accounts, but no actual tech is developed there.
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#189Many EU countries got startups during the mass consumption revolution. US however is the only country to have not missed the micro revolution. US got micro startups in 1975, 1983, 1995 and so on. Hard to beat 40 years later as no one has experience nor tech money. Its not that we dont have hackers in EU, its that we dont have Paul Graham. I dont think this - tech experience and tech money - is easily relocatable as it is stated in the article.
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
About a quarter of the world speaks reasonably fluent English, so SV's initial market is even bigger than that. Having access to a similarly large initial market is also part of the reason China has a rapidly expanding and flourishing startup environment and culture.
China's largest businesses are extremely state-connected, and it's hard to imagine any successful business in China not being deeply connected to the government. I basically consider those entities as extensions of the Chinese state. I don't know if China would look the same if they allowed western companies to just swoop in to extend monopolies.
This is irrelevant to the fact that a very large market and testing ground exists today among the Chinese-speaking and Chinese-cultural population, both inside and outside China.
Most successful startups in post-2000 China are largely privately owned. While they are indeed subject to regulatory constraints, needing to work together with the government is largely a constraint to survive, not a reason for success. Their successes have very little to do with the government and much more to do with the market, rising economy, and better infrastructure (e.g. education, venture capital, incubators, startup "hotspot" cities, etc.) for startups to build upon, as well as the sudden explosion of a middle class that can afford the various things these new startups are offering.
I'd say a large part can be attributed to the fact that China and USA both have similar market sizes and both countries are each reasonably homogeneous in culture compared to, say, Europe.