21–30 of 338 posts
first thought: not enough horns to go around and add to the horses. second thought: europe=continent. US = country. third thought: what good does this question do us?
He mentions the multiple languages. I don't understand why Europeans stick to their local languages when they all know English anyway. Are they trying to keep foreigners out? Surely they realize there's a huge social cost of having your own minority language. This problem exists in China too but most people recognize the need to learn the standard Mandarin so they're largely bilingual. Dialect at home and Mandarin ta…
Awesome 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.
Lack of investors. Simple as that. Companies that run on deficit for 5-10 years can not survive in Europe. Facebook, twitter, etc. Wouldn't be able to survive in Europe, simple as that. ps. I hate the word 'unicorn'.
I hate the word unicorn too, but it's shorter than private market companies with a valuation of more than $1 billion :) With regards to lack of investors I don't think it's as simple as that. If it was only a matter of investments then surely US investors or Asian investors could just come in with the money. There is something that makes European VCs risk averse and keep american investors out of Europe IMO.
> I hate the word unicorn too, but it's shorter than private market companies with a valuation of more than $1 billion :)
Ah, is 1 billion the limit for the 'unicorn' definition? In what amount of time? :-) We have 7-year old companies, with 50+ employees posing around as startups everywhere these days. It's not related, but you know... Everyone is playing with words here :-P
> With regards to lack of investors I don't think it's as simple as that.
Of course you don't, otherwise you wouldn't have written a blog post... You could tweet! But, unfortunately, as most social phenomena is not that complex :-)
The reason we can't have a "unicorn" in Europe is that no one is going to support a company that it's expenses outsize it's turn-over even if this is because of extremely high growth rate.
If you're lucky enough, you might land some millions from some startup event. But even they, ask to see growth (in terms of users) and (hehe) immediate ROI.
In startup Istanbul 2014 the no1 startup which received investment was the only company who didn't actually need it... It was already generating way more than it could burn. So it was a very easy bet.
He mentions the multiple languages. I don't understand why Europeans stick to their local languages when they all know English anyway. Are they trying to keep foreigners out? Surely they realize there's a huge social cost of having your own minority language. This problem exists in China too but most people recognize the need to learn the standard Mandarin so they're largely bilingual. Dialect at home and Mandarin ta…
No, not everybody in Europe speaks English. Not in France, not in Germany, not in Spain, not in Italy.
I would think that the (mandatory) benefits required for companies in Europe (or even outside the US) raise the bar for startups. More $$ is required, more paperwork to ensure compliance, ... On the good side, this might/should act as a filter. On the bad side, money flows along the path of least resistance. I guess this is an argument for accepting remote work. There are lots of talented people in places where they…
Here in California, most employment is at will, meaning that either party can end the relationship immediately. I can quit without notice; I can be fired without notice. (In practice, notice is generally given, but that's custom, not a legal right. One can also write an employment contract with other terms.) But from what he said, it was very difficult to get rid of underperforming employees, and also hard to reduce staffing levels if the business needed fewer people.
He mentions the multiple languages. I don't understand why Europeans stick to their local languages when they all know English anyway. Are they trying to keep foreigners out? Surely they realize there's a huge social cost of having your own minority language. This problem exists in China too but most people recognize the need to learn the standard Mandarin so they're largely bilingual. Dialect at home and Mandarin ta…
He mentions the multiple languages. I don't understand why Europeans stick to their local languages when they all know English anyway. Are they trying to keep foreigners out? Surely they realize there's a huge social cost of having your own minority language. This problem exists in China too but most people recognize the need to learn the standard Mandarin so they're largely bilingual. Dialect at home and Mandarin ta…
The challenge is that still a lot of things are distributed (you are vastly more likely to read your national news, shop at national ecommerce shop, shipping rates are much higher if you do that oversees, etc.).