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Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?

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Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?

#231

Post by aianus »

KaiserPro wrote: post #166

Because investors in Europe are less optimistic. Why would I invest a lot of money in a company that for it to succeed will have to burn through anywhere between $10-$250 million, before they even think about breaking even? even as a seed fund, the rate of attrition is genuinely terrible. The only way unicorn can survive is to bend reality long enough so that people are willing to gamble on the pyramid scheme that is…

I highly disagree. Uber is like Amazon; it could stop expanding and investing tomorrow and immediately start turning a huge profit.

They charge 10% of all taxi rides with a marginal cost of maintaining some server software and a mobile app. No cars, no human dispatchers, no medallions, no nothing. It's a great business.

Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?

#232

Post by rdancer »

andreamazz wrote: post #56

Unicorns? Ha! It's hard to survive, let alone be successful. No investors, convoluted laws, high taxes and complete lack of startup mentality. I'm a cofounder of an italian startup, and the road is on an unbearably steep slope. The bureaucracy is insane, the cost of running a small business is daunting. Other companies refuse to work with you because in their eyes you're a scrub (I heard so many times bullshit like "…

Would you considered moving to another EU country? The opportunities are different, but the bureaucracy definitely more friendly in the UK for example.

Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?

#233

Post by shas3 »

petercooper wrote: post #209

Combine lots of languages with lots of regulatory areas and you end up with numerous smaller communities. Add this to Metcalfe's Law and you have disproportionately smaller opportunities for company size when social effects are important (as they are to most Internet-based unicorns, though not to companies Europe does do well at - like car companies and manufacturing, say). Mathematically, say one network with size 1…

I think you are overstating the importance of languages. As a counter example, one has to only look at large European companies, like Seimens, Airbus, Philips, Volkswagen, etc. Their multinational spread transcends language barriers. Why would this be a problem for start ups? India has several languages and is insanely diverse. In this way it is different from China. But what works for companies trying to scale up in India is that most people have a functional knowledge of English.

But I think you are right on the money about regulation. For better and for worse, the regulatory framework is far more liberal in the US compared to Europe. Even though Indian regulations are much worse than Europe and often more draconian, the Indian unicorns have flourished in niches where regulation doesn't matter or are more rational because they came about more recently.

Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?

#234

Post by pluma »

venomsnake wrote: post #68
Asbostos wrote: post #16

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…

Lets start that since that since the Cromwell times Britain has not been a part of Europe by its own choosing. The whole balance of power. Even today UK is a different beast than all the rest of Europe. Also one of the huge benefits of post WWII order was the creation of homogeneous national countries. Which explains the abnormally long peace period. So nationalism and national identity are extremely strong in europe…

If Scotland were to secede, I have no doubts Scotland would join the EU and the UK would leave.

England does not see itself as part of Europe. If anything, England sees Europe as an extension of France. And England hates France with a vengeance. Geography and history aside, the UK is not a European country at heart.

Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?

#235

Post by tsotha »

There's a huge network effect in startups. Once the financing structure, the management skills, and technical know-how are in a place, companies start (or move) there, which in turn brings in even more skilled work force and VCs. How many articles have we seen about governments trying to create The Next Silicon Valley and failing after dropping loads of cash?

And over the short run the talent picture is a zero sum game - Europeans who moved to SF to start their company are potential founders Europe doesn't have any more.

Also, don't underestimate the draw of US universities. We get people from all over the world coming to the US for their graduate degrees and many of them stay.

Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?

#236

Post by [deleted] »

weland wrote: post #48
Asbostos wrote: post #16

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…

I speak English very well. I have spoken it in professional environments for so long that, in a regular conversation, even accent barely reveals that I'm a non-native speaker anymore. However , my own native language is part of my cultural heritage, a heritage that I deeply appreciate, which is very dear to me and which cannot be adequately rendered in English any more than The Canterbury Tales can be adequately rend…

[deleted]

Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?

#237

Post by aianus »

Asbostos wrote: post #16

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…

I'm with you. I speak Romanian but it's totally worthless compared to English. It's a shame that European countries (especially poor ones) don't switch to English immersion schooling to give their students a chance in life.

Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?

#238

Post by mamon »

pluma wrote: post #226
mamon wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The refugee immigration will ultimately boost Europe's tech competitiveness" I don't think so. Most of the immigrants are uneducated people, with no willingnes of finding a job. They want to go to Germany because that's the country with highest benefits for unemployed. How would we benefit from THAT ?

Here's a thought: these people went through hell in order to get out of the misery they lived in. That's not exactly what I have in mind when I think of underachievers with no work ethos.

Here's the thought: if they really went through hell they would appreciate stay in any decent EU country. But most of them really wasn't in danger when they decided to travel to Europe. In fact, such a travel, as organized by people smuggling gangs costs about $10k so it's obvious that they were pretty wealthy before they decided to come here. Also, most of them openly admit that they are here for economic reasons, not running from war. Please, get some info before posting such stupid comments.

Also, if this was really about finding safe haven from war, there are rich, muslim countries like Saudi Arabia or Turkey, which are much closer and would be much better place for them anyway, due to similar cultural background, but for some reason they prefer EU with it's social benefits.

Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?

#239

Post by aianus »

kuschku wrote: post #62
Shivetya wrote: post #22

Over regulation. He talks all around that word but its key to why. The barrier to entry becomes much more difficult to surmount.

Over regulation is not really a thing – the US has under regulation, especially in regards to data safety. Over regulation is what the US does with taxis. Which is why in Germany companies that do essentially the same as Uber (but legal[1]) already existed before Uber was even founded. What I see the "issue" is that as soon as some size is reached, we don't really care about expanding further. Why take a risk when yo…

> UberPop is only banned because they did not want to insure the drivers.

Do you have a source for this? Uber insures its UberX drivers in both Canada and the U.S. so I don't see why they would be opposed in Germany. There must be something else.

Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?

#240

Post by verybitter92 »

verybitter92 wrote: post #168

Why 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…

Why was I downvoted? Everything I said is the truth. Why would someone want to be a programmer in Europe when the pay and respect is so bad, and with what money can a programmer be expected to start a startup when they're only being paid a €3000 a month salary?
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