India has 7, 1 less than Europe, that is very interesting from many accounts. GDP of Europe ~20 Trillion $. GDP of India is 2 Trillion $ - I wish there were more studies like this, but not just at the billion $ evaluation, but say 100 million $ evaluation, I think reaching the mark of 1 B$ also requires significant amount of luck(in addition to great execution), a smaller number like 100 M$ may be a more consistent measure
Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
281–290 of 338 posts
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#282Earlier 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…
You are dramatically underestimating Boston and over-estimating Texas.
Boston is one of the hot spots. It's actually really easy to recruit talent as there are a ton of students, it's an interesting, old city, it actually has mass transit, and not everybody is bothered by cold (some people even like it).
San Diego is way better than Austin (just look at the jobs postings and employer numbers), and some people would regard San Diego as second tier. Admittedly, they both probably qualify as the top of the second tier.
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#283In my opinion, the EU has failed (still) to be an open big market, where companies can grow without restrictions. One current big example are the new VAT rules in the EU for non-physical products. They just do the opposite, what a free market should be. There are already companies that say on their website, that they will sell to their own countries people and happily even to people outside of the EU, but not to peop…
VAT has become a big problem for commerce, yes.
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#284Earlier quoted context omitted.
IMO the EU is too protective of its economy to allow the kind of innovation Silicon Valley is famous for. The EU has a default assumption of "you have to prove that this will not be harmful before you can do it" where the US has a default assumption of "someone else has to prove that this will be harmful before we will stop you". The important part is that this burden of proof in the US is not placed on a company at…
> Something like Uber could never have come out of Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlaBlaCar
> The startup's economic model is designed for long distances and geared toward motorists looking to fill empty seats during journeys they would have been making anyway.
So, not like Uber at all and not something that takes on the heavily regulated taxi industry.
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#285Because they're further downstream from where all the money is being printed.
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#286Earlier quoted context omitted.
> they all know English anyway Not all of us speak English.
I haven't seen any serious tech companies in Germany that don't require at least basic English skills.
And thus, the percentage of talent that european companies are able to see and reach is only a part of the whole talent available. Bad for both parts. Yes, is another big problem also.
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#287Earlier quoted context omitted.
IMO the EU is too protective of its economy to allow the kind of innovation Silicon Valley is famous for. The EU has a default assumption of "you have to prove that this will not be harmful before you can do it" where the US has a default assumption of "someone else has to prove that this will be harmful before we will stop you". The important part is that this burden of proof in the US is not placed on a company at…
> Something like Uber could never have come out of Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlaBlaCar
BlaBlaCar is actually owned by SNCF, the French state-owned railway company. So Blablacar is actually part of the government monopoly on all long-distance travel (even highways cost money to use). I don't think it's the best standard-bearer for the European startup scene.
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because investors in Europe are a bunch of pathetic spineless banker types.
> Because investors in Europe are a bunch of pathetic spineless banker types. Or investors in Europe have enough opportunities to generate more than the typical return on investment of VC? The average VC ROI is really low, it gets outperformed even by passive index funds IIRC. Edit: Found the source. "Yet 2013 annual industry performance data from Cambridge Associates shows that venture capital continues to underperf…
The average is meaningless. Venture capital follows the power law. The top 5-10 firms in the U.S. will realise 95%+ of the returns for the entire industry. The Benchmarks, Sequoias, A16Z, etc.
The top companies only want to go with the top investors and vice versa. I wish they'd publish data. I'd love to see Benchmarks ROI on their recent fund, it's likely going to be the best performing fund of all time.
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#289Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
To be fair, all that Norwegian GDP is big oil.
Re: Why Is Europe Failing to Create More $1B Startups?
#290We need a new term for "unicorn" ... "Paper unicorn", perhaps.
A better comparison would remove the confounding variable of valuation. Instead, it'd be interesting to look at start-ups in each region with >$200M in annual recognized revenue. Valuations fluctuate based on investor sentiment and market conditions. Revenue is more fundamental.