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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?

#321

Post by ionised »

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 don't understand why Europeans stick to their local languages when they all know English anyway.

Because they don't all know English and even if they did, why the fuck should they?

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

#322

Post by pyb »

boreas wrote: post #287
rospaya wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Not at all.

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

#323

Post by dragonwriter »

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 don't understand why Europeans stick to their local languages when they all know English anyway.

Because the local language is a majority language where it is the local language, and, globally, every language is a minority language (and English isn't even the biggest minority -- its #2, far behind Mandarin, for total speakers, and #3, behind Spanish which is far behind Mandarin, for native speakers.)

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

#324

Post by pvaldes »

PythonicAlpha wrote: post #317
pvaldes wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VAT has become a big problem for commerce, yes.

It's not about VAT, but about the new VAT rules in the EU particularly for non-physical goods. The problem is not the VAT amount, but that small companies potentially have to deal with all the finance offices (and special rulings) of all EU countries. That is ridiculous!

VAT is a problem for a small company because you have two works and one of them (tax recolector) is unpaid and eat lots of hours that you'll need to blow some life in your startup.

If your client is a big company they can blackmail you to have a "VAT discount". If you want to do business with them, you'll need either to eat their VAT with a percentage of your expected benefits, or you are obliged to cheat to survive. You end figthing with your clients for paying the damned VAT. Always. With each one.

If you take in mind all the lost work hours, angry clients and nuissances that causes to everybody it is clear that is worthless and hurts the economy, but the problem is that VAT is like cocaine for the government. Is wonderful and they always want more. With VAT you can bill taxes to children and to elders for the privilege of buying something in your city but you are not obliged to provide them with a future pension, or any other service instead.

And like any other drug, you raise and raise the doses until finally all collapses. You want to raise VAT and bill 21% for a book or a film? Not problem, people can survive without going to cinema or buying a book. Now you have a 21% of 5 tickets, instead a 4% of 500 tickets and so.

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

#326

Post by PythonicAlpha »

pvaldes wrote: post #324
PythonicAlpha wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about VAT, but about the new VAT rules in the EU particularly for non-physical goods. The problem is not the VAT amount, but that small companies potentially have to deal with all the finance offices (and special rulings) of all EU countries. That is ridiculous!

VAT is a problem for a small company because you have two works and one of them (tax recolector) is unpaid and eat lots of hours that you'll need to blow some life in your startup. If your client is a big company they can blackmail you to have a "VAT discount". If you want to do business with them, you'll need either to eat their VAT with a percentage of your expected benefits, or you are obliged to cheat to survive.…

I did not want to speak in favor of VAT. I agree, that VAT can be a problem in general for smaller companies. Small companies are often fighting against the wall. And I also don't like VAT.

But I wanted to make the point that the new VAT rules in the EU regarding non-physical goods that are sold over the internet (for example downloadable products or also any internet-services) are even more destroying, particularly for very small companies and startups.

So, without a good reason, they just destroy those companies, that are the future and whose counterparts in the US are so successful.

With such stupid regulations, they just kill innovation!

VAT is bad, but the new EU VAT rules are pure insanity.

(btw. did you know, that those rules also apply for US companies that want to sell in Europe? -- just with the difference, that US companies have a big enough market themselves -- something that EU companies don't, because the EU is destroying this market with over-regulation and stupidity)

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

#327

Post by OJFord »

ThomPete wrote: post #132
OJFord wrote: post #105

> The third reason I hear is that the US market is bigger and therefore it’s easier to get traction. > Yet there are 503 million Europeans living inside the EU vs. 319 million US living in the US. That's a really dodgy reason to discount the "third reason". Britons are not to Belgians what New Yorkers are to Californians!

And if you read on you will realize that I am adressing it :)

Whoops, sorry. I didn't realise that was your "people think the answer is .." - I skipped over your response to it because of the subheading "What is the European market?" :p

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

#328

Post by tim333 »

Recent take from Reid Hoffman:

>Many parts of the world now have the necessary ingredients to create start-ups. There are brilliant technical graduates everywhere. Venture capital has gone global.

>Why does Silicon Valley continue to produce a disproportionate share of industry-transforming companies like Google, Facebook and LinkedIn? Or the next generation of companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, and Uber? The answer, which has been hiding in plain sight, is Silicon Valley’s ability to support scale-ups.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/39001312-4836-11e5-af2f-4d6e0e5eda...

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

#329

Post by tim333 »

Interestingly Stockholm does almost as well as Silicon Valley

>on a per-capita basis, Stockholm is the second most prolific tech hub globally, with 6.3 billion-dollar companies per million people compared to Silicon Valley with 6.9

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e3c15066-cd77-11e4-9144-00144feab7...

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