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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?

#51

Post by realusername »

bsaul wrote: post #43

"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" Stopped reading after this line. So to this guy, a market is a geographic definition. Well, we're not in the 19th century anymore. We're not defined by hills and roads and river access. IT startups identify markets from cultur…

It's indeed difficult to explain how diverse the countries are in Europe, you have the same kind of cultural differences that you have in the whole United States in just a single European country from one side to the other, it's pretty dense.

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

#52

Post by mraison »

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…

Once again, state in the US != country in the EU, and Europe != China. Those are not "local" languages (or "minority" languages), they are "national" languages, no matter how ridiculously small you may think those nations are. There are "regional" (or "local") languages too, but they are rarely used in a professional environment, and thus more akin to dialects in China. This has strong cultural implications.

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

#53

Post by flohofwoe »

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…

English (or rather, some sort of English-like pidgin dialect) is the lingua franca in most or even all IT companies at least in Germany and I would guess also Scandinavia. It is true though that a lot of subtleties are lost if you don't communicate in your native language. Also the downvotes for you are completely justified. Languages and dialects are a cultural treasure, not a disadvantage.

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

#54

Post by ild »

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…

> huge social cost of having your own minority language.

Scandinavians are some of the most successful societies, despite of small languages. Languages have cultural baggage to them; every time I hear English, I see high inequality, poor worker rights, obsession with money, yet excellence in science and higher education. No one wants to abandon their own and assume English identity.

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

#55

Post by logicallee »

ThomPete wrote: post #5
atmosx wrote: post #3

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.

"If it was only a matter of investments then surely US investors or Asian investors could just come in with the money" - grand-parent is saying they don't, you're saying they could.

You're both right.

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

#56

Post by andreamazz »

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 "I don't know if you'll be alive in a year or two, so I can't adopt your technology"). You can't hire someone else because you simply can't afford it, and the best people go to the USA anyway. It's immensely frustrating, the only thing that keeps us going is passion, but passion won't pay the bills. Before talking about unicorns we should talk about creating an healthier business environment.

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

#57

Post by notNow »

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…

and I thought that Europeans were bit more insular than their US peers but wait till you see an ethnocentric/lingocentric American voices their opinions on the English language and its perceived supreme status over other languages of the globe.

No wonder Jeb Bush is taking a lot of flack for speaking Spanish in public when you got crowd like this.

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

#58

Post by wildmusings »

wpietri wrote: post #34
afsina wrote: post #4

State intervention on innovation is considered harmful.

Yes, I'm so upset that the government funded all the initial development of the Internet, crushing things like Compuserve and AOL and AT&T's videotex offering. Who knows where we could be today if only those had been allowed to flower. (Well, I know the planet would be 3 inches deep in AOL promotional mailers. But besides that.)

One example of successful state investment doesn't really say anything about what the ideal level of overall state economic intervention is. Research spending like DARPA isn't even representative of how Western governments regulate and tax.

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

#60

Post by bsaul »

realusername wrote: post #51
bsaul wrote: post #43

"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" Stopped reading after this line. So to this guy, a market is a geographic definition. Well, we're not in the 19th century anymore. We're not defined by hills and roads and river access. IT startups identify markets from cultur…

It's indeed difficult to explain how diverse the countries are in Europe, you have the same kind of cultural differences that you have in the whole United States in just a single European country from one side to the other, it's pretty dense.

Yes, yet i would hope that someone that tries to address the fundamental flaws in parts of Europe economy has at least a minimal knowledge of that fact.

To make such a fundamental mistake in an analysis, one has to have never had even one single business relation with two different european countries.

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