Why Germany should copy Silicon Valley's culture rather than their startups
1–10 of 82 posts
Re: Why Germany should copy Silicon Valley's culture rather than their startups
#2"People in SV are not afraid to fail. In fact, having failed before is considered a great quality. If you haven’t failed, you’re either inexperienced or suspicious. Startups try, fail, try again, pivot, fail and try again."
I think aside from maybe regulation, this is the biggest issue that Germany has and it's also the same one that Japan faces. The fear of failure and losing face. I'm not even sure that you can change this short of a few decades.
Re: Why Germany should copy Silicon Valley's culture rather than their startups
#3"People in SV are not afraid to fail. In fact, having failed before is considered a great quality. If you haven’t failed, you’re either inexperienced or suspicious. Startups try, fail, try again, pivot, fail and try again." I think aside from maybe regulation, this is the biggest issue that Germany has and it's also the same one that Japan faces. The fear of failure and losing face. I'm not even sure that you can cha…
In the UK, if you fail, its pretty much game over. You get black listed and pretty much, that's the end of it. If you fail and go bankrupt, then set up again, you are almost seen as a fraudulent criminal. In the US, it seems to me that you can try and fail as much as you like, as long as you keep trying and don't get criminal. Trying seems to be enough to get some level of respect. It is absolutely one of the things the US does so much better than here in the UK, possibly all of Europe.
(I'm normally critical of the US, so its nice to take the opportunity to offer praise!!!)
Re: Why Germany should copy Silicon Valley's culture rather than their startups
#4Writing from a German startup right now, I can't quite follow the author here. Granted - German copycats and especially the Samwer Brothers have brought some bad feelings into the community... but Berlin is getting better and bolder every day. It's basically almost all the goodness from Silicon Valley, but without the hype and craze. It's a friendly, crazy and green city with great work ethics - you don't live for working, you work for a living. Contrary to the article, accelerators, VC funding and the war for talent have long arrived here for sure - but it's all still pretty calm and well-thought out. Maybe there's still a little less innovation here, but on the other side, it's much harder to get funding without a business model that makes sense. Color definitely wouldn't happen here. We got all the cool things and conferences, but I'm pretty glad we're doing it the German way: No hire and fire, health insurance for everyone and the income disparity feels just so much more just compared to the states. I once thought of moving over to Silicon Valley, but by now I'm pretty glad that everything I want has moved over here without bringing the TSA, mass surveillance, corporate politics, discussion about the validity of evolution, a deadlocked two-party system and a growing helplessness over the unstoppable and unlimited capitalism that's ruining society already over there. All the best from Berlin - and if you feel the same, maybe it's time to come over? Dom
Re: Why Germany should copy Silicon Valley's culture rather than their startups
#5Writing from a German startup right now, I can't quite follow the author here. Granted - German copycats and especially the Samwer Brothers have brought some bad feelings into the community... but Berlin is getting better and bolder every day. It's basically almost all the goodness from Silicon Valley, but without the hype and craze. It's a friendly, crazy and green city with great work ethics - you don't live for wo…
Berlin is awesome. I know is a question with a very flexible answer but what are the monthly net rates a Py/Django/DB expat developer can expect in an average size company (not boring bigcorp) in 2012?
Re: Why Germany should copy Silicon Valley's culture rather than their startups
#6"People in SV are not afraid to fail. In fact, having failed before is considered a great quality. If you haven’t failed, you’re either inexperienced or suspicious. Startups try, fail, try again, pivot, fail and try again." I think aside from maybe regulation, this is the biggest issue that Germany has and it's also the same one that Japan faces. The fear of failure and losing face. I'm not even sure that you can cha…
In the UK, if you fail, its pretty much game over. You get black listed and pretty much, that's the end of it. If you fail and go bankrupt, then set up again, you are almost seen as a fraudulent criminal. In the US, it seems to me that you can try and fail as much as you like, as long as you keep trying and don't get criminal. Trying seems to be enough to get some level of respect. It is absolutely one of the things…
Yeah, similar in Poland. One who failed is a looser not worth listening to, because he did stuff wrong, ergo he doesn't know anything. I think that's one pretty demotivating factor of business cultures of European coutries (don't know if all though) compared to the American way where if you failed 10 times, you're 10 times more experienced. I was always amazed how people who had lots of failing businesses are invited as speakers to US conferences, something that seems impossible around here.
Re: Why Germany should copy Silicon Valley's culture rather than their startups
#7If US based startups would start globally instead of only nationally, they wouldn't have the "problem" of copycats. It's the same with movies. If the movies would come out globally, people would have less incentive to pirate them.
And even if there are copycats, so what. I didn't hear ebay complain when they bought their German equivalent. It saved them a lot of time and know how, if not money. And Facebook certainly doesn't complain about their German "competition".
I'd say live and let live. Also: If you can't beat them, just buy them. Otherwise ignore them.
Re: Why Germany should copy Silicon Valley's culture rather than their startups
#8"People in SV are not afraid to fail. In fact, having failed before is considered a great quality. If you haven’t failed, you’re either inexperienced or suspicious. Startups try, fail, try again, pivot, fail and try again." I think aside from maybe regulation, this is the biggest issue that Germany has and it's also the same one that Japan faces. The fear of failure and losing face. I'm not even sure that you can cha…
In the UK, if you fail, its pretty much game over. You get black listed and pretty much, that's the end of it. If you fail and go bankrupt, then set up again, you are almost seen as a fraudulent criminal. In the US, it seems to me that you can try and fail as much as you like, as long as you keep trying and don't get criminal. Trying seems to be enough to get some level of respect. It is absolutely one of the things…
I think this is indeed a common view in most of Europe: if your company fails, its because you are incompetent and did something wrong.
Re: Why Germany should copy Silicon Valley's culture rather than their startups
#9cache, since it's down: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...
Re: Why Germany should copy Silicon Valley's culture rather than their startups
#10Writing from a German startup right now, I can't quite follow the author here. Granted - German copycats and especially the Samwer Brothers have brought some bad feelings into the community... but Berlin is getting better and bolder every day. It's basically almost all the goodness from Silicon Valley, but without the hype and craze. It's a friendly, crazy and green city with great work ethics - you don't live for wo…
Berlin is awesome. I know is a question with a very flexible answer but what are the monthly net rates a Py/Django/DB expat developer can expect in an average size company (not boring bigcorp) in 2012?
Very flexible indeed. Anywhere from 30k€/y (entry level, junior dev) till 60-70k€/y (top talent with work experience and some management duties) is possible for a regular full time job - sometimes more, but extreme rates are still pretty uncommon here. (Note though that you've got around the same standard of living here than for double the amount in dollars in the valley.)