The US has a start-up culture heavily centered around venture capitalist investments. The EU is currently trying to be the venture capitalist and to create a European start-up culture where none was before.
I think this is a terrible idea, because it does not address why there is no European startup culture. Europe has tech talent and Europe has money, yet it has no start-up culture. There are many reasons for this. To me the most important ones are:
- Many EU member states have very start-up hostile labor laws. In Germany many tactics/offerings US startups use to hire talent are illegal.
- The wage difference between hard work at a startup, less hard work at a large corporation and very low stress work in a government office is minimal. Working for a startup is almost never financially rewarding.
- The mainstream social democrat conception of work, which much of the population shares, is totally at odds with American start-up culture.
Money does not solve any of these problems, because it does not answer the single most important question. Who is going to do anything with this, that is actually worthwhile. I have seen dozens of these EU funded projects and as a tech enthusiast I think many of them are exciting and cool and fun and interesting. The number of actual useful products I have seen is at zero.
I think this is a terrible idea, because it does not address why there is no European startup culture. Europe has tech talent and Europe has money, yet it has no start-up culture. There are many reasons for this. To me the most important ones are:
- Many EU member states have very start-up hostile labor laws. In Germany many tactics/offerings US startups use to hire talent are illegal.
- The wage difference between hard work at a startup, less hard work at a large corporation and very low stress work in a government office is minimal. Working for a startup is almost never financially rewarding.
- The mainstream social democrat conception of work, which much of the population shares, is totally at odds with American start-up culture.
Money does not solve any of these problems, because it does not answer the single most important question. Who is going to do anything with this, that is actually worthwhile. I have seen dozens of these EU funded projects and as a tech enthusiast I think many of them are exciting and cool and fun and interesting. The number of actual useful products I have seen is at zero.