4 ms·

How The EU Lets Startups Slip Through Its Fingers

15 points by dwynings 17y ago

ohashi 17y ago
I think we are starting to see more in the area of seed funding. Just 2 days ago I was meeting with one of the people starting http://www.startupbootcamp.dk http://www.startupbootcamp.dk a seed fund in Denmark, seemed very much modeled at YC/TechStars model. There is definitely demand, and people are starting to pick up on it. One of the biggest challenges is one of critical mass. There is small communities at least in my region here, but nothing big enough to attract others elsewhere or attract me somewhere else (other then back to US).
teralaser 17y ago
"To put this into better context, the total current population of Europe and the United States is estimated to be 831m and 308m respectively." ? Say what ? EU is maybe 450-500m - you can't accuse the EU of doing bad things in countries outside the EU.
- bjelkeman-again 17y ago
  But does he really accuse the EU of anything? As far as I can tell he is talking about "European regions", which isn't limited to the EU. But I wonder whether that 831m is a typo though, as Wikipedia says 731m. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe But comparing Europe to the US, is fairly arbitrary, why not compare it to North America?
bjelkeman-again 17y ago
The interesting thing with Y-Combinator is that it is by techies and entrepreneurs for techies and entrepreneurs. My experience in the European funding market is that there are not enough techies and entrepreneurs that have made good money, and therefor don't/can't invest themselves. The funds in the UK and Sweden (where I have direct experience, as well as San Francisco) are handled by people who are one step away from entrepreneurship/tech stuff, which IMO means that the people handling the startup funds don't connect as well with the entrepreneurs. In Stockholm, Sweden, we are seeing a lot more activity in the last couple of years, with investors/entrepreneurship support like STING <http://www.stockholminnovation.com/&#62 http://www.stockholminnovation.com/> and Venture Cup <http://www.venturecup.se/> http://www.venturecup.se/>, but it is nothing like in California, or even Massachusetts. The investors in Sweden are also too small to be able to handle investments at the scale the US investors do. And the investment market is fragmented over several European geographical locations. UK investors don't have good representation in Stockholm, for example. It is harder for entrepreneurs to move to a different location in the EU where the suitable money is, than it is in the US. Y-Combinator used to make everyone come over to Cambridge/Boston for a while when working on the startup (maybe they still do). This is harder in Stockholm, than in Cambridge, Mass., where the cultural barriers for someone from say Portugal or Ireland, are higher. There seem to be no investment movement between the UK/Scandinavian market and Germany for example. Furthermore, there are less available "exits" in European market, as most successful "exits" in the IT industry happens in the US. Which again makes things harder. It is clear to me that the talent in the UK/Swedish market is there, but the infrastructure around the investments and the cultural barriers are higher, which makes it harder.

15 points by dwynings 17y ago

I think we are starting to see more in the area of seed funding. Just 2 days ago I was meeting with one of the people starting http://www.startupbootcamp.dk http://www.startupbootcamp.dk a seed fund in Denmark, seemed very much modeled at YC/TechStars model. There is definitely demand, and people are starting to pick up on it. One of the biggest challenges is one of critical mass. There is small communities at least in my region here, but nothing big enough to attract others elsewhere or attract me somewhere else (other then back to US).

teralaser 17y ago

"To put this into better context, the total current population of Europe and the United States is estimated to be 831m and 308m respectively." ? Say what ? EU is maybe 450-500m - you can't accuse the EU of doing bad things in countries outside the EU.

bjelkeman-again 17y ago
But does he really accuse the EU of anything? As far as I can tell he is talking about "European regions", which isn't limited to the EU. But I wonder whether that 831m is a typo though, as Wikipedia says 731m. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe But comparing Europe to the US, is fairly arbitrary, why not compare it to North America?

bjelkeman-again 17y ago

The interesting thing with Y-Combinator is that it is by techies and entrepreneurs for techies and entrepreneurs. My experience in the European funding market is that there are not enough techies and entrepreneurs that have made good money, and therefor don't/can't invest themselves. The funds in the UK and Sweden (where I have direct experience, as well as San Francisco) are handled by people who are one step away from entrepreneurship/tech stuff, which IMO means that the people handling the startup funds don't connect as well with the entrepreneurs. In Stockholm, Sweden, we are seeing a lot more activity in the last couple of years, with investors/entrepreneurship support like STING <http://www.stockholminnovation.com/&#62 http://www.stockholminnovation.com/> and Venture Cup <http://www.venturecup.se/> http://www.venturecup.se/>, but it is nothing like in California, or even Massachusetts. The investors in Sweden are also too small to be able to handle investments at the scale the US investors do. And the investment market is fragmented over several European geographical locations. UK investors don't have good representation in Stockholm, for example. It is harder for entrepreneurs to move to a different location in the EU where the suitable money is, than it is in the US. Y-Combinator used to make everyone come over to Cambridge/Boston for a while when working on the startup (maybe they still do). This is harder in Stockholm, than in Cambridge, Mass., where the cultural barriers for someone from say Portugal or Ireland, are higher. There seem to be no investment movement between the UK/Scandinavian market and Germany for example. Furthermore, there are less available "exits" in European market, as most successful "exits" in the IT industry happens in the US. Which again makes things harder. It is clear to me that the talent in the UK/Swedish market is there, but the infrastructure around the investments and the cultural barriers are higher, which makes it harder.