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Interestingly, I can't think of a single self-made entrepreneur out of continental Europe -- think Germany, France, Italy, and their neighboring countries -- wh
by cs702 10y ago
Interestingly, I can't think of a single self-made entrepreneur out of continental Europe -- think Germany, France, Italy, and their neighboring countries -- who in recent history has become immensely wealthy by creating new products or services that have changed the world.
In continental Europe, there is no Jeff Bezos, no Sergei Brin, no Bill Gates, no Steve Jobs, no Elon Musk, no Larry Page, no Mark Zuckerberg... one could keep going.
I don't think it's a coincidence.
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PS. In response to comments below, note that the founders of Skype, Spotify, Ikea, are not from continental Europe; they are from the Scandinavian Peninsula. Note also that I'm talking about NEW kinds of products and services that have changed the world.
- tpm 10y agoSergey Brin is from continental Europe :). Still I don't understand why you would exclude Scandinavia. It's like excluding Florida when talking about the USA. Also Dieter Schwarz of Lidl, Michel Ferrero etc. - what exactly do you mean with 'new'? However it is definitely not a coincidence, American companies usually win because the American market is big and unified, the European market much less so, and there are many other differences.
- dogma1138 10y agoClosest thing is probably https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson But he ain't continental.
- sitkack 10y agoThen while you are at it, The Beetles, The Stones... http://fortune.com/2013/07/21/inside-rolling-stones-inc-fortune-2002/ http://fortune.com/2013/07/21/inside-rolling-stones-inc-fort... http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-rolling-stones-guide-to-business-success-1462544656 http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-rolling-stones-guide-to-busi...
- neximo64 10y agoThe problem on HN is a very American centric view with startups. While I cannot profess to Europe having a large number of startup founders it is a long way off to put of a entrepreneurship in Europe in its entirety. There's the founders of Skype (also TransferWise and their other endeavours), the founders of Spotify too, SAP, Richard Branson (not tech), Ikea, Inditex, Ferrero, Wirecard, LVMH... but there are lot in their own categories. The list is actually quite long, albeit lacking in the tech sector. Culture in Europe is not to be overly audacious with being a 'one man' business. The leaders of businesses don't take centre stage, the business itself does. This is probably why their businesses are known far better than they are personally. It is at opposites with American businesses where older, inherited business tend to have this trait, for instance one cannot even find a picture of anyone who runs the Mars company easily. Young ones on the other hand put their founders at centre stage. Your description or thoughts of European entrepreneurs are somewhat extreme.
- cs702 10y agoThe founders of Skype, Spotify, Ikea, are not out of continental Europe; they are from the Scandinavian Peninsula, no? LVMH's roots go back centuries (Louis Vuitton was founded in 1854; Moet was founded in 1743; Hennesy was founded in 1765). Amancio Ortega of Inditex is self-made, but he has not changed the world with new products and services.
- neximo64 10y agoYes this is true, with LVMH the businesses were combined & acquired more recently by B Arnault even though the original businesses are very old. I would hardly say Inditex hasn't changed the world. Apple mimics their JIT inventory technique.. There used to be a time when it took a few years to get phones out to the public. I think the thing that makes these particular entrepreneurs stand out is they keep a relatively higher profile. The cultural tendency in Europe is more socialist and not to show off and keep out of the news - This is what my point was more on. The startups and founders are there, but they don't let themselves be known. Do we know who was responsible for the Raspberry Pi for example? or who built up ARM Holdings (the designers of the arm chips on everyones phones and tablets)? or who made Nokia do what it did? Who made the device that drilled the channel tunnel? Surely they changed the world, its just they don't 'get out there' as much as American entrepreneurs.
- gumby 10y agoIngvar Kamprad, Liliale Bennencourt...there are plenty, if fewer per capita than the US.
- cs702 10y agoIngvar Kamprad: from Scandinavian Peninsula, not continental Europe. Liliale Bennencourt: heiress.
- solidangle 10y agoSweden is continental Europe
- cs702 10y agoI'm excluding the Scandinavian Peninsula, which historically has been excluded due to its near physical detachment from the rest of the continent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Europe
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- bbctol 10y agoAny particular reason why?
- solidangle 10y agoBecause it's convenient for him and his argument.
- alva 10y agolol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruben_Rausing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruben_Rausing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingvar_Kamprad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingvar_Kamprad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amancio_Ortega https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amancio_Ortega https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Albrecht https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Albrecht https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fredriksen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fredriksen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markus_Persson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markus_Persson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_F._W._Schaeffler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_F._W._Schaeffler etc. etc. Very rich people in Europe tend to keep a fairly low profile, self-made and inherited. You may not be familiar with them as they don't tend to be covered in TechCrunch
- cs702 10y agoRuben Rausing: 1895, not recent history. Ingvar Kamprad: not in continental Europe. Amancio Ortega: what new kind of product/service did his company create? Karl Albrecht: what new kind of product/service did his company create? John Fredriksen: what new kind of product/service did his company create? Markus Persson: not from continental Europe. Georg Schaeffler: the roots of that company go back to 1883: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schaeffler_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schaeffler_Group
- alva 10y agokeep editing your original post until you get the result you want. alternatively like you have done with the other suggestions provided, keep on narrowing "new products and services" until you can dismiss them all ;)
- neximo64 10y agoThe original article on Bloomberg is about Europe as a whole not 'continental Europe'. Also Scandinavia is in continental Europe. Just the UK and the islands in the Med are excluded.
- hibikir 10y agoChanging the world is a great way of making sure your statement is always true: You can define what the world is, and apparently your definition is computers and electronics. Even then, I'd argue that most of the ones you listed just won in existing markets. If you are looking for immensely wealthy, self made entrepreneurs, they exist. Just from Spain, we have Emilio Botin, who built one of the biggest banks in the world out of nothing, and Amancio Ortega, who owned a single, small store called Zara, and now owns a conglomerate worth 100b: Not quite Amazon, but in the same ballpark. There's also this company called SAP. I hear they are big and not American. The difference in number of ultra-wealthy entrepreneurs has little to do with inherited wealth IMO, and I am no fond of inherited wealth. Instead, there are two far better reasons: It's harder to raise capital, and the size of the markets that you can get to without becoming a multilingual, multi jurisdiction company are far smaller. The EU's inroads towards unified regulation are noticeable, but far too slow in comparison to the US. How big would Amazon be if all it could sell to for the first few years was just Seattle? How do I build a huge social network if you are hard pressed to find more than 80 million people speaking the same language, and people often live very close to their birthplace? How many text advertisers can I find if my search engine is looking at content written in a country of 40m people, instead of 400m? You might as well ask why there are so few Japanese playing in the NBA.
- loopbit 10y agoNot technical and the "creating new products or services that have changed the world" is hugely debatable, but how about Amancio Ortega[0]? A spaniard, son of a railroad worker. Started working as a shop hand at age 14 and it's now, at least according to Forbes[1], the richest man in Europe and the wealthiest retailer in the world. You can't be more self-made than that. On the other hand, some of the people you mention were already well-off to begin with, even if not really rich. Once said that, I agree with you at some level: The mindset in Europe is (or was, maybe it's changing?) different from the US and, generally speaking, more risk-averse. Also, the feeling among most of the european entrepreneurs I've met is that the US is the place to go if you really want to succeed: Funding, market fit, know-how... all that is perceived to be better/easier to get in the US. Anyway, just my 2 cents and my very personal, very subjective, anecdote-based perception of it. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amancio_Ortega https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amancio_Ortega [1] http://www.forbes.com/profile/amancio-ortega http://www.forbes.com/profile/amancio-ortega
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- cs702 10y agoI agree: Amancio Ortega is self-made and his accomplishments are incredible, but like you, I don't see Zara as a "world-changing" product or service. By the way, I realize that "world-changing" is a rather imprecise moniker, but I still find it useful: no one would deny that the iPhone and Google, for example, were new world-changing products. I also agree with your perception that the mindset in Europe is (or was?) different from the US and, generally speaking, more risk-averse. I don't think this is unrelated to the greater prevalence of inherited wealth.
- dilemma 10y agoThe apparel industry provides one of three basic needs. The two others are food and shelter. A company that goes beyond providing bare necessities to also make products that fulfill psychological and social functions by offering different types of aesthetics that can be used for signaling, for everyone almost regardless of class and income, is providing a very valuable service. A company like Zara faces similar challenges in regards to distribution as does Amazon. But it also does more, it designs and produces the products it sells, something that Amazon is completely incapable of doing. Furthermore, they own and operate something like 30-50% of the production capacity they need. These are hard problems that very few companies are able to understand and solve.