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Hypothesis: other countries, when comparing their own startups to America's startup scene, have no idea how many American startups break a lot of laws at the be

Hypothesis: other countries, when comparing their own startups to America's startup scene, have no idea how many American startups break a lot of laws at the beginning. It's not just Uber; Youtube had a lot of copyrighted content, many ecommerce sites sold into markets without the right export/import licenses, privacy laws were/are widely flouted at first, hate-speech laws are widely disregarded at first, etc. European startups tend to think (perhaps correctly) that they have to be more or less legal from the get-go, American startups tend to think (perhaps correctly) that they won't get much attention until/unless they get big, and they can worry about being legal later. Just an hypothesis, I don't know if it's true. But if it is true, it might be hard for European leaders to see, because they probably aren't aware of how often American startups break the law at first.

presscast 8y ago
Having lived in and worked in France, I think it has little to do with respect for the law, and more to do with other social/structural factors. In no specific order: - A much less developed culture of failure - Few(er) "real" startups. For reasons (see above), many startups in France are startups in name only. They operate under "incubators" that are internally-hosted by industry giants (e.g. AXA). This means it's harder to pivot since whatever you're working on has to serve the interests of your structure. In the AXA example, if you want to pivot from insure-tech to something else, good luck. - A culture of "I'll work a normal job for 10 years to gain experience. Only then will I be legitimate as an entrepreneur." Again, see point 1. The effect is that most people never really get started. - A culture that values job stability to an extreme that's difficult to grasp for Americans. In France, the idea that one should work his entire life in the same company is even built into the law in the form of stringent protections against layoffs. This is slowly changing, but France is not the startup nation Marcon wants it to be. All the French entrepreneurs (including yours truly, but then again I'm a French/US dual citizen...) are in London.

presscast 8y ago

Having lived in and worked in France, I think it has little to do with respect for the law, and more to do with other social/structural factors. In no specific order: - A much less developed culture of failure - Few(er) "real" startups. For reasons (see above), many startups in France are startups in name only. They operate under "incubators" that are internally-hosted by industry giants (e.g. AXA). This means it's harder to pivot since whatever you're working on has to serve the interests of your structure. In the AXA example, if you want to pivot from insure-tech to something else, good luck. - A culture of "I'll work a normal job for 10 years to gain experience. Only then will I be legitimate as an entrepreneur." Again, see point 1. The effect is that most people never really get started. - A culture that values job stability to an extreme that's difficult to grasp for Americans. In France, the idea that one should work his entire life in the same company is even built into the law in the form of stringent protections against layoffs. This is slowly changing, but France is not the startup nation Marcon wants it to be. All the French entrepreneurs (including yours truly, but then again I'm a French/US dual citizen...) are in London.