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Germans absolutely do tech startups, in fact they’ve been on the forefront of building tech companies that mirror Silicon Valley, but in German. There’s been a

Germans absolutely do tech startups, in fact they’ve been on the forefront of building tech companies that mirror Silicon Valley, but in German. There’s been a German eBay, PayPal and Facebook. Europe doesn’t really do major companies though, and part of that is certainly a lack of demand to go global from capital investors, but there are other parts as well. Like language and regulation. I went to harzen for holiday this summer, very retro I know, and almost no one spoke English. In fact I had bigger luck with Danish than I had with English because they see so many Danish tourists. I’m not sure Americans can really understand how big the language and cultural barriers are from creating global companies when you’re de-attached from the Anglo-Saxon world. I think the reason that a lot of European startups that made it to the global scence came from Scandinavia, is exactly because we’re so attached to American culture that’s it’s almost second nature to us. Sure we don’t understand American individualism, not really, but we’re all brought up watching American tv-shows and movies, hell American politics and economics sometimes take up more news space than our own national news... The rest of Europe isn’t like that, so while Germany had its own eBay, that made its founders billionaires, no one outside of Germany has ever heard about it. Except for maybe eBay who couldn’t enter the market.

pjmlp 8y ago
Usually when I go around in Eastern Europe I have an easier way trying to speak German than English. And in southern Europe I am lucky to be able to speak most languages, as anyone beyond a certain age hardly speaks any word of English, specially outside the major cities. Which is indeed a challenge, on the other side is also something quite rich, as most traveling Europeans tend to speak fluently three languages on average.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- prablenha 8y ago
  As a southern European I'm very happy about this situation. I don't want my country to be like the Scandinavian countries, the GP summed it up pretty well. Everybody knows English and American culture is literally swallowing the local culture. I'm happy with my language and my culture, thank you.
- antt 8y ago
  >Usually when I go around in Eastern Europe I have an easier way trying to speak German than English. Everyone who knows English has already left. I'm not sure how much it's worth to other people but for me knowing English has been a ~x50 income multiplier.
yorwba 8y ago
As a German, I have no idea what you mean by the German eBay and PayPal (Facebook was StudiVZ, I guess, but now it's just Facebook).
- catdog 8y ago
  Maybe alando which was basically a blatant copy of ebay and quickly acquired by ebay? But this was a long time ago. German PayPal? Not that I know of. The banks are helplessly trying now after many years but they aren't even able to match what PayPal provides let alone being innovative.
- gaius 8y ago
  Isn’t Schpock the German eBay?
  - thirdsun 8y ago
    Craigslist might be a better comparison.
WalterBright 8y ago
> Except for maybe eBay who couldn’t enter the market. https://www.ebay.de/ https://www.ebay.de/ ??
- usrusr 8y ago
  ...didn't really get a foot on the ground in Germany twenty years ago.
expertentipp 8y ago
> German eBay That's a startup?! It was some dodgy scheme set up by infamous brothers, hysterically taken over by eBay within first couple of months of its existence.
olavgg 8y ago
I am working for startup in Norway that has seen extreme growth in just 2 years. We are in the chatbot/virtual assistance space and our biggest competitors are big multi-billions US companies. When it comes to european languages, we are at least an order of magnitude better in understanding natural language and delivery speed(from start to production) than these big companies. But oh boy how many times EU companies pick one of these big players over us and fail. Today we have a range of HUGE clients, half of them who has even failed with a competitor. We have a really good story to sell. Still it is impossible to convince 1 of 2 companies to go with us first. They really want to fail hard before giving us a chance. I just can't understand why it is like this. The trust in US companies with a strong name over decades is really huge here in EU.
- Gravityloss 8y ago
  I wonder if the competition in EU is hard enough, if companies always choose the "safe" or "good enough" solution?
  - tormeh 8y ago
    Me too. I've heard an observation from a Belgian customer: Once a Belgian customer has signed a contract with a supplier, they're married, and will put up with all kinds of shitty product. Presumably, I speculate, because cancelling the contract is seen as an admission of failure for the buyer. Completely crazy. Entire countries never cancelling no matter how shitty the product turns out to be.
    - umichguy 8y ago
      Sounds a bit like IBM back in the day. There's an anecdote that you never got fired as a manger for choosing an IBM product/ solution. It's the safe choice, no one could really fault you for going with it, even if it didn't meet all your reqts.

pjmlp 8y ago

Usually when I go around in Eastern Europe I have an easier way trying to speak German than English. And in southern Europe I am lucky to be able to speak most languages, as anyone beyond a certain age hardly speaks any word of English, specially outside the major cities. Which is indeed a challenge, on the other side is also something quite rich, as most traveling Europeans tend to speak fluently three languages on average.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
prablenha 8y ago
As a southern European I'm very happy about this situation. I don't want my country to be like the Scandinavian countries, the GP summed it up pretty well. Everybody knows English and American culture is literally swallowing the local culture. I'm happy with my language and my culture, thank you.
antt 8y ago
>Usually when I go around in Eastern Europe I have an easier way trying to speak German than English. Everyone who knows English has already left. I'm not sure how much it's worth to other people but for me knowing English has been a ~x50 income multiplier.

yorwba 8y ago

As a German, I have no idea what you mean by the German eBay and PayPal (Facebook was StudiVZ, I guess, but now it's just Facebook).

catdog 8y ago
Maybe alando which was basically a blatant copy of ebay and quickly acquired by ebay? But this was a long time ago. German PayPal? Not that I know of. The banks are helplessly trying now after many years but they aren't even able to match what PayPal provides let alone being innovative.
gaius 8y ago
Isn’t Schpock the German eBay?
- thirdsun 8y ago
  Craigslist might be a better comparison.

WalterBright 8y ago

> Except for maybe eBay who couldn’t enter the market. https://www.ebay.de/ https://www.ebay.de/ ??

usrusr 8y ago
...didn't really get a foot on the ground in Germany twenty years ago.

expertentipp 8y ago

> German eBay That's a startup?! It was some dodgy scheme set up by infamous brothers, hysterically taken over by eBay within first couple of months of its existence.

olavgg 8y ago

I am working for startup in Norway that has seen extreme growth in just 2 years. We are in the chatbot/virtual assistance space and our biggest competitors are big multi-billions US companies. When it comes to european languages, we are at least an order of magnitude better in understanding natural language and delivery speed(from start to production) than these big companies. But oh boy how many times EU companies pick one of these big players over us and fail. Today we have a range of HUGE clients, half of them who has even failed with a competitor. We have a really good story to sell. Still it is impossible to convince 1 of 2 companies to go with us first. They really want to fail hard before giving us a chance. I just can't understand why it is like this. The trust in US companies with a strong name over decades is really huge here in EU.

Gravityloss 8y ago
I wonder if the competition in EU is hard enough, if companies always choose the "safe" or "good enough" solution?
- tormeh 8y ago
  Me too. I've heard an observation from a Belgian customer: Once a Belgian customer has signed a contract with a supplier, they're married, and will put up with all kinds of shitty product. Presumably, I speculate, because cancelling the contract is seen as an admission of failure for the buyer. Completely crazy. Entire countries never cancelling no matter how shitty the product turns out to be.
  - umichguy 8y ago
    Sounds a bit like IBM back in the day. There's an anecdote that you never got fired as a manger for choosing an IBM product/ solution. It's the safe choice, no one could really fault you for going with it, even if it didn't meet all your reqts.