I don't know why the European tech sector lags the US's. I've heard the larger domestic market, runaway network effects in Silicon Valley, and it's status at a

I don't know why the European tech sector lags the US's. I've heard the larger domestic market, runaway network effects in Silicon Valley, and it's status at a favorite country to emigrate to as explanations. But, having founded two (small) software companies in Europe, I can assure you I have not once felt any significant impact of regulation. Stuff like GDPR is a nuance at best, employment, tax, data protection, and obviously anti-trust law all have exemptions for smaller companies, etc. If you start a gas fracking business or want to clone people you'll run into trouble rather quickly. But putting X people in a room and building software requires negligible amounts of paperwork.