Bureaucracy is a major reason. See Pournelle's iron law of bureaucracy ("in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to

Bureaucracy is a major reason. See Pournelle's iron law of bureaucracy ("in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representatives who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions."). A government tend to be less and less efficient, whereas a startup has to be more and more to survive. Technocracy is another one. The Dilbert principle/Putt's law/corollary ("Technology is dominated by two types of people, those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand"/competence inversion) is everywhere at play, however startups are too young and not big enough to really suffer from it. Raw power, coupled to inertia, is also a reason. As J. Ousterhout pointed it out "The most important component of evolution is death. it's easier to create a new organism than to change an existing one. Most organisms are highly resistant to change, but when they die it becomes possible for new and improved organisms to take their place" ( https://web.stanford.edu/~ouster/cgi-bin/sayings.php https://web.stanford.edu/~ouster/cgi-bin/sayings.php ). A government is very powerful and has huge inertia, it won't easily evolve or die.