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These are definitely important factors, and Europe would be in much better shape if it did things right. But I think the geographical features are more importan

These are definitely important factors, and Europe would be in much better shape if it did things right. But I think the geographical features are more important. An American company can grow big locally and then wash over the European market when it's reached maturity. In the meantime, European startups start off in their tiny local market, perhaps 10M, unable to compete in the US, but not big enough to easily expand to the rest of Europe. If for some reason you still succeed, now you have to recruit tens of thousands of people to move to your tiny little country, with a different culture and language. It's not easy to recruit people to move to Stockholm to work for Spotify, not only because of the weather, but also because who wants to spend the energy to learn Swedish for a single job? The alternative is to never really integrate into society.

amaccuish 6y ago
> to your tiny little country Well China would like to have a word with about your "tiny little" country. A world exists outside of the borders of the USA. There"s always someone bigger than you so "tiny little" is usually not a good platform for an argument. > If for some reason you still succeed, now you have to recruit tens of thousands of people to move to your tiny little country Further, the idea that all employees of one company must work in one country is clearly not the case. Or did globalisation not happen? > but also because who wants to spend the energy to learn Swedish for a single job Whilst not in huge numbers, generalisations such as this also do not help your argument.
rvense 6y ago
I've been working for startups in Copenhagen ("the most livable city in the world") for a few years now, and every young tech company I know of have extremely diverse developer teams (it's not uncommon to be in the minority as a local). People absolutely do want to move here, including Americans. As for the language, the working language is English, and for better or worse people do live here for years without learning the language.

amaccuish 6y ago

> to your tiny little country Well China would like to have a word with about your "tiny little" country. A world exists outside of the borders of the USA. There"s always someone bigger than you so "tiny little" is usually not a good platform for an argument. > If for some reason you still succeed, now you have to recruit tens of thousands of people to move to your tiny little country Further, the idea that all employees of one company must work in one country is clearly not the case. Or did globalisation not happen? > but also because who wants to spend the energy to learn Swedish for a single job Whilst not in huge numbers, generalisations such as this also do not help your argument.

rvense 6y ago

I've been working for startups in Copenhagen ("the most livable city in the world") for a few years now, and every young tech company I know of have extremely diverse developer teams (it's not uncommon to be in the minority as a local). People absolutely do want to move here, including Americans. As for the language, the working language is English, and for better or worse people do live here for years without learning the language.