I would say startups in Europe feel more like a sub-culture than an appreciated part of the eco-system: they are common but the local media is not picking them

I would say startups in Europe feel more like a sub-culture than an appreciated part of the eco-system: they are common but the local media is not picking them up as much as in the US. To get you started, you could look at SeedCamp (http://seedcamp.com http://seedcamp.com) or TechCrunch's European site (http://eu.techcrunch.com http://eu.techcrunch.com). Once you go through the articles and posts there, you might start to believe that Berlin is the epicenter of attention right now. However, the culture to embrace failure as well as the VC money aren't there (yet?).