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I did some fundraising in CA, London and Berlin, and my experience mirrors yours. European investors seemingly wanted Facebook-sized exits of highly successful

I did some fundraising in CA, London and Berlin, and my experience mirrors yours. European investors seemingly wanted Facebook-sized exits of highly successful growth-oriented companies but nearly all offered really poor terms with high requirements. I specifically remember one German investor wanting me to show multiple years of profitability for a seed investment.

traceroute66 4y ago
You know, I prefer the EU/Asia risk-averse approach to startup funding. IHMO the problem to the US-style approach of (relatively) easy money is that for every good startup that comes out of it, you've got dozens or hundreds of at best "Me Too - but slightly different" companies (i.e. minimal competitive differentiators), and at worst snake oil companies doing everything possible to sell unsuspecting customers a product that is far far far too immature and with IT infrastructure burn rates that would make your local Fire Department wince. In the US if you're good salesman who can tell a good story then you're probably 2/3 of the way there towards getting some funding, there's just so much money sloshing around the system and so much FOMO.
- gumby 4y ago
  > You know, I prefer the EU/Asia risk-averse approach to startup funding...the problem to the US-style approach Just to be clear, one aspect of my (GGP) comment was that it's really a California-plus-a-bit-of-China approach that's FOMO -- my experience in doing deals in BOS and NYC is about as bad as in EU. And for all that I say about California being FOMO: note that Theranos and WeWork were not SV funded (Theranos's sole valley investor was the father of the founder's childhood friends). We work's funding was primarily outside the US.
- yowlingcat 4y ago
  Do you live in EU/Asia or do you live in the US?
xiphias2 4y ago
EU as a whole is sadly too risk averse and going downhill because of it. While quality of life is still great there, the GDP share of EU is falling. I believe the main reason is that people in EU in general prefer to invest in bonds instead of businesses / stocks even for long term (where stocks make more sense), but government bonds themselves can't move the world forward.

traceroute66 4y ago

You know, I prefer the EU/Asia risk-averse approach to startup funding. IHMO the problem to the US-style approach of (relatively) easy money is that for every good startup that comes out of it, you've got dozens or hundreds of at best "Me Too - but slightly different" companies (i.e. minimal competitive differentiators), and at worst snake oil companies doing everything possible to sell unsuspecting customers a product that is far far far too immature and with IT infrastructure burn rates that would make your local Fire Department wince. In the US if you're good salesman who can tell a good story then you're probably 2/3 of the way there towards getting some funding, there's just so much money sloshing around the system and so much FOMO.

gumby 4y ago
> You know, I prefer the EU/Asia risk-averse approach to startup funding...the problem to the US-style approach Just to be clear, one aspect of my (GGP) comment was that it's really a California-plus-a-bit-of-China approach that's FOMO -- my experience in doing deals in BOS and NYC is about as bad as in EU. And for all that I say about California being FOMO: note that Theranos and WeWork were not SV funded (Theranos's sole valley investor was the father of the founder's childhood friends). We work's funding was primarily outside the US.
yowlingcat 4y ago
Do you live in EU/Asia or do you live in the US?

xiphias2 4y ago

EU as a whole is sadly too risk averse and going downhill because of it. While quality of life is still great there, the GDP share of EU is falling. I believe the main reason is that people in EU in general prefer to invest in bonds instead of businesses / stocks even for long term (where stocks make more sense), but government bonds themselves can't move the world forward.