3 ms·

The EU is not exactly the place where tech unicorns come from. Could it be France's gamble on becoming an independent AI power, just like they did with advanced

The EU is not exactly the place where tech unicorns come from. Could it be France's gamble on becoming an independent AI power, just like they did with advanced weapons and nuclear energy?

mrtksn 3y ago
Just because it's not happening in the Anglo-sphere doesn't mean its not happening. France always has been a tech giant, both in traditional hard tech and computer technology. They had something like the web before the web for example. Also, notice how many big names in the AI field have funny accents and non-American names. Maybe startups go to the USA to become Unicorns but a lot is happening in Europe, especially in talent. I recall listening to Mistral CEO, who also happens to be French, explaining that UK, France and Poland are very good at training mathematicians and as a result they happen to have access to a good talent pool in EU. He also said that many people don't want to go to the US because of the food, safety and other aspect that make EU nice place to be at.
- surfingdino 3y ago
  Oh, yes, the world hit that was Minitel. I remember it well. It was a British contractor who created the web; the TCP/IP protocol was invented in the USA. Not saying the English-speaking countries have a monopoly on innovation, but the VC ecosystems and the idea-to-market fast track that exists in the US does not exist in the EU, yet. A lot would need to change for that to become a threat to the US. On your other point, funny accents and non-American names can be found in all scientific and technology fields, but generally more often in the US than the EU, because that country was actually build by immigrants whereas the EU is very much set in the old ways and prefers locals.
  - mrtksn 3y ago
    You seem quite worked up about Europe, so I will leave it here.
  - dontupvoteme 3y ago
    curious of a take given that TCP/IP is american but the british(you?) often claim HTTP as your own (despite it arguably being a pan-european CERN project).
- dontupvoteme 3y ago
  Could not agree more. Hilarious that we somehow now live in a world in which Europeans are underrated.
  - mrtksn 3y ago
    It's funny, a lot of people think that EU lives off on cheese and museum tickets revenue. Combined with fetish for giant corporations(aka unicorns), it creates a very strange narrative.
    - dontupvoteme 3y ago
      any chance that video from the mistral CEO is online anywhere? I'm harboring a deepseated respect for them as time rapidly moves on.
      - mrtksn 3y ago
        I think it was this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMOFRDOMIiU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMOFRDOMIiU
dontupvoteme 3y ago
bizzare take, especially given that unicorns are purely fictional entities.
darth_avocado 3y ago
The struggle in EU can be boiled down to 3 things: - capital: continuous access to capital without turning a profit for decades is very hard outside US. - talent: no doubt EU has a lot of talent in tech, but most of them want to come to US for better pay. And the funnel of talent from Universities, both international and domestic, is hard because a lot of them in EU are playing catch-up to their American counterparts. - culture: there’s so much to be desired in terms of culture when it comes to working in EU. The long hours, the flagrant risk taking, high pay, openness to different philosophies/ways of doing things etc. are all aspects that are missing, but are generally needed for startups to succeed. (The openness to different perspectives was especially one of the things that drove me to US. My German colleagues would often shoot down ideas by saying “this is not <insert your country here>, in Germany we have standards”. Ironically those standards couldn’t get anything shipped ever.) There’s of course more stringent regulations, but those tend to be everywhere.
- whiplash451 3y ago
  Since when is « continuous access to capital without turning a profit for decades » acceptable in the US? Examples please. Thanks.
  - dylan604 3y ago
    Amazon? Uber?
  - darth_avocado 3y ago
    SNAP, Uber, Lyft, Pinterest, Spotify, Tesla, Etsy, Zoom, Twilio, Dropbox and the list goes on. I don't have the source handy, but if I remember this right, around the time Uber was having it's IPO, there was this stat that out of the top 50 Unicorns, 3 were profitable. Rest all were operating in a net loss, most of them for around or more than a decade.
    - whiplash451 3y ago
      Thanks for the pointers

The EU is not exactly the place where tech unicorns come from. Could it be France's gamble on becoming an independent AI power, just like they did with advanced weapons and nuclear energy?

mrtksn 3y ago

Just because it's not happening in the Anglo-sphere doesn't mean its not happening. France always has been a tech giant, both in traditional hard tech and computer technology. They had something like the web before the web for example. Also, notice how many big names in the AI field have funny accents and non-American names. Maybe startups go to the USA to become Unicorns but a lot is happening in Europe, especially in talent. I recall listening to Mistral CEO, who also happens to be French, explaining that UK, France and Poland are very good at training mathematicians and as a result they happen to have access to a good talent pool in EU. He also said that many people don't want to go to the US because of the food, safety and other aspect that make EU nice place to be at.

surfingdino 3y ago
Oh, yes, the world hit that was Minitel. I remember it well. It was a British contractor who created the web; the TCP/IP protocol was invented in the USA. Not saying the English-speaking countries have a monopoly on innovation, but the VC ecosystems and the idea-to-market fast track that exists in the US does not exist in the EU, yet. A lot would need to change for that to become a threat to the US. On your other point, funny accents and non-American names can be found in all scientific and technology fields, but generally more often in the US than the EU, because that country was actually build by immigrants whereas the EU is very much set in the old ways and prefers locals.
- mrtksn 3y ago
  You seem quite worked up about Europe, so I will leave it here.
- dontupvoteme 3y ago
  curious of a take given that TCP/IP is american but the british(you?) often claim HTTP as your own (despite it arguably being a pan-european CERN project).
dontupvoteme 3y ago
Could not agree more. Hilarious that we somehow now live in a world in which Europeans are underrated.
- mrtksn 3y ago
  It's funny, a lot of people think that EU lives off on cheese and museum tickets revenue. Combined with fetish for giant corporations(aka unicorns), it creates a very strange narrative.
  - dontupvoteme 3y ago
    any chance that video from the mistral CEO is online anywhere? I'm harboring a deepseated respect for them as time rapidly moves on.
    - mrtksn 3y ago
      I think it was this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMOFRDOMIiU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMOFRDOMIiU

dontupvoteme 3y ago

bizzare take, especially given that unicorns are purely fictional entities.

darth_avocado 3y ago

The struggle in EU can be boiled down to 3 things: - capital: continuous access to capital without turning a profit for decades is very hard outside US. - talent: no doubt EU has a lot of talent in tech, but most of them want to come to US for better pay. And the funnel of talent from Universities, both international and domestic, is hard because a lot of them in EU are playing catch-up to their American counterparts. - culture: there’s so much to be desired in terms of culture when it comes to working in EU. The long hours, the flagrant risk taking, high pay, openness to different philosophies/ways of doing things etc. are all aspects that are missing, but are generally needed for startups to succeed. (The openness to different perspectives was especially one of the things that drove me to US. My German colleagues would often shoot down ideas by saying “this is not <insert your country here>, in Germany we have standards”. Ironically those standards couldn’t get anything shipped ever.) There’s of course more stringent regulations, but those tend to be everywhere.

whiplash451 3y ago
Since when is « continuous access to capital without turning a profit for decades » acceptable in the US? Examples please. Thanks.
- dylan604 3y ago
  Amazon? Uber?
- darth_avocado 3y ago
  SNAP, Uber, Lyft, Pinterest, Spotify, Tesla, Etsy, Zoom, Twilio, Dropbox and the list goes on. I don't have the source handy, but if I remember this right, around the time Uber was having it's IPO, there was this stat that out of the top 50 Unicorns, 3 were profitable. Rest all were operating in a net loss, most of them for around or more than a decade.
  - whiplash451 3y ago
    Thanks for the pointers