That's not universally true in Europe. One of the upsides of doing a startup in parts of Eastern Europe, for example, is the ability to self-fund even for norm

That's not universally true in Europe. One of the upsides of doing a startup in parts of Eastern Europe, for example, is the ability to self-fund even for normal people. Cost-of-living is ultralow, since medicine is free, housing is cheap and available (at least outside of major cities), public transit is cheap and works, education works without private schools / tutoring, etc. Basically, $10k / year gets you the good life. And if you screw up, the safety net means there's not too far to fall; you land on your feet and try again. That's a very favorable climate to bootstrap a business in. You do see a lot of entrepreneurship from there of that type. It's not US-style big tech, but it works well. Your odds of building Google are low, but your odds of building a self-sustaining small-to-midsize business which you own are quite reasonable. The latter of those is likely a better thing to aim for. If your goal is to raise $100M, give up 98% of equity to investors, and have the business explode or implode, Silicon Valley is the place to do it. Not everyone wants to get on that ride, though.