I'm European and there's a lot to bemoan and many reasons why Europe is behind (overregulation, fragmentation, etc.). And this article is directionally correct

I'm European and there's a lot to bemoan and many reasons why Europe is behind (overregulation, fragmentation, etc.). And this article is directionally correct in the sense that Europe has internalized a sense of inferiority and will hype up American companies. But the culprits he talks about are shaky at best: > Take excessive regulations for instance, which gets mentioned all the time. If they were such a hindrance to startups, why would American startups succeed in Europe - like Airbnb in our case - and European startups not? We all face the same regulations This is just wrong. Yes, the regulations are the same. No, the burden relative to company resources isn't the same. A company with billions in the bank has options most EU startups don't: 1. Pay a battalion-sized compliance team 2. Ignore the law, pay the fines when they come, continue to ignore the law 3. Get into years-long, drawn-out legal battles while changing nothing Yes, we face the same regulations. No, they don't have the same impact. It's sort of like a person who inherited millions saying "Cost of living isn't a problem, we all face the same housing costs". > Or take fragmented markets. Same question: how could US startups successfully conquer these fragmented EU markets when European startups can't? Same thing. Localization, local entities and complying with local regulations are a lot easier when you can throw a couple million at it. Meanwhile a startup can barely comply with all of one country's regulations. = You can criticize overregulation, the fact that EU grants almost always arrive at incumbents that can afford lobbyists (the old money class), etc. But I think "the media" plays the tiniest part in this. Traditional media has been in decline for 20 years. If anything, yes, we need a shift in cultural narrative, away from internalized inferiority. But the idea that some gatekeeper at a newspaper changed the trajectory at a startup I think is wrong. Besides, this reads a bit like "Who has the idea first should get all the money", which is rarely how things work.