4 ms·
This is why the start-up environment sucks in Europe. It seems so (relatively) easy to get $20 million in US as a start-up, while it seems almost impossible to
by salient 13y ago
This is why the start-up environment sucks in Europe. It seems so (relatively) easy to get $20 million in US as a start-up, while it seems almost impossible to get that kind of money in Europe from an investor, which is why there are so many "winner takes all" companies from US and not from other places.
This happens at a time when Bitstamp is several times bigger than Coinbase, also growing fast, and is covering both EU and US. Yet, because of this sort of funding (and probably more later), there will probably be yet again a US company dominating the scene.
In a post-Snowden relevations time, I'm not very eager to continue using US services, but the environment seems to be so harsh for non-US companies that want to be global companies, and they basically have to grow themselves into global companies only through bootstrapping (the vast majority of them, I'm sure there are a few exceptions).
- skrebbel 13y agoDo most US investors care whether or not the companies they find are in the valley, or even on the same continent? (note: no value judgment here, I really don't know and I wonder)
- ig1 13y agoIt depends on the VC and the size of the round, some VCs only invest in a very specific area while others are more flexible for larger investments. Most of the major VCs do invest internationally in larger rounds. For example in the last year Greylock invested in Wrapp (SWE), Sequoia invested in 6Wunderkinder (DEU) and Skyscanner (GBR), BVP in NewVoiceMedia (GBR), USV in Hailo (GBR) and FundingCircle (GBR), IA & Valar in TransferWise (EST/GBR), etc.
- nasalgoat 13y agoYes, there is a massive bias against tech companies not in the Valley. My company, based in Canada, recently finished a $50M Series C road trip that included the Valley and New York, and the contrast between the two could not be any larger. The Valley VCs and investors were dismissive and incredulous that a Canadian company could achieve the success we had, and that we could find people "good enough" to make systems able to handle the kind of traffic we were running. They genuinely couldn't believe we'd done it outside of California. New York, however, was much more interested and receptive, and ended up being the best source for our future funding. This whole business is less about numbers and reality and more about feelings and who you know than anyone wants to admit.
- onedev 13y agoWow seriously? I'd be interested in reading about your experiences.
- nasalgoat 13y agoThere's not much more to it - the west coast people were more about perception than value. You see it every day on HN discussions about VCs.
- pmarca 13y agonasalgoat 256 days ago: "I'm sorry, but the talent shortage is a real thing... we have a really difficult time filling our open positions." Glad to hear you've solved the problem so fast!
- nasalgoat 13y agoHiring good people remains a serious problem - the ones we did find have to work a lot harder than they should.
- pbreit 13y agoAbsolutely. Investors like to be close to their investments for obvious reasons.