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Is that an accurate characterization of Silicon Valley, though? If you're an engineer in a startup you known you're making somewhat of a gamble. But even if yo
by rockdoe 12y ago
Is that an accurate characterization of Silicon Valley, though?
If you're an engineer in a startup you known you're making somewhat of a gamble. But even if you lose, you're not exactly going to be poor. If you're a founder, my impression at least is that the US culture is much more tolerant of people whose business went bankrupt. In Europe you're just one step up from a criminal.
- pluma 12y agoTo be fair, a lot of American startups only work because of the lack of privacy and labour laws in the US (compared to the EU). EU legislature may be a hassle at times, but it tends to give customers and employees a lot of protection they wouldn't get in the US. But what you say about startups in the EU is true. In many EU countries insolvency can have drastic consequences for the founder(s). In some of them it's also much harder to incorporate than in the US (e.g. in Germany you need to raise € 25k to form a "GmbH"; there is now also a transitional form called "UG (haftungsbeschränkt)" (yes, always unabbreviated or you can be sued) but you still need to follow all the legal and tax requirements and everyone will think you're poor and/or a scam). Additionally VCs seem to focus more on traditional requirements and metrics, like business plans or profit estimates, rather than growth or traction. For example it seems to be nearly impossible to get funding for open source companies ("So let me get this right: you're giving it away for free and you expect us to fund you?").