This article paints a completely wrong picture of the European startup scene. He's doing the equivalent of comparing European startups to US defense contractors.<p>Now, what really annoys me about European entrepreneurs is the tendency to just copy stuff. Like "starting europe's first ycombinator-style incubator" and then "travel to the bay area (...) to get inspiration for my next project". That may work, of course, but there's zero creativity in it.
This article is complete rubbish and bears no resemblance to fact whatsoever. I live and work in Europe, run my own business in Europe and have had some involvement in a number of start-ups.
While everyone, including me, is bashing European bureaucracy and tendencies towards statism, there are a lot of examples of hugely successful and transformative European companies started by real entrepeneurs:<p>RyanAir & EasyJet: These completely transformed the European airline industry in a very disruptive way. The old "flag carriers" are dying off one after the other, and I'm pretty sure I speak for us all when I say "good riddance" to that. Now we just need to get rid of the state monopolies on rail transport (which is coming soon), and we're going to see the same sort of transformation on high-speed and conventional rail.<p>Free.fr: Unfortunately only in France for the moment, this ISP is what every ISP should strive towards: Low prices, good service, lots of features, etc. If you ever wish your ISP would just do or change <something>, Free has already done that and more, including standing up to Sarko's ridiculous Hadopi law.<p>Skype: Was started in Europe and has and still is transforming the telecom industry along with other companies providing VOIP services.
It's an interesting article that has a hint of rant about it.<p>There's no reason a public-private partnership couldn't work if the motivations and skills were aligned properly. Entrepreneurial competition, striving for riches and fame, and fear of starving next month if things don't go well all play their part in forming the scrappy startup - and are probably key ingredients for success. If governments and bigger organizations can remember that, and build new ventures on those principles, then there's a much better chance of succeeding than the model described by the article.
When will you Americans get this?
Europe is not a country, (also a pet peeve, Africa is not a country). There is no over-arching European culture, and I don't think any one would ever claim that there is.