It is a lot of work to create a business ecosystem that is able to nurture startups. I have some experience gathered over the years from Silicon Valley, London, Amsterdam, Bangalore, and now most recently Stockholm. There are drawbacks and benefits to all of them. The EU based startup environments suffer heavily from relatively smaller amounts of money available for the same thing (often an order of magnitude), and a fragmented starting market. The startup market in the EU is also fragmented over nearly every capital city in each country.<p>In Stockholm, where I am now, there has been reasonable progress. But it feels like we are nearly where the Valley was in 2000. (That is exaggerated, it is better)<p>A key takeaway for me from efforts like what the article describes is that a lot of it feels like cargo culting. “If we are more like Y-Combinator (replace with suitable other aspect of the Valley) we will succeed.” Where what is missing are things that are hard to bootstrap: large amounts of capital, capital willing to take risks, investors that invest in bold efforts, experienced and successful investors, successful entrepreneurs that go another round, a common market with similar rules, regulations and language; and more things I am missing (much mentioned in other comments).<p>Things are getting better, but it is still a challenge in the EU. However, looking at some of the valuations I see in the US, it appears there are bargains to be had in the top EU startup spots, where Stockholm is a good candidate.