logoalt Hacker News

chairmanstevetoday at 4:17 AM3 repliesview on HN

"Because of onerous regulations, the EU has much less startups". That old trope.

Is that also the reason Miami or St. Louis have less startups?

I have started companies in the UK. The process is about the same as in the USA. The problem in Europe is that there is a lot less VC capital. Just like in Miami. It had nothing to do with regulation.


Replies

patrectoday at 2:03 PM

And of course the reason that there is a lot VC capital in Europe has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you'd be crazy to do a startup in e.g. Denmark (because doing so will likely be personally ruinous even in the unlikely case that you get some traction, due to unrealized gains tax) or to directly invest in one in e.g. Germany (where you'd be expected to physically sit through, on location, a few hours of a notary reading stuff out to you)? Do you actually have any idea how much additional legal risks, costs and time wasting bureaucracy are associated with even just forming a company in a typical EU country?

Miami, and Florida in general, have basically zero universities anyone has ever heard off, and still boast a higher number of unicorns per capita than Germany, despite the latter having at least one world-class technical university.

dgellowtoday at 10:48 AM

I generally agree with you message but the UK isn’t the EU anymore, and starting a company in Germany, France is definitely more expensive and involved than in the UK or the US. Regulation also has a responsibility, but not in the way people on HN generally think. The EU single market is messy, lots of things haven’t actually been consolidated, you have to take in account all the differences between each member state regulations if you want to get access to the whole EU. And if not you’re limited to mostly one region. If the EU can complete the single market we should be in a way better position to compete.

I really hope we can see The 28th Regime[0] becomes reality soon, that would be such an improvement

[0]: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS_BR...

pocksuppettoday at 6:20 AM

One reason there's less VC capital because they don't control the world reserve currency like the US does, so they can't just print money and export inflation. Thankfully the current US leadership is intent on resolving this discrepancy.

show 1 reply