[pacnard]

Europe has a bigger population than the US, it should have a lot more startups, but politicians, bureaucrats, existing rules, etc make the economy too unstable and incapable of welcoming new player. People here have learned to aspire for the 9-5 job and can't even imagine that problems are solved by entrepeneurs and not the government.

[pavelludiq]

The reason Europe doesn't have as many startups as the US is because nobody in their right mind would fund things like Juicero here, not because the bureaucracy. The "splash the spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks" approach isn't the only way to build businesses.

Frankly the myopia of SV culture is quite amusing to me. California just can't shake it's gold rush mentality it seems. I'm not saying it hasn't served a lot of people well( obviously it has, but to assume it's the best strategy is pretty short sighted, especially considering I've never seen any actual evidence that it produces a larger number of sustainable businesses. In fact most US startups seem to me to be more like schemes for getting aquihire, or straight up hail marries, rather that actual attempts to make money and build a sustainable business.

Also, any entrepreneur that takes the attitude of "it's impossible to do with all of these rules and bureaucracy" is hardly deserving of the name, especially considering it's not really that bad[1], if they were serious, they would find a way to use the rules to their advantage rather than finding excuses or complaining over nothing.

[1] For example in many parts of the EU, not only are taxes much lower than the rest, but costs of living and doing business are as well, and many of the rules are less enforced, maybe Europeans simply don't value collectible blockchain cat pictures or IoT fidget spinners as much as Americans do and are less willing to invest in them.

[eeZah7Ux]

> nobody in their right mind would fund things like Juicero > US startups seem to me to be more like schemes

This has little to do with mindset and a lot to do with inequality. SV has the highest percentage of billionaires per million citizens in the world. They can afford funding pointless startups that buy each other's products - as a hobby.

This also explains the incredibly high salaries and cost of living.

When a good startup comes out there's enough wealth around to boost it into wild success, create more billionaires and the cycle continues.

[fjsolwmv]

The same people that funded Juicero funded Google. It's called risk/reward, and it's a astronomically successful strategy.