[raulgalera]

"The first step is inevitably to raise money from dumb/ignorant investors who couldn't care less about your startup: that would be the government / unemployment benefits in France / tax-incentivized angel investors in the UK."

I have seen many entrepreneurs who just kept repeating step #1 for years. They would hop from one startup accelerator to another, joining as many government grant programs as possible (Startup Chile et al.) without ever really building an actual business.

There's one particular case I know of someone who managed to get more than $300,000 in grants in just a couple of years.