[phekunde]

In the UK, it is notoriously difficult to team-up with someone to build a startup. The mindset is very different. If you go to US, India or China, engineers are willing to take risk. In the UK, the conversation starts something like this:

Me: "I am looking for a tech co-founder; the startup is at an ideation stage, and I have already talked to people who have shown interest in the project. I think having a tech co-founder at this stage will help a lot."

Listener: "How much are you paying for the role?"

Me: "This is an equity-based role because the startup is at an early stage."

Listener: "So you want people to work for you for free??"

This doesn't matter if the listener is an engineer or not. In the UK, there is little understanding of how very early stage startups work. It is equity based, that concept does not go down very well with the population.

[Nextgrid]

Maybe the reason is that in the US, salaries are high enough that most engineers have a significant war chest saved up that allows them to take these gambles? In the UK, it's much harder because engineer salaries are nowhere near what the US pays.

[raztogt21]

This is it. You can take a lot of risks when you have 4 years of savings from a US-based tech company.

I expect a lot of US founders will emerge from working remotely from a LCOL area for a couple of years, and then launching with a war chest.

[phekunde]

I think, yes, this could be the main reason for engineers.

[hcho]

I wonder if something is getting lost in translation. With no particular order:

Hearing the word ideation would cause an allergic in people who are sensitive against Americanisms.

British are also notorius for their indirect way of expressing their thoughts and feelings. Instead of saying they do not believe in your idea or your ability to execute it, they'd prefer to use compensation as a get out.