[andreasklinger]

Context: I founded companies in CEE and moved to London.

Many people mention mindset and cultural attitude in the comments. To me "mindset and culture" are just symtoms. The reason is very simple:

The markets in europe (compared to the US) have: Same downside. Smaller upside.

This leads to less risk friendly and safer (slower) patterns and systems. Incorporated over centuries this leads to cultural attitude and mindset.

It's not that this is the best attitude for doing startups. But it is a (market) selected attitude for doing business within these markets. The best ways to break this: Minimize your downside (skip problem-solution phase by copycating) or don't be limit to the market (by far harder due to media (and ultimately network) bubbles).