[rwmj]

Your first point raises an interesting issue: For an individual, working for a start-up is almost certainly a bad bet. Most likely the company you start will go out of business. Moderate upsides are rare. Massive gains are incredibly rare (although obviously they're the ones everyone points to and remembers).

However for the German (US, etc) economy, having a start-up culture is valuable. That's where the future technologies are incubated and future companies formed.

I suspect most people in the US who choose start ups and entrepreneurialism do so because of US culture and because they wilfully ignore the personal risk.

So how does the German government overcome that?

[rdl]

Working for a startup is low risk in terms of getting to work with decent tech, with smart people, etc. It also raises your employability in general. It's higher risk financially, sure, but for a funded company, you still get paid a decent wage while working, so that's not as big a risk.

[bazookaBen]

the german startups are all formed within large companies, and fall under "R&D". The intrapreneurs get their job security (as researchers, or incubator members). And if their ideas get to market, they get royalties/spun off into a seperate division.