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by zwnow 189 days ago
There's a huge difference in startup cultures too, I noticed the European regions are more focused on organic growth while US startups tend to aim high. I've been a solo dev in a startup with like 4 people for little over a year now, the business exists since 2 years and we are somewhat even on expenses vs income now. Growth is pretty slow, but as long as we break even its been pretty good.
3 comments
makle 189 days ago
The cultural difference is massive. In much of Europe, breaking even early is seen as healthy and responsible. In the U.S., the mindset is more “swing big or don’t swing at all,” which pushes teams to chase hypergrowth long before the business is stable.

Neither approach is inherently better, but they create totally different failure modes. Slow, steady growth can keep a company alive for years.

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xandrius 189 days ago
The keyword is sustainability. I have seen the same, in the US is winner takes all (or most) while in the EU, you can be present locally on a smaller scale (say within a single country or region), be growing (albeit slowly) and still be able to exist.

Sure, it might not make you a billionaire but you end up still being your own boss, not stress out if investors suddenly change mind on what's cool, etc.

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francoispiquard 189 days ago
IMO as soon as the investment dry this is going to be seen as "smart" and "grounded" but it should have been the only way of doing.

Having VC gamble on start-up all the time is just not sustainable. If a product is not generating $ then maybe it deserves to die

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zwnow 189 days ago
> If a product is not generating $ then maybe it deserves to die

Somewhat agree. Depends on the product, if its novel and does not do its job well enough to generate a revenue stream it does yea. If it's in a market where some big corp has a monopoly I'd love to be able to see whether the monopoly killed it silently, like Amazon does with many many startups (predatory pricing).

Monopolies are creating unfair competition scenarios for businesses ensuring them to stay alone at the top... Idk what happened to competition but im tired of local shops closing due to people buying everything from a predatory corporation.

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