[TrackerFF]

I always found it interesting how different things are in US (well, more so startup hotspots) and Europe. In the US you're simply given more chances if you have the right personality and superficial elements.

In so many European countries, unless you happen to have bootstrapped your way into success, you'll be written off as a bozo if you don't have all the correct credentials.

Someone like Jim (read: No formal relevant education, no industry experience, only hopes and dreams) would in the very, very, VERY best case get a €100k funding - and that is only if they had other more attractive looking co-founders with them.

I mean, it is something everyone knows - but the sheer risk averseness you often see here in Europe is really something.

[EA-3167]

The reality behind that is that the US is much much richer than any single European entity, and that the US is a country founded by Europeans (note that I'm talking about the country, not claiming Europeans are the first to arrive in North America) who felt they'd run out of opportunities back home. Hundreds of years of European migration to the US suggests that social stratification and lack of opportunities outside of the old boy's network remains a problem.