[tinbad]

I agree with most, except the last part. I came to SV from the Netherlands myself and i had the pleasure to meet Neelie Kroes (highly respected EU politician from Dutch origin) here in SF in the first month after I moved to the US. She was saying how Europe could learn from SV and how she was getting billions of EU funding to recreate SV in Europe and setup 'startup hubs' in places like Strasbourgh and Brussels. I think there's some flawed thinking here: you shouldn't want to recreate the success of SV by just copying it. It will fail. Europe should figure out what would work for them. It doesn't have to be the same as SV.

[kintamanimatt]

Money is a part of it, but the bulk of the problem is a lack of a culture that celebrates entrepreneurship and embraces failure as a normal stepping stone to success. This is why there aren't Euro SVs.

Culture is changed through the media and other social proof. An increase in money might make people feel comfortable enough to take some new risks, and some of those risks might pay off and spawn some companies that the European general and tech media can report on.