[Hhefferman1989]

I'm getting very bored with the start-up cheerleading industry in Europe: a small but very vocal number of publications (Tech.eu, The Next Web, TechCrunch EU) and event organisers constantly championing random cities in Europe as up-and-coming technology epicentres to rival Silicon Valley. Even London, which is by any reasonable measure the largest hub of start-up activity in Europe and has seen the most significant exits, comes nowhere close to Silicon Valley in terms of deal volume, capital availability, density of senior talent, etc. Sure, tech start-ups exist in Amsterdam and in Berlin, and in Stockholm, and in Barcelona, but these cities aren't technology hubs, creating self-sustaining economies driven by meaningful exits and the development of world-leading domain expertise: many of the start-ups in these cities are only sustainable because VCs in Europe are primarily funded by European governments. That's what a "hub" is; take away the hype and the government money and it still exists.

[nraynaud]

I agree with most of the message, but remember that in the US everything is funded by the government too (direct investments, state contracts, research contracts, tax-breaks etc).

[fennecfoxen]

Well... there is a lot of tech stuff in the US funded by the government, but the wildly successful Silicon Valley style "startup scene" usually isn't really where that money is sent. More like SpaceX/Tesla/etc, a few solar panel manufacturers, and large businesses.