That’s the question Erick Schonfeld is asking us today on Techcrunch, and since I’m operating a stealth mode startup and living in Paris - the worst place to settle an internet venture these days - I’ve been asking myself the same question for quite some time.
European Startups today are all over the place, even if (in France) they’re moving away fast, you can find startups just about everywhere.
I remember reading (Michael Arington, maybe) that to create a European Silicon Valley, we (Europeans) should find a place with a high level of money (e.g. VCs), engineers, and sun. Obviously, they’re nothing like that in Europe. Money’s in London, and sun isn’t.
Renting an office in London for a young startup is just foolish: you can live a year in Berlin for a one month rental in a London suburbia. Incorporating in Netherlands is extremely expensive, it’s an administrative nightmare in France, but it can be pretty easy in Spain.
So… Where is the damn thing?
Erick brings a new and interesting idea to all previous writings about this daunting question. It might not be a place, it just could be a state of mind. Twitter, social networks, Skype, mobile phone (and cheap airlines like my personal favorite EasyJet) are changing what made Silicon Valley more than three decades ago, we might not really need a Silicon Valley.
Having an Office in Berlin, your marketing team in Amsterdam and Barcelona and your IT team in Paris is doable (Netvibes is located in Paris, London and San Francisco, after all). We have the tools, we now know how to work this way, organize ourself, keep in touch 24/7…
Erick might just be right, we don’t really need one place, we could do with many: London for VCs, Berlin for cheap offices, Barcelona for the sun (and the south american market)… We already have many places, we just need a state of mind, and we might not be very far from that.
Viva Europa!
3 Commentaires
So… where are you setting up your startup?
I really hope you’re right man!
But being now in silicon valley, i just see how the European state of mind is just miles away from the one present here: there is this feeling that everything is possible, that no one can stop innovation, this irremovable belief that technology will change the world and in the meanwhile make you rich… In Europe everybody complains about everything, so the percentage of people trying new approaches is so slow… That is not just a matter of environmental things, we have to find the state of mind, and that is so much more difficult in Europe…
You are sooooooo true… We’re realy far to ba as efficient, but still, my point is that we might not need a physical place (we still need the money, the innovators, optimism…)