Yes, I'm an American who worked on a startup in Berlin, with a similar and sad evaluation.
re: Easy access to funding
-- absolutely, I think it is the risk adversity that kills everything, esp. at the angel stage.
re: a bootstrap entrepreneurial culture
-- Most Europeans don't want to work long hours either and it's legally questionable to ask them to. that's a show stopper.
re: Building new stuff is actively discouraged here, nobody likes doing bold experiments: not customers, not investors, not even developers.
-- Sadly have to agree with you based on my experience in Berlin. Even downloading a new app on a phone is regarded with a good deal of suspicion.
re: spirit of creativity and experimentalism
-- I have a hard time knowing why this is, but I've written on it before. May interest you:
Overall, I also find that Europeans for the most part don't want to do billion dollar startups. They seem to think that there is something wrong with the large amounts of money involved, and saying that this is your goal is more likely to meet (in my experience) with criticism than encouragement.
This seems true across central Europe (France & Germany) while the big successes mostly come from foreigners (i.e. Skype, SAP).
But on the other hand, billion dollar startups create lots of fairly wealthy people that can then be angel investors and pump up the ecosystem. I don't see any other way for the system to evolve, but I was amazed by the degree to which there was a mental barrier against any sort of large scale success.
There are always exceptions and outliers, and Skype is a good example. However, SAP? Never. It's a massively connected consulting shop, and they have always been. Their software is just incidental. There's no innovation there, it's Office Space meets House of Lies.
"I also find that Europeans for the most part don't want to do billion dollar startups"
There is indeed a diff in europe. But having said that, I would like to argue a few things.
a) Anyone would want to get a billion dollars.
b) How many billion dollars startups do you actually know? Not in the money given to acquire them. But in the actual value. In the "wtf, they gave how much for what?!" category.
I am going off in a tangent, but I think an important and relevant one. $ is the world currency. It's backed by the us military. You print billions out of thin air, faster than I actually breath.
In my, maybe naive eyes, billions for bs web or mobile services, among other things, translates to me to: "Holly f*. There is so much inflation coming my way, from all that printing, it's not even funny. I am a couple of years, tops, away from being forcefully transformed from "financially ok", to "fubar-ed, can you give me 500$ to get a piece of bread, pls?"
It's easier to be "large", when you are the empire, print billions out of thin air, and "bring democracy" to the rest.
How many billions was the "let's make a language called 'C'" startup? ..I read billions for bs, and I see inflation and destruction. ..Maybe it's just me.
No, I think the view you state is quite pervasive. In general, it seems that in the US the view of wealth is quite positive compared to the EU, with very rich folks in the EU forced to "hide" their wealth, whereas in the US they are comfortable celebrating it.
Why this is I think is probably a legacy of some historical issues (i.e. a landed aristocracy, inherited wealth, French revolution based on mass pluralism), but would take a longer post to discuss than I currently have time for.
re: Easy access to funding -- absolutely, I think it is the risk adversity that kills everything, esp. at the angel stage.
re: a bootstrap entrepreneurial culture -- Most Europeans don't want to work long hours either and it's legally questionable to ask them to. that's a show stopper.
re: Building new stuff is actively discouraged here, nobody likes doing bold experiments: not customers, not investors, not even developers. -- Sadly have to agree with you based on my experience in Berlin. Even downloading a new app on a phone is regarded with a good deal of suspicion.
re: spirit of creativity and experimentalism -- I have a hard time knowing why this is, but I've written on it before. May interest you:
http://fractastical.com/2013/06/05/a-developers-introduction...
Overall, I also find that Europeans for the most part don't want to do billion dollar startups. They seem to think that there is something wrong with the large amounts of money involved, and saying that this is your goal is more likely to meet (in my experience) with criticism than encouragement.
This seems true across central Europe (France & Germany) while the big successes mostly come from foreigners (i.e. Skype, SAP).
But on the other hand, billion dollar startups create lots of fairly wealthy people that can then be angel investors and pump up the ecosystem. I don't see any other way for the system to evolve, but I was amazed by the degree to which there was a mental barrier against any sort of large scale success.