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closewith 8 hours ago

I think a big issue is that Europeans who want to invest in early stage VC do so in the States, because everything is geared towards entrepreneurial success there. Changing the business environment across the EU is necessary but definitely not sufficient to kick start the VC-backed startup scene in the EU.

embedding-shape 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> big issue is that Europeans who want to invest in early stage VC do so in the States

I haven't seen that personally, most of the VCs I've worked with here in Europe who live here in Europe, invest in European companies. Most of them invest in companies in the same country they live in, because it's a bit of a hassle to invest in companies from other countries currently (hoping that EU-INC makes that easier), but none of them regularly invest in US companies.

closewith 7 hours ago | parent [-]

This seems like a tautology - the VCs you've worked with in Europe invest in Europe.

However, most HNW Europeans who invest in early stage do not invest in the EU and therefore you will not have worked with them.

embedding-shape 7 hours ago | parent [-]

> This seems like a tautology - the VCs you've worked with in Europe invest in Europe.

But the claim was that early stage VCs in Europe invest in US instead, contrary to my experience. If they were instead investing in US companies, I'd see that instead, I don't know if I used the wrong word here, where exactly is the tautology?

I don't understand the assumption that I wouldn't know what my peers are up to, unless you're assuming I only know these people because they specifically invest in European companies, is that what you're trying to imply?

closewith 6 hours ago | parent [-]

> But the claim was that early stage VCs in Europe invest in US instead, contrary to my experience. If they were instead investing in US companies, I'd see that instead, I don't know if I used the wrong word here, where exactly is the tautology?

Not to disrespect your experience, but I don't it is particularly relevant, because the capital deployment from EU HNW is overwhelming deployed outside the bloc, largely in the US.

> I don't understand the assumption that I wouldn't know what my peers are up to, unless you're assuming I only know these people because they specifically invest in European companies, is that what you're trying to imply?

I do suspect your peers aren't the Europeans deploying the majority of early stage capital or that you don't know what they're investing in.

embedding-shape 6 hours ago | parent [-]

> because the capital deployment from EU HNW is overwhelming deployed outside the bloc, largely in the US.

Again, that directly goes against my own experience with the very same people you say are investing largely in the US. Not sure if I'm not being clear, or if I'm using the wrong words, but clearly something is missing/misunderstood here.

closewith 4 hours ago | parent [-]

As politely as possible, your experience is simply wrong, I'm afraid to say. US angel/seed round investing by EU-resident HNWs alone exceeds all angel/seed investing in the EU, by quite some margin.

I'm actually quite curious who it is you think are people in the EU deploying capital in early stage investments, as you appear to be very confident?

I suspect maybe you're thinking of people investing in EU startups to avail of the myriad tax incentives like Germany's INVEST, Ireland's EIIS, etc. If so, then that represents a tiny fraction of capital invested by EU HNWs in early stage companies.

throwaway132448 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think the big issue is that this is what Americans want to believe because it reinforces their exceptionalism. And of course there are Europeans who would choose to believe it because it absolves them of failure.

pornel 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It used to be the same for founders. If you wanted to raise, you went to SV. SV used to be the Schelling point for funding.