European Startups are not out to lunch – My speech at Le Web:
Excellent Article from Mike Butcher@TechCrunch about the resilience of entrepreneurs, especially European ones! I have to agree.. I don’t remember the last time I was “out to lunch”…
The comments about the challenges for US business expansion are spot on…
There is a reason many US businesses hit a brick wall when they enter Europe – its complexity. They are used to a big, single market. The best European companies use this diversity to their advantage. If big US companies, grown fat on their large home market, are forced to buy the European player because they can’t break in, who is the winner here?
I’d like to see more European to US expansion though if this is the case… although with their federal system of states taxes and regulations can be difficult to sort out, especially where they fundamentally affect the consumer proposition (I’m thinking about GetThemIn for the States where Alcohol sales regulation/taxes can vary between states so much that it’s difficult to get a consistent pan-country proposition out – but we’re on it!!!)
Either way the message is clear – for Entrepreneurs – the downturn is just a different type of challenge to find innovative answers to…