Hacker News Reader

Comment by CM30 | Hacker News Reader

A lot of this is likely due to funding for ambitious projects/startups/new businesses being a lot harder to come by in Europe compared to the US. European investors seem hesitant to invest in consumer facing companies, and often prefer traditional businesses in 'proven' markets (b2b services, luxury goods, etc). US ones are at least somewhat willing to invest big in crazier ideas with the assumption it might not pay off for a decade or so.

The market conditions likely have a part to play too. With salaries for high end work being so much higher in the US than Europe (see tech salaries in Silicon Valley vs just about anywhere in Europe for example), the most competent, skilled people tend to be drawn to the US where their skills are rewarded more.

View on HN

> A lot of this is likely due to funding for ambitious projects/startups/new businesses being a lot harder to come by in Europe compared to the US. European investors seem hesitant to invest in consumer facing companies

This puts the cart before the horse. There was a time when european investors did invest in consumer facing companies — a german airbnb clone got $90 million of funding, more then airbnb had at the time[1] — it's just those all failed and investors learned their lesson.

> The market conditions likely have a part to play too. With salaries for high end work being so much higher in the US than Europe (see tech salaries in Silicon Valley vs just about anywhere in Europe for example), the most competent, skilled people tend to be drawn to the US where their skills are rewarded more.

How does this explain china? Shouldn't it be an advantage for companies to be able to pay lower salaries? Why are low salaries taken as a fact of nature here? If the disadvantage for european startups is low salary, why don't they pay more?

[1]: https://techcrunch.com/2011/06/14/investors-pump-90-million-...

China pays top salaries in tech, after US, Switzerland, Singapore.

a german airbnb clone got $90 million of funding

Still better - I pitched with a European pre-AirBNB AirBNB site in 2009 in London. It was called HouseTrip[0]. It was sold to TripAdvisor and the founders did well. There were also similar networks in many countries including Australia, though I can't recall names. And more casual networks like warmshowers and some other cycle-focused ones. However, somehow the mega-capital that goes with a US raise drowned out all of the established networks and replaced them with one brand globally - AirBNB. The model was established, IMHO the main thing AirBNB did was raise. This is the major superpower of the US. Capital.

[0] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/house-trip

What if those skilled and competent people don't want to live in California?

Just because the pay is higher does not mean it draws the best people

Or more just because you pay more doesn't mean that all the people you hire are better than cheaper people.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com