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Oh man such a funny joke. It's funny because it's true.

That said, as a European the meme of "they started in their garage" always sounded so American. Maybe that's what Europe is lacking in terms of entrepreneurship - garages.

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Yes, but also no. The US has a basic fluidity of business. You can build things at home (in your garage, if you have one) and try to sell them and establish a formal business later, if the business justifies the process. For a one person business, there's not really a lot of requirements to formalize a sole proprietor business either: often a local business license (which is mostly guaranteed issue and just a tax collection point), a 'doing business as' filing if not using the person's name, and obtaining a tax id if needed (the IRS will issue one online in minutes, as I understand it), hiring people comes with more requirements.

Being able to start small and informally allows many more businesses to start.

Worth pointing out the same is true in other countries - in the UK, a sole trader business doesn't need to notify the government they exist at all until tax return time.

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