Hacker News Reader

Pretty much.

In Germany, innovation is defined and funded by grant agencies. The only projects that are deemed innovative are those that look like existing projects that are known to be innovative.

Austria is the same. Vienna is seriously a horrible in that regard.

HTGF?

Yes. I actually also interviewed once for a job there.

Not the sharpest minds. More bureaucratic than entrepreneurial. At the time, none of the C-suite had ever run their own company. Zero international experience. Complete mediocrity.

Maybe the problem is that they seem to invest based on red flags, not opportunities. So everything needs be kind of exactly the same, because every property of the startup that’s an outlier is bad.

This deserves an article of its own, to be honest, I don't think people are aware of the incompetencies at this level. I am betting it's the same across EU.

They can't be as bad as KfW, right?

Probably the same level, but I have no experience with KfW. But I could ask a buddy.