Proof that hype alone doesn't cut it. HackFwd was one of the coolest kids in the block with enough press and attention.

I'd suggest 2 more why's:

1) Consumer Web is very difficult in Europe. It requires scale and scale isn't as easily achievable than in the US

2) Because of 1) Dev-centric teams only don't make the cut. In Europe more than in the US. Devs can make good CEO's but teams need more on the biz dev level