Lower competition - my favorite lie that I hear told in every EU country. EU is not lower competition from the entrepreneur's perspective. Anywhere in the EU is vastly higher competition.

- Unless you're doing a hyper-local product, you're competing on the global scale.

- The ratio of active investors versus serious entrepreneurs is far, far worse in France than in Silicon Valley.

- Getting good people in France to join your startup is very easy. Getting the absolute best people in the world, that's tough. Not because they don't exist in France. It's because the absolute best people want to leave France. Top talent wants to move to the #1 best place in the world for their industry, no less.

The lifecycle of a (non-lifestyle) startup anywhere in the EU is far harder than it is in Silicon valley, at every stage.

If the government continues to add serious benefits, and many other changes happen though, the balance could maybe start to shift.