We have some (very) neat start-ups but we're very far still from reaching our potential and compared to countries around us and of course the US we need to make significant moves if NL is to remain a player in the future.
On the plus side: access to capital is getting easier all the time (but there is still a long long way to go before we can begin to claim parity with the real High-Tech Startup Capital, Silicon Valley), on the down side, the big companies are just as effective (if not even more effective) here in recruiting Dutch talent to work for them directly or to emigrate.
Yes, we have a bit of an advantage being small on the language front (just being able to speak Dutch is pretty much un-heard of, at a minimum the Dutch will typically speak passable English and probably either German, French or both).
The 'success story' when it comes to funding is heavily skewed by two very large deals totalling 275 million out of the 500 million.
The majority of the deals here is sub $1M!
So even if all the information out there can be used to paint a rosy picture the fact is that we're definitely not a leader in much of anything and a ton of work remains to be done.
The good news is most people in the start-up scene here are painfully aware of this and working hard at improving it.
So that one day we may be able to do justice by the title.