You are too serious - Or why Germany still sucks for startups
(iopanic.com)
"There are many reasons, why Germany still isn't a good environment for innovation driven startups. I will just talk about some of them in this post. The most obvious one is probably that Germans tend to take everything (including themselves) way too serious. But more about that later." sez the post - what do you think?
The culture of fear of failure is definitely a big issue.
It is both economically and culturally extremely difficult to recover from a failed business.
A close friend of mine tanked his business and was left with ~100,000 € of debt. That was roughly 6 years ago. He has been stigmatised by family and friends. Any money that comes anywhere near him is being taken by the bankruptcy admin. He had no real chance to recover.
Once you really fail with a business it is really difficult to get back up and start sth. else.
"[...] Germans tend to take everything (including themselves) way too serious" ... hmm, being German I don't like to admit that, but it's probably true. Things are quite serious and the cute landing page for the latest startup that explains the model using cartoon characters might have it difficult with German customers.
What annoys me with the discussion about this topic is the sentiment of comparing the respective local culture to the American model. I'd rather want to talk about how German seriousness/conservativeness, the UKs friendly regulations, the Polish excellent technical education and the Swedish innovative spirit can work together. Obviously these are simplifications and may or may not be accurate but you get my point. Instead of saying "German fear of failure is bad because people don't take risks" I'd say "Let's hire a German Project Manager for a broader spectrum and to have a voice of caution"
Each ecosystem has it's cultural pros and cons but we as Europeans have just not quite figured out how to bring this all together.
Exactly what I came here to say.
so true!
And regarding the dept there have been some legislative reliefs in the past years; private insolvency. But if it has any effect on startup culture it might take a while. But by just mention this you can see with which kind of stuff people are dealing here instead of just giving it a try.
Ideas and courage still aren´t valued as much as they should.
sad but true. I think you hit the most important point why so many people do not take the risk of a startup. If you fail you are screwed for a very long time. No matter what reliefs were made the last few years.
Another thing is that times in a startup can be rough and there maybe some bills that are not payed immediately. If you are unlucky and end up with an entry in your "Schufa" (German credit scoring institution) you will likely never see a cent from a bank.
IMHO it is the biggest problem we face. The flexibility of a stone. Especially in anything related to finances.
That German financial inflexibility is arguably the biggest problem the entire Union faces at the moment...
This is exactly my experience. I'm from Germany and my startup tanked here a few years ago, and it tanked really badly. I'll be the first to admit that I made a TON of mistakes I would never repeat (for example taking out a personal loan to meet payroll instead of admitting failure) - but overall Germany has been a terrible experience.
First it's difficult to find and connect to a customer audience with advanced web stuff because people in Germany are consistently living behind the tech curve - cutting-edge stuff just isn't welcome, they could barely wrap their heads around sites as they were 5 years prior.
Then, our biggest customer went bankrupt and the bankruptcy admin decided he wanted all the money back they ever gave us for building their app (since they were not going to use it anymore). He won in court. This absolutely killed the company and also me personally both from a financial and social perspective.
I do have a good 9-5 job now making a decent salary as project manager, but my heart isn't really in it. However, I failed so miserably I'll need pretty much the next 20 years to recover from my debt. Not to mention the backlash from friends and family, as a failed startup guy you simply lose all respect in Germany. It doesn't help that it's a culture based on schadenfreude and bureaucratic malice.
Recovering money already paid to vendors as part of a bankruptcy settlement sounds insane to me! I guess "bureaucratic malice" is an excellent phrase for it.
This is very interesting. I especially agree on the conclusion, that in Europe we should find new ways to create our own innovative environment; I for example think that combining the relative strengths of different European countries could be a winning move. But we need less jealousy and more solidarity for that!
This is interesting. If this is true, then why are Germans the world leaders in innovation when it comes to the Automobile industry, industrial design and various other industries?
I'm not sure but I could imagine that many German companies are good at safely iterating on top of proven business models. Most industries that German companies lead are the ones with long development cycles and proven business models (e.g. the car industry, which is actually not that innovative. Cars basically still work the same way and there is a bigger innovation only every 5-10 years such as airbag and ABS). I think they excel here because it is industries where quick iteration and experiments (in the lean startup sense) are nearly impossible. You can't make a turbine in 6 months and then sell it and see if people like it. Same with cars, same with industrial machinery etc.
And since German companies want to be safe and make sure the product will work they'll invest more in R&D and QA. Which in turn makes their products market leader in terms of quality. Also most companies will strive to improve their existing product.
I don't have sources to back this up but this is my impression.
Totally agree. A typical car project will last up to about 2 to 4 years, depending upon the complexity, market and regulatory requirements. With such a long project time, and the development process is known, the Germans excel in such an environment. Perhaps the term slowup is probably a bit more appropriate.