Perception and success: Silicon Valley & Europe's start-up hubs

There's a self confidence that comes from the way that America markets itself. They consistently and systematically build great businesses but they also market that they are the center of the entrepreneurial ecosystem globally. It's been around for the last 40 years or wherever you start counting whereas in Europe it's still a relatively young more like 15-20 years if you really stretch it.

We need to both celebrate our victories. We have a number of wonderful victories. By victory I mean really important technology companies created in Europe. However Europeans tend to be less celebratory. Americans make films about their great entrepreneurs and write books. If you look at the people and where people are coming from in Silicon Valley they are not all Americans they are coming from all over the world. About fifty percent of entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley were not born in the US. People believe that they are going to get funded in Silicon Valley and many European entrepreneurs have gone down that path and been very successful. There's no question about it.

I think we have to recognize that Europe operates differently. We have a lot of very good talent here and we have a lot of people who are used to actually going internationally very early on. There are all these really great ideas in a lot of places you would think that it was like startup hubs. But I think what's really important is that there is no petty competition between the UK doing more than Germany or the other way around. Europe is looking at it as a single market and with one voice pushes innovation and helps startups compete globally. People are engaged they are curious they see all these opportunities and a lot of things are happening.