An idea that Europeans are hopeless at high-tech start-ups has taken root alongside older stereotypes of humourless Germans, food-obsessed Frenchmen and sexually repressed Britons. Europeans gaze longingly at the US, where geeky technologists set up big cutting-edge businesses such as Google, Ebay and YouTube, apparently without effort. “Why can’t we do that?” mutter politicians and academics.
Saul Klein, a UK-based British venture capitalist and entrepreneur, believes Europeans can, by putting in some extra groundwork to compensate for national barriers and risk-averse cultures.
