Ask HN: Startups in Europe
What are startups like in Europe? Are they as common as they are here in the United States? Where is the Palo Alto of Europe? Please feel free to include other information one might find useful!
European governments see that startups create jobs. France (believe it or not) has a whole range of support services and cash for innovative startups.
It is still harder to form a company, open a bank account and get going. In America it takes a credit card and an hour. In France and England it takes more time and effort.
Another believe it or not - salaries for engineers are lower in France than America. Education is great and there are a large number of people that want to work for a startup.
There is no Palo Alto of Europe - Yet. Many locations are trying to win that race. Overall there are many opportunities.
To get you started, you could look at SeedCamp (http://seedcamp.com) or TechCrunch's European site (http://eu.techcrunch.com).
Once you go through the articles and posts there, you might start to believe that Berlin is the epicenter of attention right now. However, the culture to embrace failure as well as the VC money aren't there (yet?).