American exceptionalism is both a blessing and a curse. While the rest of the world might find the inner confidence of people from the US amusing, that same confidence has pushed its populace to always go the extra mile (not kilometer). After all, America put a man on the moon, Starbucks on every street corner, and a smartphone in our hands.
This exceptionalism could not be truer than in the tech sector. As of 2021, eight of the largest fifteen technology companies on earth are American, and the country drives the global conversation around innovation. With China increasingly regulating its digital economy, the dominance of the US looks unlikely to abate any time soon.
All that said, let us please not forget about Europe. Stuck between America and Asia, it is sometimes easy to neglect the continent that was for so long the intellectual and industrial powerhouse of the world, but that is now in danger of drifting towards digital irrelevancy. As the stereotype goes (and it is only a stereotype), European workers can be hard to fire, and they take long, restorative summer holidays, with work-life balance as an essential component. How much of this is true or not remains to be seen, but either way these aren’t exactly the perfect conditions for entrepreneurialism, and for combatting the ruthlessness and diligence of other continents.
Europe’s perceived weaknesses aside, there are actually lots of reasons to be optimistic about technology on the continent. Mark Pearson, Founder and Managing Partner of London-based Fuel Ventures, recently posted that 2021 VC investment in European startups is nearly at $100 billion, hot on the heels of the US. The pandemic’s nudge towards remote-working has also helped. Tech hubs such as Silicon Valley no longer have the same geographical advantage they once did, because top talent is now able (and therefore keen) to work from anywhere in the world.
The cost of developers also plays a big part in all this. There is a growing trend of American businesses using remote engineering teams to help build their products. Andela, the African scaleup which lets companies build remote engineering teams, just raised $200m from Softbank as part of its Series E. And HTEC Group, a Serbian business that makes digital solutions for many Fortune 500 companies, recently acquired Momentum, one of Silicon Valley’s top-rated product design studios. When Eastern European companies such as HTEC – which grew from 250 to 1,000 employees during the pandemic – are acquiring some of America’s hottest creative companies, you know tectonic plates are moving.
Best thing that could happen for the future of the European economy, the whole continent depends on unique skills, taste, & intellectual property for its wealth
Hi tech start ups could put Europe on another level economically- Not a bad lifestyle for a lot of people, certainly compared to the factories of the past
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American exceptionalism is both a blessing and a curse. While the rest of the world might find the inner confidence of people from the US amusing, that same confidence has pushed its populace to always go the extra mile (not kilometer). After all, America put a man on the moon, Starbucks on every street corner, and a smartphone in our hands.
This exceptionalism could not be truer than in the tech sector. As of 2021, eight of the largest fifteen technology companies on earth are American, and the country drives the global conversation around innovation. With China increasingly regulating its digital economy, the dominance of the US looks unlikely to abate any time soon.
All that said, let us please not forget about Europe. Stuck between America and Asia, it is sometimes easy to neglect the continent that was for so long the intellectual and industrial powerhouse of the world, but that is now in danger of drifting towards digital irrelevancy. As the stereotype goes (and it is only a stereotype), European workers can be hard to fire, and they take long, restorative summer holidays, with work-life balance as an essential component. How much of this is true or not remains to be seen, but either way these aren’t exactly the perfect conditions for entrepreneurialism, and for combatting the ruthlessness and diligence of other continents.
Europe’s perceived weaknesses aside, there are actually lots of reasons to be optimistic about technology on the continent. Mark Pearson, Founder and Managing Partner of London-based Fuel Ventures, recently posted that 2021 VC investment in European startups is nearly at $100 billion, hot on the heels of the US. The pandemic’s nudge towards remote-working has also helped. Tech hubs such as Silicon Valley no longer have the same geographical advantage they once did, because top talent is now able (and therefore keen) to work from anywhere in the world.
The cost of developers also plays a big part in all this. There is a growing trend of American businesses using remote engineering teams to help build their products. Andela, the African scaleup which lets companies build remote engineering teams, just raised $200m from Softbank as part of its Series E. And HTEC Group, a Serbian business that makes digital solutions for many Fortune 500 companies, recently acquired Momentum, one of Silicon Valley’s top-rated product design studios. When Eastern European companies such as HTEC – which grew from 250 to 1,000 employees during the pandemic – are acquiring some of America’s hottest creative companies, you know tectonic plates are moving.
Best thing that could happen for the future of the European economy, the whole continent depends on unique skills, taste, & intellectual property for its wealth
Hi tech start ups could put Europe on another level economically- Not a bad lifestyle for a lot of people, certainly compared to the factories of the past