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>First, there is the issue of the absence of scale. As a Briton once said (and Brexit famously demonstrated), there is no such thing as Europe.

Aren't the markets global? Aren't Google, Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Samsung playing on global scale?

Why limit yourself to a particular country or continent?



Markets are now "de-globalizing" in real time but that is less relevant for startups. Any entity that is now a "global" multi-national had to grow into that status at some point in their lifecycle. That trajectory is much easier (depending on sector) if the starting point is within a larger country. There are multiple factors: easier access to capital, more human talent, larger customer bases, a single regulatory framework etc. etc.

These factors don't just act linearly, but in a combinatorial fashion that helps beat the genuinely low odds. Changing the world (which is what the formation of a major new enterprise effectively does) is not a trivial occurrence. Overcoming those obstacles is occasionally possible but it is very complex and costly. For the European economies the writing is on the wall.




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