The UK startup scene has nothing in common with the rest of Europe

December 13th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under
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I remember some time back Mike Butcher (UK TechCrunch) talking at miniBar about the fact that during the .com bubble that one company was renting offices in carnaby street (for non-uk peeps a very expensive street in central London) - What reminded me of this story was Loic Le Meur going on about having 2 hour lunches and that because of this the European Startup Culture is Soooo much better than Silicon Valley.

And so today Mike Arrington is being further attacked because at Le Web he said that europe was unwilling to put in the work required to compete at the highest level. (he kept pretty quiet about the fact that the event itself had boring speakers / No Wifi + was like the inside of an Igloo)

The attendees did not like it, and it seems from a poll that Loic is running that they do not want Mike back.

If that was the general reaction from the European crowd then frankly I want no part in it, I have been networking in the London/UK for over a year and the startups that I know are some of the most hard working and I think our work ethic, vision, and startup culture is much closer to the valley than the rest of europe. The London scene has gone from 1 year ago barely scraping together a decent event a month and now you can take your pick every night of the week.

The startups are collaborating like never before and I see real innovation, and probably most important I see companies being built on the basis of real business foundations and have a future even in this downturn.

UK Startups I salute you, and I look forward to partying with you all at Twinterval.

If Europe thinks that lunches / culture is more important than putting in 70 hour weeks, then sorry but you will fail, but the UK certainly will not.

There Are 15 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Volcane on 13 December 2008:

    What’s the story with Carnaby Street though, as a two man startup with offices there who went through an extensive hunt for office space I can say that prices of offices in Carnaby Street is pretty much on par with other inner city areas today.

  2. Comment by Mike Buther on 14 December 2008:

    Indeed! And don’t forget the TechCrunch UK event on Tuesday ;-)

  3. Comment by Lee Bryant on 14 December 2008:

    Hi NIck,

    I don’t agree with you that UK startups should ape the Valley. The key reasons the Valley succeeds are macro-economic, not an ideological commitment to 1980’s Wall Street values (”lunch is for wimps”). The UK does not share those macro- factors, so it doesn’t matter how early your first heart attack is, you will not find yourself living in the UK version of the Valley. Sorry.

    The UK has some great startups, like Last.FM, Dopplr, Moo, etc, but I am not sure they share an ideological commitment to 70 hour weeks and no social life. Perhaps their idea of optimum productivity differs from the one you share with Arrington. I work pretty hard, it has to be said, but that is not a ‘value’ or an ‘ethic’ - just a necessary evil.

    Brits ‘wanting no part of Europe’ is hardly a new phenomenon. My network is Europe and the world, not the UK and TechCrunch. But at least we share London, so I’ll buy you a quick Big Mac (are they still called that?) and a cup of tea next time we’re at the same event ;-)

  4. Comment by Ike on 14 December 2008:

    Jeez, both French and English people are so egocentric!
    A Frenchman says that “here in Europe we have 2 hours long luches” like if France is a whole Europe.
    Then an Englishman replays to that that “we are not like the rest of the Europe, we don’t have anything in common with them” falling into the same path of thinking that there is only UK and “the rest of Europe” (read: France) there. I can assure you: Europe is much more than UK and France. What do you know about a work culture in Germany, in Norway, in Denmark, in Croatia, in Poland, in Czech Republic?

  5. Comment by Nick Halstead on 14 December 2008:

    Mike, apologies - yes TechCrunch UK Tuesday and I will be there!

    Lee, I am not trying to say that we should ’straight-copy’ the valley - I do not think that would work, but I think the UK is creating it’s own version along slightly different lines, but most importantly it IS being build, it IS vibrant and it IS creating success.

    lke, I was not trying to draw any direct conclusions on how Europe operates for startups (every country is *very* different) - I was just commenting on the broad reaction from the 1900 odd attendees to being told that they need to ‘get on with it’ if they want to succeed.

  6. Comment by Juanjo on 14 December 2008:

    Hi Nick, from a coder on Spain,

    About your sentence:

    “If Europe thinks that lunches / culture is more important than putting in 70 hour weeks, then sorry but you will fail, but the UK certainly will not.”

    Well, I think that having a live it’s more important that putting 70 hours week (which for me it’s not having a live.) I earn 45.000€ and work 40 hours/week, at home. I’m happy with that, of course if an opportunity aries to earn more money without degrading my live, I will take it, but it’s not anything I lost sleep about because with what I earn and an already payed mortage you can live pretty well here. And see my family and my friends (as oposed to my coworkers and my coworkers.)

    So, if you’re happy with that, I’m happy with this, good for everybody.

  7. Comment by Chris Dymond on 14 December 2008:

    @ Juanjo,
    but that is exactly the point. If you are happy with a decent work/life balance working standard hours as an employee, then fine - no-one will begrudge you that. But this entire discussion is about entrepreneurs, i.e. people who by definition are not satisfied being employees. Michael Arrington is arguing that if you want to succeed *as an entrepreneur*, then you can’t expect to have a ‘European-style’ work/life balance. Which may be true (not that anyone could ever agree what ‘European’ might actually mean in this context), but I think he underplays the benefits of working in a virtual monoculture like Silicon Valley. He also doesn’t mention any counter-examples like British Telecom buying out Ribbit for example.

  8. Comment by Juanjo on 14 December 2008:

    Yes, buy hey, Santander is buying British failed Banks like a giant vacuum cleaner and believe me when I tell you (I worked there) that their style is pretty much european.

    I’ve yet to know of a freelance with a “normal” live. I think that when you see that even when you’ve enough to have a decent live working a little more you can earn more, you end working a lot more (also earning a lot more, usually.) From a taxi driver to a “2.0″ enterpreneur and here or in the UK.

    On the other side, you can be an enterpreneur without having to do all the work. I’ve a 10% share on a startup I’m doing with friends, I put some money and some work on it (not much, the idea is pretty simple from the technical point) but I don’t want it to dominate my live if it’s sucessfull; you just can hire someone and kept an eye on how the thing develops. I’m doing it not because I think it will make rich but because maybe it will allow me to work for my own; but I don’t want to fall on the “just a little more…” trap and trading my life for money (which you can’t take with you to the grave.)

    It’s like playing on a Casino, the only trick to have fun is to know how much you want to win before retiring (or how much you don’t want to lose), but some people get rich or get its live ruined not following the simple rule.

    So the whole point of my comment was to note that you’re not failing when your definition of “fail” is not the same as Nick’s one.

  9. Comment by till on 21 December 2008:

    What’s with all the fuzz about 2 hour lunches. ;-) The so called beef between Le Web and Techcrunch is a drama show and one of the best staged fights I have seen since I stopped watching WWF 10 years ago.

    Look at what they do. They pimp each other’s name. I bet they both get more traffic to their drama blog posts than to the usual.

  10. Comment by Google on 21 December 2008:

    Конкурс для блоггеров от DRUGREVENUE с призовым фондом в 3000 долларов, спешите

  11. Comment by Dr on 5 January 2009:

    С Новым Годом. Пусть Новый Год вам принесет много много денег!

  12. Comment by Richard Cranium on 8 January 2009:

    Nick,

    You’re not qualified to write about this subject.

    Let’s play carpenter. First, we get hammered.

    Then, I’ll nail you.

    Right up there *

    RC

  13. Comment by lenka on 27 January 2009:

    Разговор начистоту обычно заканчивается взаимным обливанием грязью.

  14. Comment by ann on 27 January 2009:

    Наивность - это редкий дар смотреть на мир невооруженным взглядом… :)

  15. Comment by perfectzoom.ru on 27 January 2009:

    Последнее время читаю между строк. Стал меньше уставать.