It’s time for European tech to stop fanboying US tech, and go our own way
We have lots to learn from the US on how to build a tech ecosystem; but Europe should take a beat before following down the MAGA path.
The cultural respect for entrepreneurs; the risk appetite; the celebration of success. If we shifted towards the US on just one of these, we’d build more startups, more wealth, and everyone in Europe would be better off for it.
But US tech has gone full MAGA and European tech needs to take a beat before mindlessly following it down this path. It has been rational for a long time to never contradict, and often to actively support, whatever comes out of the US tech ecosystem. America is economically dominant and Europe’s startups have needed US follow on capital, so alignment has been in our financial self-interest. But, unfortunately, European tech voices have also parroted US views to appear aspirational and align with the “big boys”.
This has gone on so long that we are failing to see that it is now actively harmful to the European tech ecosystem. The first problem is that as US tech voices have become explicitly America-first, they have also become explicitly anti-European. The second is that the tack to the right in the US has dragged some European tech voices into a culture-war discourse that is absolutist, aggressive, and simply, bad for business.
It’s time to grow up. It’s time to shed the US tech “fanboy” mentality, and make up our own minds about the ecosystem we’re trying to build. Three specific narratives have infected our ecosystem and must be left behind.
1. “The US is a free market of unbridled capitalism, whereas Europe is an over-regulated backwater- we can’t build anything here”
This is a vast oversimplification. There’s no doubt that Europe often acts too quickly to regulate new technologies and needs to do more to cut red tape where possible. But the US has its own problems. Ever tried to start a bank in the US? Or maybe a cross border alcohol startup? Hint: in both cases it’s almost certainly harder than in much of Europe. And what about the US’ on-again off-again forced divestment of TikTok? If the EU or UK had done this, people would be outraged about such “over-reach”. We need to get real and reject a simple narrative that talks Europe down and instead lean into the fact that we consistently produce unicorn outcomes in more complex, regulated markets.
Talking down the ability to build and scale businesses in Europe only further discourages potential entrepreneurs, both internationally mobile ones, and those at home. So we need to start talking specifically about what we might change on the regulatory front to support startups. Fortunately, the fightback on this point has already started, with pieces from the likes of Niklas Zennstrom and Luciana Lixandru in the last few weeks. At Form, we’ve set out our own detailed plans for dealing with regulation via our fixtheregulators.com campaign.
2. “Migration should be viewed through the lens of the US debate on “illegals and criminals”, rather than primarily as an opportunity for growing the ecosystem”
Talent is the backbone of any thriving tech ecosystem, and Europe has a wealth of it. But again, there are voices that want to talk this down, mimicking the US’ anti-immigration rhetoric which seeks to reduce migration policy to arguments about “criminals”.
These sorts of dog-whistle posts might be good for engagement, but they’re sinister in tone and corrosive for European tech. Whatever your politics, if we want a thriving talent ecosystem we need to be prepared to argue for it, instead of fostering hostility and alienating the global talent pool. Let’s try arguing for the UK and Europe as destinations for the world’s mobile workforce.
On our current trajectory, the next topic we’re at risk of seeing European voices mimic is the US push-back on DEI. Would it really bring about a better European ecosystem if we rowed back efforts to promote diversity in tech? To borrow the Entrepreneur First refrain: tech talent really can be found everywhere - so anything that limits the set of people who can build the future should concern us.
3. “Let’s brand-build by repeating misinformation on highly sensitive political issues, with little regard for any underlying evidence”
For reasons only he understands, Elon Musk has decided to make certain political issues in Europe his hobby horse, and a few European tech voices have leapt on the bandwagon, presumably to curry favour and signal their allegiance. As Mike Butcher of TechCrunch put it, “It’s interesting to see how politics and culture war has spread into the VC community”.
To be fair, it’s never been more difficult to decipher “information” from “misinformation”. What this means is that when we read a sensationalist tweet - even from the best US entrepreneurs - it is incumbent on us as ambassadors of European tech to look at the underlying evidence before perpetuating it, because there is a cost to doing so, in terms of confidence in Europe as place to live and build a business.
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In the medium term, those that no longer believe in Europe as a place to found a business or invest will - presumably - move to focus exclusively on the US and elsewhere. But 2025 is going to be a year of transition, and the doomsters will remain noisy on the way out. So those that do continue to believe in Europe’s potential need to make the case, and begin to carve our own future.