Why Can’t Europe Do Tech?
I&#x27;ll probably get Uber down voted for this, but this is my experience from the last 2 years in preparing to get a startup of the ground.<p>Here&#x27;s some relevant data points:<p>1) I have contacted over 400 service providers in multiple sectors to provide services to the startup.<p>* Yes that&#x27;s not a typo.  400 companies have been emailed, then called.  I don&#x27;t mind picking up the phone and talking to someone.<p>2) Of the 12 service providers that were selected, only 1 company is from the UK.  All others are from the US.<p>3) All of the EU companies that were contacted, I later found out were either:-<p>- Lacking in terms of functionality compared to the US competitors.<p>- Had no roadmaps or no visibility of when they would reach parity with US competitors.<p>- Were much more expensive than US competitors.<p>- Many EU companies had no US focus and more focused in EU, ME and Africa.<p>4) Of the US companies that I selected.  I had interacted initially with the EU offices.  Being in the UK, their systems always forwarded the contact form to the EU&#x2F;UK office.<p>The sales individuals located in the EU office were always SUB PAR!<p>- They didn&#x27;t know their product as well as they could have.<p>- Simply made up bullshit in order to backup their claim that the functionality that I required was not possible.  Even though I knew it was.<p>- As soon as they realised that I was a startup, they were not interested in the sales lead.<p>- In some circumstances, I knew the industry, regulatory issues and their competitors better than they did.<p>- One further point.  I remember contacting Skrill&#x27;s London office and then speaking to an Italian woman and her shouting at me with respect to their functionality.  She didn&#x27;t know the product and was telling me that a certain feature was not available.  The more I described to her that it was possible.  The louder she got.  Despite it being on their website.<p>- I have many emails from UK&#x2F;EU individuals informing me that they can&#x27;t do [functionality X] because of regulations&#x2F;etc.  However, other companies were able to do it perfectly fine.  Again, this boils down to the employees of the company not knowing their product&#x2F;industry.<p>- I won&#x27;t mention who said this.  It&#x27;s a well known US service provider to SaaS companies.  When I was speaking to a UK sales manager.  I outlined what the startup was doing.  The sales person informed me that there would be NO WAY that I would be able to get my first 100 users.  To quote him:  &quot;You won&#x27;t get 100 users&quot;.  Needless to say, the conversation didn&#x27;t last long.<p>5) What&#x27;s worse than all this?  Every single German company that I have spoken to were not startup friendly in the least.  In fact, every single German company would tell me that I had no chance of success and that I should go and do something else.<p>Here&#x27;s a typical exchange:<p>Me: Hi, I am interested in your product offering and would like to know if [X functionality] is available and what you pricing is.<p>Them: What is your current turnover.<p>Me: I&#x27;m a startup.<p>Them: Please come back to us when you are doing 7 figures a year.  Good bye!<p>6) The difference with US companies.<p>- Knew the product inside and out.  Knew their competitors and could inform me how they were better than [competitor X].<p>- In many circumstances.  Once I had spoken to the initial sales employee or they had read my email and PDF attachment of the startup.  I was immediately forwarded to the Sales VP and they wanted my business.  Instead of pitching my startup to the service provider.  They were pitching their company to me.<p>- In many circumstances, there was a program to help startups get off the ground.  There would always be a requirement to be part of an accelerator or be VC backed.  In my case, this was always waived.<p>- A few times, the sales employee commented that this was obviously a &quot;billion dollar&quot; startup and that they wanted to be part of it.  That is, be a partner service provider.  The more revenue that I generated, the more they would generate as well!<p>- In all cases, they were startup friendly.  Being a startup with 0 in revenue and 0 sales and months away from launch.  No problem in discussing their product with me.<p>- In some cases, where a service provider could not help.  Due to missing functionality or regulatory issue.  Would even forward me to a contact in a competitor that could help!<p>- In a couple of times.  Would even offer their own development team to build some tech that I mentioned I was having issues with.  For FREE!  Gratis!  Of course, I always declined, but I thought was very nice of them.<p>There&#x27;s probably more positive items, but I can&#x27;t think of more right now.<p>The bottom line is.  I now only deal with US companies and when I send an email out.  I always append the preference to deal with US sales teams.<p>The outlook and behavior of US companies is vastly different than EU companies:<p>- More positive outlook.<p>- More willing to work with startups.<p>- Acknowledge that, the better the client does, the more revenue they will earn.  (yes this point is lost with EU companies)<p>Disclaimer:  I&#x27;m a solo technical founder.  I&#x27;m bootstrapping the company with just $1,000 (on purpose).  I am not getting any FFF funding nor any VC funding as well.