Why is this downvoted? It is exceptionally valid. Starting a company in France subjects you to almost punitive labor laws, horrible taxes and regulation about almost very aspect of your business. Even doing something as simple as buying a rental property and leasing it out in France is loaded with difficulty. For example, an eviction can take years. Leases are standard for three years with the tenant being able to exit the lease with one month notice with no penalty. Capital gains taxes discourage the free movement of capital. If I want to sell a building and invest the proceeds, I am hit with an insane tax which provides a huge disincentive to moving capital from fixed assets to potentially more risky but higher return startup investments. France shuts down during August. I was in mid deal with some equity investors in July and pretty much the entire process was suspended until now. The French are also in love with paper. To get business class internet in a residence requires me actually registering and forming a French company. In the U.S., I can call any provider and with days have whatever services I want without having to "prove" I have a business 'need.' I certainly can't speak for all of the EU, but France is high on the list as a difficult place to get anything done quickly. In the UK, even opening a business bank account for a non-UK resident with a UK registered company is literally impossible. They are so paranoid over money laundering that essentially the banking industry is not accessible to anyone who wants to do business in the UK but isn't a resident. The regulatory environment in the EU is harsh. Investors are not necessarily risk adverse but they do have to be much more deliberate because every transaction is regulated and thus incurs a cost or a tax. For example, to buy any property in France, you have to pay a Notaire 8% of the purchase price just to legalize the sale. This is exclusive of normal agent commissions and closing costs. Imagine adding 8% to every asset sale on top of VAT of 20%. You're looking at a transaction cost of 28% to just pay the government! There is no such thing as a 1031 exchange either. Taxes and regulation is the surest way to crush innovation.
Combining that with the violence-filled reaction to Uber, the hysterical response to AirBnB and the obsession with physical paper and it's no wonder that France is a horrible startup environment. Also, let's not forget the billion+ dollar exit for Daily Motion that was blocked by the French government. If if you were to build a unicorn you wouldn't be able to do anything with it except maybe cut it up and cook it in a sous vide: provided it wasn't imported from Spain or Poland in which case the farmers would drive tractors into Paris and set piles of shit on fire in protest.
I am not making a judgement on is European Socialism a good thing or not; I am merely stating reasons that it is difficult to expect high returns in such an environment.
It is downvoted because most European unicorns happen to be from the second highest taxed country in the world. Which accidentally also shut down in the summer.
Complaining about bureaucracy sounds like a more believable theory considering that the Swedish one is pretty streamlined all things considered, but that is a totally separate issue than the sheer amount of taxes paid.
> If if you were to build a unicorn you wouldn't be able to do anything with it except maybe cut it up and cook it in a sous vide: provided it wasn't imported from Spain or Poland in which case the farmers would drive tractors into Paris and set piles of shit on fire in protest.
