I'm suspect of his statements about Japan, which I don't know much about, given his statements on Germany, which I do, and are complete bollocks.
Germany, like most rich countries, has various incorporation forms, some which limit liability and some which do not. The GmbH and AG (translated literally "company with limited liability" and "stock company") are the standard startup vehicles. Recently there was also a new simpler form created, the UG ("founders' company"), which is also limited liability and doesn't require the initial stock value to any particular amount, unlike the GmbH (€25k+) and AG (€50k+).
Furthermore, Germany is very much a country of entrepreneurs. 66% of Germans are employed at a company that has fewer than 250 employees [1]. Germany does not have nearly as much of the shoot-for-the-moon entrepreneurship that the US is famous for, but to claim that founding companies is an oddity is nowhere close to being factually correct.
In contrast, in the US, half of Americans work for companies of under 500 people [2].
OK, but the distribution of company sizes is a only a good metric if you take a dictionary definition of "entrepreneurship". Yes, you can call a country which has a bunch of old-fashioned mom-and-pop book stores "entrepreneurial" in the sense that the risk/reward of the businesses are concentrated (high variance) because they are individually owned. But that's not the disruptive, innovative entrepreneurship that interests HNers. I think there's a broad range of HN-style entrepreneurship that shouldn't be characterized as shoot-for-the-moon but would not at all be measured by distribution of company size.
yeah, its disruption that creates wealth, not doing things the way they've always been done. Its not the scale of an enterprise or even growth in the number of employees.
I personally would find it much harder to start a company in Germany than the US for example. How does one deal with the "social" laws / customs? IIRC, the Germany company (40,000+ employees) I used to work for had the following rules/laws:
- 12 month maternity leave
- 32 vacation days per year
- 6 month paid after termination (so for example, if you fired someone you had to pay them for 6 months)
I'm not sure if these are government regulated or just were forced from the works council. Therefore I could foresee well-funded start-ups in Germany to be quite successful but I can't see bootstrapped-type organizations popping up as frequent as they do in the US.
Comments
I'm suspect of his statements about Japan, which I don't know much about, given his statements on Germany, which I do, and are complete bollocks.
Germany, like most rich countries, has various incorporation forms, some which limit liability and some which do not. The GmbH and AG (translated literally "company with limited liability" and "stock company") are the standard startup vehicles. Recently there was also a new simpler form created, the UG ("founders' company"), which is also limited liability and doesn't require the initial stock value to any particular amount, unlike the GmbH (€25k+) and AG (€50k+).
Furthermore, Germany is very much a country of entrepreneurs. 66% of Germans are employed at a company that has fewer than 250 employees [1]. Germany does not have nearly as much of the shoot-for-the-moon entrepreneurship that the US is famous for, but to claim that founding companies is an oddity is nowhere close to being factually correct.
In contrast, in the US, half of Americans work for companies of under 500 people [2].
[1] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleine_und_mittlere_Unternehmen...
[2] http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/international/news/upload/BERLIN%...
OK, but the distribution of company sizes is a only a good metric if you take a dictionary definition of "entrepreneurship". Yes, you can call a country which has a bunch of old-fashioned mom-and-pop book stores "entrepreneurial" in the sense that the risk/reward of the businesses are concentrated (high variance) because they are individually owned. But that's not the disruptive, innovative entrepreneurship that interests HNers. I think there's a broad range of HN-style entrepreneurship that shouldn't be characterized as shoot-for-the-moon but would not at all be measured by distribution of company size.
yeah, its disruption that creates wealth, not doing things the way they've always been done. Its not the scale of an enterprise or even growth in the number of employees.
I personally would find it much harder to start a company in Germany than the US for example. How does one deal with the "social" laws / customs? IIRC, the Germany company (40,000+ employees) I used to work for had the following rules/laws: - 12 month maternity leave - 32 vacation days per year - 6 month paid after termination (so for example, if you fired someone you had to pay them for 6 months)
I'm not sure if these are government regulated or just were forced from the works council. Therefore I could foresee well-funded start-ups in Germany to be quite successful but I can't see bootstrapped-type organizations popping up as frequent as they do in the US.
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittelstand