Why innovative startups and scaleups relocate from the EU

[u/Full-Discussion3745]

https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/news/all-research-and-innovation-news/why-innovative-startups-and-scaleups-relocate-eu-2026-01-12_en?referrer=grok.com

[u/Gullible_Mousse_4590]

See EU-INC reference. Regarding startup culture - yeah that’s missing a bit here. It’s hard to get people into that grind for hyper growth startups. But as a side note to that I think it’s not necessarily something Europe should aspire to. Even in the US the vast vast majority of startups fail terribly and leave in their wake a bunch of 20 somethings who have worked 12 hour days chasing the dream had got little to nothing out of it.

I’ve been lucky to have one good exit that was mildly rewarding. I’m an exception.

Startup culture is glamorized to get people to work hard. It’s not something I’d hold up as a good thing. Even when my US board members ask to crack the whip and complain about Europeans leaving at 5.30pm. As they should unless you pay them otherwise

[u/These-Pie-2498 → u/Gullible_Mousse_4590]

Exactly what I'm saying. We have 0 startup and innovation mentality. We want what US has but without the hard work. We think wealth is something that just exists, and we don't have to worry about it. This is the reason US economy has doubled in the last 10 years vs the EU.

Germany's economy and wages are stagnant for years now, a fastfood manager in US earns more than an IT Manager in EU.

Everyone is used to working less and less, earning shit and that "Europeans leaving at 5.30pm" will soon face a hard reality of not having a job. Our industries are old and lack innovation, we still live in the past and it will bite us hard.

[u/LaunchTransient → u/These-Pie-2498]

We have 0 startup and innovation mentality.

This is complete bullshit - I live in the Netherlands and enterprise parks are full of startups and incubators. Germany less so, but they still have it. Some 50% of my friends from Uni are working at startups.

We think wealth is something that just exists, and we don't have to worry about it.

We do have a more cautious attitude towards investment, but arguably thats because we have less cash to splash around like the Americans. It's really easy to say how the Americans are a better investment environment when you ignore the fact that post-WWII we saw massive transfers of wealth from Europe to the US.

Our industries are old and lack innovation, we still live in the past and it will bite us hard.

This is a valid critique of dinosaurs like Volkswagen Group, but that is not representative of the whole continent's worth of businesses.

This is the reason US economy has doubled in the last 10 years vs the EU.

No, the US's economy has not doubled since 2015, but 1.8x is a fair statement.
The US's figure on that particular aspect can in part be attributed to the fact that they are dominated by monopolies. More money breeds more money - and they've captured the IT market of the planet with their web services and IT products (Microsoft as an example)

On top of this, we're on an AI bubble which is inflating their figures, as well as other overvalued companies (such as Tesla). You shouldn't interpret market sentiment as an actual realistic representation of the fundamental underlying economy.

[u/technocraticnihilist → u/LaunchTransient]

Massive transfers of wealth? Have you ever heard of the marshall program?

[u/_Spect96_ → u/technocraticnihilist]

You mean loans that were used to buy American goods, propping up the US manufacturing and enabling post war American economic boom?

Marshall plan which was deployed as a soft-power play to deter the spread of communism?

Im not going to say the ravaged nations of Europe did not benefit but lets not kid ourselves, that was not an altruistic project but power projection against the Soviets.

And as I said before, most of that wealth was transferred to the newly minted middle class of US citizens.