Absolutely spot on. It's not lack of funds or the absence of a proper ecosystem, it's a huge cultural gap.
The whole school system is fundamentally broken. Since elementary school to the very last stages of university education I've been told to study, work hard and eventually, with time, gain access to some big and famous corporate in a responsability position, get a lifelong contract, settle down and enjoy life. That should have been my professional life goal.
Entrpreunership isn't even remotely considered. It's like it was 'none of my business', as companies were somehow a father-son 'inheritance'.
Add to that a very entrpreunership-adverse legislation (for an LLC equivalent in Italy you need a 20K deposit upfront and you'll be paying, at the end of the day, more than 50% of your profits in taxes) and you've got a recipe for disaster.
Also, the public opinion seems to have no or little interest in the matter, and the situation looks dreadfully stagnant.
Fortunately, there are sparks of cultural changes lately, especially with the younger folks, but it's a change that won't happen overnight for sure.
Fortunately, there are sparks of cultural changes lately, especially with the younger folks, but it's a change that won't happen overnight for sure.
I would like to contribute my personal data point on this. I'm a student in a smallish Dutch town at a university that's mostly focused on economics/business and medicine.
It feels like there's a considerate entrepreneurial spirit among the students here. Many seem to wish to found a startup and there are some there doesn't seem to be the mentioned aversion against success and making it big. From what I can tell, most of this is (still) just hot air, meaning that people have big ideas but don't dare start working on them. On the other hand, this might also be due to the lack of a bigger engineering or CS department with more people that can actually build something.
Maybe this is the beginning of a change of culture. I wonder if students in bigger tech-universities have similar experiences.
My personal data point is also, that most people who are interested in startups, including those who do them, are buisnes guys.
And we do have three big tech university here in Munich.
I know plenty exceptions but overall this is what I see.
The whole school system is fundamentally broken. Since elementary school to the very last stages of university education I've been told to study, work hard and eventually, with time, gain access to some big and famous corporate in a responsability position, get a lifelong contract, settle down and enjoy life. That should have been my professional life goal.
Entrpreunership isn't even remotely considered. It's like it was 'none of my business', as companies were somehow a father-son 'inheritance'. Add to that a very entrpreunership-adverse legislation (for an LLC equivalent in Italy you need a 20K deposit upfront and you'll be paying, at the end of the day, more than 50% of your profits in taxes) and you've got a recipe for disaster.
Also, the public opinion seems to have no or little interest in the matter, and the situation looks dreadfully stagnant.
Fortunately, there are sparks of cultural changes lately, especially with the younger folks, but it's a change that won't happen overnight for sure.