Europeans, You Need Silicon Valley, but Silicon Valley Doesn't Need You

More and more European founders are breaking up with Europe to relocate permanently to San Francisco, causing the discussion about whether to Silicon Valley or not to rage as fiercely as ever. I am currently in San Francisco for a few weeks, so this feels like a good time to write this post.

My fellow Europeans, you need Silicon Valley, but Silicon Valley doesn’t need you. There is a false narrative in Europe about how milk and honey flow in Silicon Valley, when in reality, it does so for only a few people, and you are most likely not one of them. I also believe that a false choice is being painted between Europe vs. the US, when many of the best companies are increasingly spending time in both ecosystems. Let’s dig in!

Silicon Valley is without a doubt the single most impressive entrepreneurial technology ecosystem the world has ever seen. IQ, experience, drive, and ambition simply are incredible there. You cannot cross a street without hearing whispers of gradient descent, cannot find a Café without a founder on their laptop, and not a bar without at least three heated debates about when the singularity may occur. It is fucking amazing! People in Silicon Valley move at a different speed than anywhere else in the world and excellence compounds in this ecosystem like it does no place else. Because when smart and hungry people are around smart and hungry people all day, they become smarter and hungrier people over time.

Unfortunately, like many things in the age of social media, moving to Silicon Valley is becoming a performative act, rather than a strictly sensible one. We are seeing the rise of status-seeking relocations: moving to signal ambition and status, rather than for the substance of better hiring or shipping. Some young founders moving to Silicon Valley now wear the simple act of getting on a flight and booking themselves into and Airbnb like a badge of honour akin to saving a kitten from falling off a tree. My dear friend Viet Le said it poignantly the other day “I love SF but [more and more] people go there for the wrong reasons.”

After my initial resounding yes to the land of the technology gods, why does relocating to start a company there make limited sense for many European founders?

1. Talent:

Many of the world’s best product managers and engineers are in Silicon Valley. But the thing is, when you’re a young founder who is just starting out, you likely won’t be able to hire these people. There is no doubt that you can learn from them through networking and events, but with limited funds and fierce competition, hiring Silicon Valley’s strongest talent is unrealistic.

“[In Silicon Valley] capital is abundant — perhaps too abundant. But talent? That’s the scarce resource. Every promising engineer, designer, or operator is being courted by three, five, ten different AI startups — often chasing the same vertical, whether it’s coding copilots, novel datasets, customer service, legal tech, or marketing automation.

The result is an ecosystem that looks lush from above — green, growing, noisy — but underneath, the soil is dry. It’s hard to grow when everyone’s roots are tangled.”

Dion Lim - The AI Wildfire Is Coming.

Europe, on the other hand, has excellent talent too. Our networks run less deep because they haven’t compounded for the same amount of time and are spread more thinly across various locations, but this allows strong founders to stand out and actually have a higher chance of attracting strong talent here. In Europe, you find excellent talent that will cost you a fraction of what you’d need to pay in Silicon Valley. They will be your most loyal fighters because incredible culture and ambition can still truly set you apart here.

2. Capital:

When it comes to raising capital, I would strongly argue that early stage founders have a very competitive VC market in Europe, as well as pretty strong access to US capital from here. Accelerators that operate at the earliest stages, like Neo and YC, are flush with European founders who spend a few months in Silicon Valley, but build their companies in Europe afterwards. US Angels regularly embellish the cap tables of European early stage companies. From an early stage fundraising perspective, it’s a great time to be a founder, no matter if you’re based in Europe or the US.

3. Environment:

The dichotomy of US vs Europe is a false one. Many conversations about Europe vs the Bay Area sound like we live in 1800, when a move across the Atlantic was a once-in-a-lifetime decision, with no going back. Yet, it has never been easier to have your feet firmly planted in both ecosystems. Just hop on a plane, and spend time in the Bay Area. For several months a year, if you’d like to. I see more and more founders of incredible companies spending time in the US whenever they can, and then unleashing the Silicon Valley mindset back in their European home country. Whenever they feel like they need a dose of San Francisco Kool Aid again, they go back and refuel. Don’t compare yourself to your average local startup, but curate a set of global peers you benchmark yourself against. Use the US as the incredible pacemaker they are to boost your own record time.

To those who claim it is impossible to achieve jaw-dropping startup culture in Europe, I dare you to step into the offices of Lovable in Stockholm, Black Forest Labs in Freiburg, or Langdock and Langfuse in Berlin. Not only are they examples of founders who have their feet firmly planted in both ecosystems, but of founders who are building world-class companies from Europe. Fabian Hedin, Co-Founder of Lovable recently said that of course they are able to build Lovable from Stockholm. Why on earth wouldn’t they?

There is no question that Europeans need a dose of Silicon Valley - go and get it! And bring some for me, please. But resist the easy belief that things will just better for you there. And while Silicon Valley may not need you, a whole continent is depending on you right here.