Comments this week from a VC and two entrepreneurs highlight the European-Silicon Valley quandary for start-ups and investors:
— Departing Six Apart EMEA VP Loic Le Meur is leaving Paris to form a new video-related startup in San Francisco. Le Meur, who organizes the Le Web conferences, posted blog articles and videos lamenting Europe’s geographically scattered tech startup culture; he said being in California would allow him to work with partners who speak more English and are more fearless, while helping his children learn English. Le Meur, who joined Six Apart in 2004 after selling his uBlog to the company and remains an honorary chairman, didn’t elaborate on the new business idea save to admit it isn’t yet funded. (The way he put it: “It’s almost funded already.”)
– Calacanis: Europe’s digital media strengths were brought into sharper relief Wednesday when internet entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, now pushing new enterprise Mahalo, lectured London conference delegates on Silicon Valley’s advantages: “In Europe, entrepreneurs don’t support each other and are quick to knock each other, and the press is cynical too. I wouldn’t want to be an entrepreneur here – I’d move to the US. You need to dream more and think bigger and realize that failure is an option. If you fail doing something glorious, then that’s fine” (via Guardian).
– Rimer: None of which much bothers London-based Index Ventures partner Danny Rimer, who has funded European companies like Skype, Joost and Last.fm since leaving the Valley in 2002. He’s one of a growing number of investors to champion the continent’s entrepreneurs — many of whom are increasingly part of teams that may be geographically dispersed but are as tight-knit as those in any Bay Area office block. He told AllThingsD: