Startup Enterprises in the Field of Digital Products in Germany and the United States. What is the Difference?

Contents

Contents

1. Introduction

2. External conditions influencing startup companies
a) Legal basis and bureaucratic effort:
b) Various accesses for startups:
c) Education in the field of Entrepreneurial Action and Thinking:

3. Internal conditions affecting startup companies
a) The meaning of the co-founder:
b) Why work culture can decide the life and death of a startup

4. Supporting forces for startups:
a) Expanding Network Connections
b) Mentorship
c) Financial Funding

5. Conclusion:

6 Who is Arian Ney?

7 Source Directory:

1.Introduction

The terms startup and entrepreneurship are on everyone's lips. There is the talk of digitalization and a new world to be created by innovatively driven start-ups. Since I am in the process of starting my startup and am in this new economic world, I want to find out the secrets of the most successful companies in the world. GAFA, a term known in the inner circle of the Startup Community. The name is composed of the first letters of the four best known and most successful former startups in the world. Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple. If you look at all four companies, you will find some similarities, and it seems as if there is a draft, a basic framework on which all the companies mentioned are based. I've been looking for this framework for a year now and this way I notice again and again that there is no framework, but rather a law of nature that distinguishes successful startups from not so successful ones.

Nevertheless, some similarities can be observed. All GAFA companies come from the land of dreams, from the area where everyone can achieve everything. Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple all come from the United States. This commonality suggests that the corporate environment is a variable that can determine success and failure. In the following I would like to compare the conditions for startup companies between Germany and the United States of America and find out why no other German startup on the level of GAFA companies has made it since April 1, 1972 (founding year of the largest European software manufacturer from Germany: SAP). This question can be answered using the ecosystem of the two countries. Here I refer to some scientific research and to some perceptions of startup enthusiasts who could smell the startup air of both states. I can examine the differences between the three levels. On the one hand, there are the external conditions that affect startups, these cannot be controlled or changed by the startup itself. On the other side, there are the internal conditions that affect startups; these can and are controlled by the startup itself. Another analysis point is the support system, which can have a significant influence on how a startup develops.

2.External conditions influencing startup companies

As described above, external conditions are factors that cannot be controlled or influenced by the company itself.^[1]

a)Legal basis and bureaucratic effort:

If you compare the steps you have to take to set up a company in the two countries, there are no real differences.^[2] However, it should be borne in mind that the infrastructure in the United States is more digitized and therefore less bureaucratic. In some regions of the United States, for example, there are online services that make it possible to set up a business from home, while in Germany you first have to contact various offices to finally conclude the process with the notary.^[3]

b)Various accesses for startups:

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Another difference can be seen in access to new talents and recruitment. One of the most important conditions that the United States has are the many elite universities. Harvard, MIT and Stanford University graduates are available to an American start-up. Not only the high educational level of the graduates makes the difference, but also the internationality. A startup must act and react quickly. Startup companies, therefore, need easy access to new and old markets. This condition is better in the United States than in Germany. It can be seen that while access to new markets is essential for all start-up companies surveyed, it does not meet expectations in Germany.^[4]

c)Education in the field of Entrepreneurial Action and Thinking:

Education is the highest resource humanity has and education is ideally passed on through schools, but unfortunately not when it comes to entrepreneurship. I can say from experience that most of my classmates don't even know what a company is and how it can work. The term startup has never been used in any subject in school, and that makes a huge difference. If you look at the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), you see that Germany is far behind the United States when it comes to entrepreneurship education in schools.^[5]

[...]

^[1] The startup ecosystems in Germany and in the USA. Explorative analysis and comparison of the startup environments - Conference: 5th Annual International Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IE 2015), At Singapore, Volume: Five. Zugriff am 02. März.2019

^[2] Learn4Good. How to Start a Business / Company in the United States. Zugriff am 04.März.2019 & fuer-gruender. Mit welchen Gründungskosten und welcher Gründungsdauer Sie bei einer GmbH-Gründung rechnen müssen. Zugriff am 03.März.2019

^[3] Same sources as point 3

^[4] The startup ecosystems in Germany and in the USA. Explorative analysis and comparison of the startup environments - Conference: 5th Annual International Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IE 2015), At Singapore, Volume: Five. Zugriff am 02. März.2019

^[5] Rkw-kompetenzzentrum. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2017/2018. Zugriff am 05. März. 2019