It seems to me that it is
essential to have the entrepreneur's DNA in a population in order to grow an
entrepreneurial environment, and therefore a successful startup ecosystem.
The right parameters should
be driven by the need to own its own business, to start something of personal
value, to build something of personal pride, to seek independence, to pursue
achievement (monetary or otherwise) . All on a voluntary basis, and not
necessarily out of desperation.
The chart shows that many
smaller countries such as Norway or Australia have populations driven by
entrepreneurship. However the argument that Americans are more driven by
entrepreneurship than the Europeans or the Asians is wrong, when you look at
the % of the population of the country as a whole.
The only reason it seems
that the U.S. drives more global entrepreneurial success stories is because it
has a large domestic market, that gives immediate and substantial traction to
startups, and two, the readily available pool of angel and venture capital, not
present in other countries.
If we were to regroup all the
European countries, the data would be very different but their markets are still
fairly fragmented (language and culture), which proves the Eurozone still has a
long way to go to become a single large market for startups.
Brazil and China, the two next largest market blocks, are fast rising
but still too far for probably another generation or two. This is mostly due to availability of risk capital and sophisticated entrepreneurial talent.
