The web erupted in a fierce conversation (see especially the comments) on European* vs. US entrepreneurial culture after the Le Web in France. The conference itself was a disaster in terms of organization, even if many people dislike admitting it, even though the speakers were of high quality. I won’t go into ranting about it, since the ‘few hiccups’ have been well documented by others. Helene Auramo, the CEO of Zipipop, summed it well on her Tweet on why she got a very high fever and cold after the conference: “…cold and not getting any food in LeWeb for two days… What can you expect?”.

That said, I personally enjoyed the conference, largely because of the great people who showed up. I also believe that is the most important bit so, despite Loic Le Meur got a lot of shit for the organizing, I believe he got the most important bit somewhat right.

I don’t believe I have ever enjoyed any panel as much as I did enjoy the Gillmor Gang panel at the end of Le Web’s second day (see video below). This was mainly thanks to Michael Arrington, the infamous editor of TechCrunch, calling it as he saw it. He gave Loic a run for his money when Loic tried to tell different truths to different audiences. A minor disappointment was how the panel ended in loud music and everybody tapping each other on the back and all the important issues were talked only half way though. After what was very refreshing stance from Michael Arrington during the panel, he also got soft at the end and started praising the organizers. That said, as I told Mr. Arrington after the conference, it was very very refreshing to see someone brave enough calling it as he sees it, which at the end helps everybody improve their game.

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A more serious point in this storm-in-a-tea-cup discussion was the stage of entrepreneurship in Europe versus in the US. I believe there is a cultural path dependency in Europe, which has set the course for generation after generation regarding the working culture. Thus, people who work over 60 hours a week are pitied and seen as unfortunate. In effect, not having life. Whereas in the US the opposite is true. They are seen as having the time of their life when they go after their dreams with all they have, not counting hours. I remember living in London, which is surely the most Anglo-American city in Europe (in fact, some people don’t count UK in Europe at all). In London you could ‘taste the blood’ in a sense that people were willing to sacrifice something to get the other, whereas the sentiment in Helsinki is that you should be able to have the cake and eat it too. People believe, right or wrong, that you work to live, not live to work, and doing the latter is seen as unacceptable social behavior. I don’t think either one’s any more right than the other and that we’re all different in that respect. Only the path dependency that I talked about earlier has shifted the culture to be very critical for those that choose to live to work. This is very unfortunate as we many people I know love their work and want to make it big whatever the cost and are thus looked down on or criticized. In fact, most of these people who work beyond 80 hours a week don’t even consider it work. They love what they do and are grateful for every hour they can spend on doing it.

I, for one, like to have more life than just my work and personally struggle with the trade off as does Robert Scoble (see video here), a famous American video blogger who says it’s really hard if not impossible to have a healthy balance, let alone manage it, if you want to be on top of your game. That said, I know people who are willing to pay the price and build the next big European success story and I very strongly believe we should respect these people for their choice in life instead of criticize and look down on them. The culture needs to change. Europe is a patch work of countries and national cultures. Therefore, we should not impose one working culture on the continent either by thinking we know what’s best for everyone. There are room for both: Those who value the quality of life as defined by leisure, free evenings and weekends as well well as those who define quality of life by being able to work 80 hours a week to build something bigger and follow their dream.

Even though some of us, not least the LeWeb founder Loic Le Meur, might have had his ego bruised in the process, I believe the panel at Gillmor Gang and especially Michael Arrington’s stone cold comments did us a great favor by bringing an important conversation to the fore.

I am, yet again, dumstruck by how easily the local media here in Finland dismissed all the efforts by us and by the whole Finnish startup community to raise the awareness of the local startups and the formation of a startup culture here in the Nordics. First we set up the biggest startup event Finland has ever seen which was a big success and now we took a whole Finnish Sauna (video here and here) full of startups to Paris with Tommi Rissanen of Digibusiness.fi, just so the Finnish media can ignore all of it. This happens while at the same time tens of millions of euros are poured into programs to help Finnish startups, but most of this money go to those who know how to game the Finnish system and have the time to go through the endless rounds of red tape. Tommi Rissanen, who was pivotal in bringing the sauna to LeWeb, is the only person working for one of the supporting institutions in Finland, who I have met who knows and is interested in what is happening at the grass roots level in the Finnish startup scene and is willing to bust his butt to help out the startups. And I follow this space every single day.

Another sign to get the pulse: Christine Lagarde, the French minister of economy came to visit Le Web 2008. She actually came even to the stage to have a chat with Loic (previous years French President Sarkozy himself has visited the event). We in Finland, on the other hand, got an email from the Finnish President’s assistand telling us that the president is too busy to visit the Finnish startups.

*Where I talk about Europe, I mean what we know as the Western Europe. I can’t speak of the Eastern Europe, since I have not lived or worked there.

To continue from our partnership with the Nordic Venture Forum we have partnered with the European Venture Summit to bring more visibility for Nordic and Baltic startups among the investors in the region.

European Venture Summit is two day long conference in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1st and 2nd December that will give some of the most promising companies from Biotech & Industrial Biotech, ICT and New Energies the opportunity to grow their businesses across borders by facilitating contacts to an experienced and international network of venture capital and corporate investors, strategic partners and expert advisers.

Some of the companies present include Qrodo (SWE) - Easy to use internet service for live sports events using low cost equipment and infrastructure, Mobispine (SWE) - Mobile Internet and messaging, Valimo (FI) - Your ID online, and Vocab (SWE) - Mobile intelligent learning.

You can register here and choose from different packages the one that’s to your liking. They include everyting from access to company & research presentations to up to 6 pre-arranged meetings from a selection of 15 potential One2One partners.

The recent weeks’ downturn in the global economy has dramatically tightened the availability of funding for companies, not only startups but large companies alike. The downturn that started from the US with the uncovering off the sub-prime “fraud” has echoed its effects to all corners of the world as connections between financing houses begin to unravel.

Sequioa Capital, one of the most famous startup financing houses in the US, has held a secret meeting earlier this week. A slideshow from the meeting has fled to the public unraveling the contents of the meeting - short and long term scenarios for the world economy. The contents of the document are not very positive. If the name of the presentation is “RIP - Good times”, I think it says all.

I’ve also heard while discussing with Nordic entrepreneurs that the financing market has, also in Europe, tightened dramatically. This of course means that those seeking funding rounds form the public will face tougher times in years.

I’m expecting we’ll see a huge rise in applications to the government institutions that support and finance entrepreneurs as the private markets tighten. It is natural for entrepreneurs to seek financing at all costs, as it is their only way to survive if they do not have a positive cashflow. This however, in my opinion and even at the cost of receiving a ton of hate mail, does not give the institutions any right to loosen their funding - just to support the companies and keep people employed.

This may seem harsh, but the Nordic startup scene is still very small in terms of employment and thus does not pose a great threat to the GDP. Times like these serve as natural ways to bring about healthy change to the markets with companies that are truly innovative and have a chance of becoming profitable in the near future (ie. are already showing healthy amounts of revenue).

One must also remember that even in difficult times, it is usually the strongest that survive - creating more value in the long run to the individuals as well as economies they serve.

I interviewed Mike Butcher of TechCrunch UK on the European startup ecosystem and how he sees it versus the US one while I was visiting Seedcamp in London. I told Mike that we need to make entrepreneurship sexier here in Europe and get more role models for students and young guns to look up to. See what Mike told me and what he thinks of the Scandi startup scene in particular.

We will be discussing the state of the European startup scene here in Helsinki tomorrow night at the ArcticEvening (see more here). Come meet the local startup scene and enjoy a laid-back evening with us.

Occasionally we intentionally divert from our primary focus on reviewing and reporting on internet and mobile software startups and growth entrepreneurship in and from the Nordic and Baltic countries to examine the European, the Baltic and the Nordic landscape for the entrepreneurs. Here’s another take on the issue.

Dirk Van Quaquebeke, the founder of Tailor Nation (Facebook app here), talked to me about his experiences on running a startup while working at the same time in Deutsche Bank, where to set up your startup and whether London is the startup hub you should go to as an entrepreneur.

When I asked what would he do if given the chance to do a startup anywhere, Dirk said 1) do an MBA in IIM in India (given one is a business guy). 2) While at it build a team around you since you get access to the great talent pool while in India. 3) Given there’s three founders, one stays offshore production center at India 4) pay people well & even incentivize some through equity 5) build a sales force through the founders located onshore like London (given its a product that needs a sales force).

Dirk emphasized that London is mainly a PR center where its rather expensive to live (something I can assure!), thus living in somewhere else like Copenhagen or Berlin might be equally good or even better option. He also pointed out that you can do development across the time zones, but if you can avoid it do so because you will be much more efficient.

I will disagree with Dirk especially on the MBA bit -if you do an MBA you will most likely rationalize yourself out of all the big ideas and dreams you had, and even if you can stick to your dreams the socialization effect among the MBA students will lure you to the nice (yet bored out of your mind) life at McKinsey. Naturally, there are exceptions for example if you have already started a couple of startups and you like to know a bit more about say finance. In the latter case, an MBA might be a good option to meet other like minded people in a place like Stanford and maybe even learn a bit. But as a rule of thump, avoid MBA schools!

What comes to the location, I believe one should build strong ties to the Silicon Valley (something Jyri Engeström, the Jaiku co-fouder, also reiterated) as it can significantly cut the time to market which might make a big difference from the time the window opens to the point where a competitor has already a critical mass and beyond your reach. That said, I still believe one should stick to the community s/he knows be it Copenhagen, London or Helsinki, since culture and support mechanisms like your family and friends make a big difference and if that is not a big enough reason you might loose not only time but also your money while trying to relocate and adjust.