The sheer success of Silicon Valley has spawned many imitators. Casper explains the European efforts. Mostly centred on Germany and Britain. With an emphasis on biotechnology. In both countries, there was strong government support for these startups. Perhaps they chose biotech because existing computer hardware and software industries already were huge, and dominated by Silicon Valley. In contrast, the still new biotech offered a [perhaps] more level playing field.



The most salient feature of the German approach was the willingness of its federal government to finance startups, via silent equity partnerships. Also termed "public venture capital". This was to circumvent the very limited amounts of traditional venture capital available in Europe. The German program appeared successful. Producing hundreds of small firms, and outputs comparable to the San Diego biotech scene.



One nice feature of the book is how it also carefully looks at the latter. Effectively using it as a benchmark for the European efforts.