Dave, living it up at XTech in Amsterdam, IMed me about Paul Graham’s latest. A quick search finds that lightening fast typist Suw Charman offers the best synopsis: Xtech 2006: Paul Graham – How American are Startups?.

There are some good points; nothing surprising if you’ve ever been involved in a startup but it is worth a read. My main gripe: there is no Europe. It is a collection of disparate countries with vastly different governments, values, and so on. Capitalist UK is not socialist Denmark.

That aside, by Paul’s criteria the real Cambridge is pretty close to getting it right. It just might be too expensive for real in-the-garage type startups. When paying the rent is a challenge spending time on a risky proposition like a startup seems less attractive.