“The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” –Ronald Raegan.
So isn't the "not a great market" and "Tesla hasn't been built in Detroid" and "the local skilled workforce does not matter" argument similar to saying "It's not worth doing software startups in SV because all the tech giants are based there"? If I wanted to create a machine tooling startup wouldn't Germany be exactly the place to go to? Or more generally, if there was an equivalent of SV for machine tooling to emerge, where else than in Germany?
I am not saying that a local manufacturing base doesn’t matter. I think if you want to build a generational company, it’s really hard to start it in a place like Wolfsburg. If you want to build a SME manufacturing company, it’s a different story.
> Germany might not be a great initial market because it has more powerful manufacturing incumbents.
Germany is a world leader in machine tooling a not yet on a way to be replaced. https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F103cc274-cd07-44b3-99f5-dfea404b041a_1724x962.jpeg
So isn't the "not a great market" and "Tesla hasn't been built in Detroid" and "the local skilled workforce does not matter" argument similar to saying "It's not worth doing software startups in SV because all the tech giants are based there"? If I wanted to create a machine tooling startup wouldn't Germany be exactly the place to go to? Or more generally, if there was an equivalent of SV for machine tooling to emerge, where else than in Germany?
I am not saying that a local manufacturing base doesn’t matter. I think if you want to build a generational company, it’s really hard to start it in a place like Wolfsburg. If you want to build a SME manufacturing company, it’s a different story.