>What may be missing is (a) raw engineering talent in the way Stanford or (previously) Bell Labs produce it. You need a few people who are above and beyond everyone to start the really exciting stuff. And (b) possibly the funding infrastructure.
I would challenge that. Some universities in Germany are very strong in Engineerung and natural sciences at the same time. During my studies I have worked with incredibly talented people. However most of these stayed in academia because they found business too boring. Actually that used to be my plan as well, however due to a number of coincidences I didn't pursue a PhD.
One might argue it's a vicious circle: the strong engineers stay to a large proportion in academia, some of them leave into big companies. A tiny rest gets lost in the startup world. So the people who start companies concentrate on Club Mate e-commerce and weird business relationships - not attractive for other strong engineers to join etc etc... ;)
I would challenge that. Some universities in Germany are very strong in Engineerung and natural sciences at the same time. During my studies I have worked with incredibly talented people. However most of these stayed in academia because they found business too boring. Actually that used to be my plan as well, however due to a number of coincidences I didn't pursue a PhD.
One might argue it's a vicious circle: the strong engineers stay to a large proportion in academia, some of them leave into big companies. A tiny rest gets lost in the startup world. So the people who start companies concentrate on Club Mate e-commerce and weird business relationships - not attractive for other strong engineers to join etc etc... ;)