Comment by cblconfederate

if anything the opposite should be true: A small homogeneous market with a language barrier is a great testing ground where a new product can grow and then become global. Facebook started in harvard, and some EU fintech startups are doing well in Sweden, i hear.

Global expansion is not an issue; every american company can easily reach the whole of EU. And there are many many european startups whose main market is america. Unless you mean that, products are so tailored to their home market that they don't have global appeal.