⭐ Danke Berlin! ⭐ We are concluding our Special Meeting of the Innovator Communities, where we connected with local, regional, and global start-ups to dive deep into the German and European ecosystems. We explored key insights and challenges with outstanding speakers like Mathias Döpfner, Børge Brende, Jörg Kukies, Anna Christmann, and Lars Zimmermann.
Here are my takeaways:
💡 Europe’s competitive advantage lies in its values—diversity, a strong democratic culture, and good quality of life. These factors make things complicated, and consensus-driven decision-making is slow, but they also provide a decisive edge in the global war for talent. Young people, in particular, are drawn to this region's diversity, freedom, and high living standards.
💡 Urgent action is required to keep Europe’s ecosystem competitive globally. The issues are well understood—lack of speed, limited access to capital, excessive bureaucracy, an uncompetitive tax code, and a risk-averse mindset. Yet, there’s growing frustration among founders about the slow pace of change and a seeming lack of awareness about the gravity of the situation. Startups also criticize Europe’s reluctance to back winners and define a clear, long-term innovation strategy with a technological focus.
💡 One potential area of European leadership is GovTech. The GovTech Campus Deutschland is a model for bridging the gap between government and start-ups—acting as a lean, fast-moving, non-profit intermediary. This addresses some of the challenges mentioned and opens up a massive market for start-ups. While ChatGPT estimates the GovTech market to be around $400 billion, growing at 15% annually, Lars Zimmermann—who knows this field better than most—suggests the market is even bigger and also points out that GovTech is not only a good way to make business but also impact – making public services better, more efficient and saving tax money.
💡 Finally, discussions with Germans are always refreshingly contrarian. Being in Berlin also serves as a good reminder about the importance of not blindly following groupthink, being courageous enough to tell hard truths, and listening to opinions we don’t share.
Thanks to my fantastic team, Amara Amadiegwu, Gaia Gera, Michelle Mormont, Saemoon Yoon, Bianca Homberger, and Sebastian Buckup, for making this event happen! Thank you to David Steinacker and Albina Progozhuk for being such great hosts!
