10X heeft dit gerepost
On a mission to make the next tech titans to come from Europe. Founder 10X. President dSa. Board AfS. Prompting Europe.
🤕 European startups experience a glass ceiling Two weeks ago, we held the Prompting Europe event in Norrsken Barcelona house: how to make the next big tech to come from Europe. 🇪🇸 I usually introduce Spain as the country in Europe closing the gap the fastest; an example in policy. And truth be told, the vibe is contagious in Spain. Miguel Ferrer Jiménez (Adigital), one the major startup advocates in Spain and Nico de Luis (Shakers) joined the discussion about the Spanish status of startups. To my big surprise we learned that Spanis startups still, like anywhere in Europe, hit this invisible ceiling of getting to the scaleup phase. The term ‘glass ceiling’, usually used to describe the disadvantages for underprivileged groups, does have some adequate similarities to the way startups in Europe experience an invisible barrier, created by a gap in resources, where their US counterparts have the clear advantage. 🚀 Every comparison has its limitations, but startups are somewhat similar to launching a rocket from a submarine. They need to get out of the water first with enough thrust, which already proves very hard and then ignite their engine above sea level for the acceleration phase to reach escape velocity to get to space, where finally gravity has no hold on them. I use these comparisons for the steps needed to become big tech. Very simplified, once they have product-market fit (getting out of the water) and product-channel fit (having the engine to accelerate), it needs lots of fuel. And this is one of the main issues why big tech is not coming from Europe. Among other things, like cross-border scaling challenges, we mostly need fuel for growth, to break through the glass ceiling limiting Europe's startups. It is interesting, but a bit demoralising, to hear that a country like Spain, that went on to close the gap the fastest in Europe in terms of startup growth, also hits this glass ceiling. 💰 The problem is that there is too much public money in venture capital here (43%). It often comes with requirements and curation of startups and not a free broad development that produces the outliers that become big tech. That doesn't mean we need less public money. No, we need more private money to balance it. Slowly we see institutional investors like pension funds in Europe pour more money into our old continent, but it is far from enough yet. Most still flows to the US. The response I usually get is that we should be positive, because it is growing. But if other regions still grow faster, you are still falling behind. We had a great evening in Barcelona with founders, investors and ecosystem players talking solutions for breaking the barrier. Most feel AI has the highest potential to equalise opportunity and level the playing field. We are on a mission to bring the next big tech from Europe. Join us in our cause with some optimism and intelligent solutions. Join Prompting Europe's events and programs. Proudly supported by Vultr.