Introduction

The idea to write this book came from the knowledge that most books on start-ups focus on North American companies, and while I found great value in reading those books, it made me wonder how different, if at all, the perspective of European companies and their founders would be. It’s quite common to read about the differences between Europe and North America, particularly the United States of America, but is it really so different to start a company in the United States than in a European country?

In isolation, this book gives founders’ views of starting a venture in Europe; but in conjunction with Founders at Work, we see the differences and similarities between starting a venture in the United States vs. in a European country. My view on this is that there are many similarities in the entrepreneurs’ mind-set, but that the context changes, leading to different decisions while creating and growing their businesses.

In compiling this book, I noticed several patterns between stories. One was that entrepreneurs looked to capitalize on international markets very early because their home markets were usually too small. Some decided to expand using white labeling, others by changing the platform or raising more capital, but all with the vision that the only way to succeed was to grow internationally. One example of this is Shazam, which, until the rise of the iPhone, grew internationally using a white label strategy.

The second pattern is that many start-ups began with an idea that morphed over time to its current state, or that the idea remained the same, but the method to turn it into a reality changed. Take Fon, for example, where the objective was always the same, but the business changed from an NGO to a hardware seller to a partner of their perceived main competitors. Then there’s Yandex, a giant company with the biggest IPO in the NASDAQ since Google, which got its start doing Bible search algorithms in DOS.

Other recurring themes that I noted in the interviews included the positioning of companies as global companies—not as French companies, or Italian companies, or English companies, and so forth. Also noted is that there is a clear realization of the advantages of a having a foothold in Silicon Valley, a clear focus on profitability over expansion, and the view that it takes double the time to raise money in Europe than in the United States, but that there is plenty of money available for the right team and venture.

As many of you will notice, there are many well-known European success stories that are not covered in this book. The reasons for this vary, but one particular case made a very strong impression on me because it showed how different European countries are. The son of the founders of Kaspersky, a very successful Russian company, was kidnapped at about the same time I contacted them to be part of the book. When I learned this, I was disturbed, and being from a country where this type of incident is unheard of, it made it very clear that albeit we all live in Europe, there are striking differences from one country to another. Fortunately, everything ended up well, with the police rescuing the teenager, but it made it quite clear to me why they were not interested in attracting further attention.

There are many successful start-ups spread throughout Europe and there is no single large pocket of innovation. This has advantages and disadvantages. The European market is fragmented, with clients, entrepreneurs, and investors talking different languages, being in different circles, and meeting at different events. But this fragmentation also creates an international outlook from the start, a clearer focus on revenues—as investment is not readily available, and a close-knit start-up community in each of these lands. The entrepreneurs, and those who would fund them, are more and more connected now due to programs like Seedcamp and Startupbootcamp, and events like LeWeb.

Many of the founders interviewed in this book did “impossible” things, disrupting entire industries along the way. It is worthwhile to notice that all did it with a passion to solve a particular problem, not with the purpose of getting rich quick. You will notice in several interviews that most took a lot of time and went through quite a lot before they became successful. If anything stands out as a unifying characteristic between founders, it is the willingness to move forward and implement their visions and passions, even when things do not seem to go their way. Persistence, allied with adaptability, seems a common trait between most entrepreneurs.

I hope you come to the end of this book with the view that it’s quite possible to build a successful start-up anywhere in Europe. Beyond that, I hope that you will learn, from a very unique perspective, a great deal about business in Europe and throughout the world. Although the founders in this book did amazing things, they had doubts and false starts—just as any other entrepreneur. Perhaps this book will give you insights or even lead you to think, “I can do this, too.”