We have excellent research. Companies grow out of it. Some find their first customers, raise capital and start moving.
And then the long part begins.
From the lab to the market. From the home market into the next European country. From the first round to growth capital. From a good product to a large company. And eventually, perhaps, to an exit.
At almost every one of those transitions, new friction appears.
Different rules. Different networks. Different capital markets. Different people to know. New responsibilities. And quite often the same old question again: who do I actually need to know to make the next step work?
That may be where Europe loses more than we like to admit.
Because much of what we need is already here: technology, companies, capital, talent, industry and a huge market.
The real question is how much of it actually connects along the way.
Maybe we need to look much more closely at the transitions.
Where does research really become business?
Where does a strong company become a European one?
Where does capital find the right opportunity?
And where do we lose something that was already there?
The better those transitions work, the less European potential we have to recreate over and over again.
How much potential are we losing today between two good steps?
This thought was sparked by Marcel van Oosts post on Europe’s scale-up challenge and Peter van Sabben’s comment beneath it. Thank you both for the impulse.
Martin Bonner • GLOW FOR EUROPE
For a sovereign, future-ready Europe.
Transparency: modified with GUNO AI
