5 years of connecting the European startup ecosystem
Last week, I was invited to reflect on the work we’ve done on Startup Europe in 5 minutes.
Turns out, 5 minutes is a bit short when you’ve been involved with the European Commission’s initiative for startups for 5 years.
So here’s the longer version.
Startup Europe: what does it mean, an European startup ecosystem?
It’s been 5 years of answering the call from Startup Europe: let’s connect the startup ecosystems in Europe.
For 5 years, I’ve been involved in multiple projects experimenting with different ways to bring startups together across borders in our fragmented Europe.
We did roadshows, workshop series and conferences. We took startups to events, we introduced them to corporates and public authorities. Particularly important, we brought them to new markets that they wouldn’t have considered before.
With WELCOME, from the first batch of projects, we tried many different approaches — essentially understanding what makes sense and what doesn’t. Which also allowed me to have some 5 minutes of fame trying to get people’s attention to Salamanca..
From there, I created Startup Lighthouse with a handful of key local ecosystem builders with those learnings: 1-week vertical-specific programs directed at creating business connections in one specific market. In other words, less pitching and show-off, but rather finding and answering business needs.
Startup Lighthouse: my take on building ecosystem bridges
As you read these words, Startup Lighthouse is reaching its end. Two years of connecting ecosystems. Two years organising eight Deep Dive Weeks for 120 startups on the forefront of mobility, IoT, travel, healthcare, smart cities, fintech, blockchain and analytics.
In each of our locations (Berlin, Dublin, Vilnius & Lisbon) we ran 2 programmes, adapting them to the local resources, needs and overall learnings. Lisbon, for example, as an up and coming startup hub, showcased how local companies and ecosystem builders are increasingly welcome to international startups. Dublin, with its established transatlantic business ecosystem, connected startups with successful founders in the same industry. Vilnius boasted the most fintech-friendly ecosystem. Berlin, on the forefront of open innovation, ran different programmes bringing together corporates and startups.
Throughout these years, we learned a lot.
First off, now we’re pretty sure we know how to deliver a perfect “Deep Dive Week” — want to know how? Check out the key building blocks here: https://startuplighthouse.eu/deep-dive-weeks/
Further than that, it’s clear that both startups and innovation-starved organisations crave closer collaboration in different and new formats. Pitches are not enough — they want more time to go deeper and explore potential synergies.
Additionally, startups are increasingly focusing on growing through revenue and not through typical investment, for very good reasons.
So we have startups increasingly seeking revenue — and existing organisations that are willing to pay for innovation. A perfect match, it seems.
Anyone in the space can tell you it’s not that easy. To me, this represents the biggest opportunity in the space.
And this is where Startup Europe and ecosystem builders should come in.
The future for ecosystem builders?
To continue supporting and connecting startup ecosystems in Europe, I am convinced intermediaries need to concentrate on identifying/highlighting business opportunities and facilitating relationships between existing organisations and startups.
The market is already addressing large multinationals and the big startup centers such as London or Berlin are catching up. However, Europe’s untapped potential lies not in the capitals and in the big companies — but rather in a healthy yet fragmented ecosystem of cities and SMEs (Atomico’s report on the State of European Tech has progressively noticed the rising potential and has even called for every city to become a tech city).
Startup Europe and intermediaries should focus on supporting the atypical ecosystems and organisations.
Less popular markets such as Eastern Europe have a huge underserved population with great startup talent as well as traditional companies that would benefit tremendously from upgrading themselves to the Industry 4.0. (if you’re in doubt, check my take from my Eastern European Market Discovery mission)
Simultaneously, there’s many atypical organisations that would benefit from working with startups: SMEs, NGOs and cities.
Recently, I’ve been running a project matchmaking SMEs and startups and the results are impressive: the SMEs are great customers for startups but lack access to a network beyond their region. Check their own words for it here in this series of podcasts.
In my home country, I’ve been hearing about exciting projects involving non-profit organisations that manage multiple elderly care homes — and are interested in working with startups that help them monitor their patients — effectively developing pilot projects with them.
Finally, the explosion of smart city initiatives show how startups can effectively grow from addressing real needs. My current favorite lies with Climate KIC’s renovation challenge: 1 Million Homes to be transformed into near-energy neutral houses by 2023.
So a lot is happening, but intermediaries can make sure this scales up beyond the usual geographies and organisations. This involves educating both startups and atypical organisations, as well as facilitating these relationships.
Startup ecosystems of the future need to look beyond KPIs
As we consider the future though, we have to consider our current context too: It is becoming increasingly clear that we can’t afford to have innovation which is not *holistically* sustainable.
The numbers behind the climate crisis don’t leave room for speculation: it is not through a tech silver bullet that we will put our woes away. Even if we did find a way to hit the right KPI for CO2, our society will keep heading from crisis to crisis.
So everyone needs to be part of a transition — an economic transition — which leads to sustainable technology, organisations and societies.
I believe startups are key here, not just because of technology, but because they also represent a cultural change. So we should be supporting startups that are not only ingenuous on how they address business, but how they address organisations and society themselves.
More equal, more transparent, more accountable — more sustainable.
No easy task, which is why intermediaries should play a role: help startups focus on product-market fit while being accountable to the environment and to society.
That may be by promoting different organisational models (e.g.: b-corps, purpose corporations), investment models (e.g.: revenue sharing), environmental accounting practices and all the other frameworks that need to be developed.
These are exciting times to be living in — for better or for worse — and I’m glad to be helping push the world of open innovation a bit further. Looking forward to see what we can do in the next 5 years.
If you want to learn more about our work at Startup Lighthouse or get help organising your own “Deep Dive Week”, check our website or shoot me a message: https://startuplighthouse.eu/deep-dive-weeks/
And on the way, do check out the awesome 120 startups we put together in our final booklet.
