European Venture Capital: Efficiency, IPOs, and AI Defensibility

Simone, looking at Southern Europe, are founders repeating the mistakes in the DACH region, Germany, Austria and Switzerland from a decade ago?

So I think that if you mention, I don't know, the mistakes that were made by the companies that were created by Rocket Internet back then, I think no, because overall there is also a much stronger VC culture and understanding of the economics also in the investors in those countries.

But of course, there are still some you know mistakes the common mistakes that are made by entrepreneurs that are made both today in germany uk us and also in in southern europe but i think that the uh right now europe on that it is really becoming it has really improved a lot because there are you know Since a lot of international investors are deploying capital in multiple countries, there is a cross pollination effect among founders.

And so you do not have any more found a country where founders are kind of isolated and they are not talking anymore.

They're not talking at all with founders in other countries that are more developed in terms of tech ecosystem.

Give me just one thing.

What do you think they're doing better?

Well, I think it is a good question.

I think in some cases they are setting up customer support hubs or development centers in areas of their country that are not in, you know, in typical metropolitan cities, but in very low-cost areas, I don't know, southern Italy or some areas of Spain, and that helps in improving the economics.

We're now taking a look back.

You already noticed this, guys.

In part two of our interview, we're looking a little bit more at Europe.