30 Secondsessions – EU Startup Summit 2021

This event as you might expect was aimed mainly at European startup founders, entrepreneurs, and investors active in the area. It had something for everyone in the 1500+ attendees, with over 40 sessions and fireside chats, spread over 3 days, with opportunity for interactions with speakers and panellists, and also online networking (easier than with ...

There were various tracks for the event: core items such as finance, funding and go-to-market themes, but also a look at future trends, growth and scaling up. There were even interesting sessions on social impact, HR and several inspirational success stories to get us motivated😊

Some aspects were the same as you might have expected before the pandemic, relating to the basics of putting a startup together, getting funded, and going to market. But I was interested to see how well the European startup ecosystem has been able to adapt and begin to take opportunities caused by the new environment in which we find ourselves. In particular, the insights from Mike Dias at Scaleup Valley, and the pragmatic approach from David Heinemeier from Basecamp gave some food for thought.

I was energised by the speakers and topics covered, and good to see that the European startup scene is alive and kicking and reasonably well placed to pick up on opportunities as we (hopefully) exit from the pandemic in the next year or two.

One statistic on successful companies from Scaleup Valley that was a bit scary for me though : only 4% of companies exceed 1M USD in revenuesonly 0.4% achieve 10M USD in revenuesless than 0.04% achieve greater than 100M USD in revenues. Tough odds, but no-one said it was easy, right.

That is why learning and sharing experiences, attending valuable events like this one, and being part of a solid ecosystem, all help to position you in as best a place as possible to beat those odds and chart success for your startup.