VC Magazin: How did the international esi-team come together?
Fabrizio: We have all participated in a summer program organized by the Allianz Cultural Foundation, which brings together teams from some of the best universities around Europe to debate ideas on Europe. Over the years, through this so called Allianz Summer Academy, a network of young talented people from all over Europe has grown.
Andrea: These initiatives are simply a fantastic opportunity to meet EU enthusiasts from all over Europe. And this is just how we met. We realized that we all share a passion for entrepreneurship and we thought it would be fun to try to give our contribution to the cause. The european startup initiative is the result!
Agata: For me, gathering the team seemed like one of the most spontaneous things that I ever experienced. We just met in Berlin at one of the reunions of the Allianz Cultural Foundation Alumni, had a nice chat, and sometime afterwards I received an e-mail asking whether I would be interested to join a project, which at that stage was a rather blurred idea of what esi would look like some months later. As a result we created a team, which one could classify as ‘unique’ for at least one reason – we all live in different countries, come from different backgrounds, and follow distinctive careers. This is exactly what I would consider one of the most important value-added of our team composition, or let me put it in simpler words – the beauty of esi.
VC Magazin: What motivated you to do the project?
Andrea: The european startup initative is entirely and proudly not-for-profit. We all have our careers but we voluntarily decide to invest time and resources into this idea. We believe it would be constructive for us, and hopefully for Europe, to give a contribution to the discussion around EU entrepreneurship.
Fabrizio: I was thrilled by the esi idea and by the fact we could all bring our different experiences to this project. In my specific case, I am the co-founder of two startups in Milan. The first one has been sold to a Dutch company, while the second one recently launched its product, a mobile app, on the market. I thought contributing with this real-life experience would be interesting and could have a relevant impact on the project.
Agata: The project seemed like an amazing opportunity to take a close look at the world of entrepreneurship, a domain I would have considered to be totally unfamiliar with, before engaging into esi. One does not realize that all of us are exposed to entrepreneurial experiences on a daily basis, but for some reason most of Europeans tend to think that a start-up is just not something for them. I was curious to find out the reason for us (including myself, I have to admit) to nurture this belief is and how come Europe lacks such a phenomenon as Silicon Valley. I thought it would be great to meet and talk to people who decided to step onto the entrepreneurial path and see what makes us, Old Continent’s dwellers, different from the stereotypically entrepreneurial Americans. This ‘cultural difference’ concept was somehow among the first issues that the guys from the project identified and thought of debating on a larger scale. I thought it was brilliant, and did not hesitate twice to join and dig into it, even though I would consider myself as a neophyte in this sector. But that’s it – it’s exactly this curiosity to explore the unknown and commitment to contribute to something of a pan-European importance with an outsider’s fresh look that made me want to engage into this project voluntarily.
VC Magazin: You now have an overview of the European accerlerator-scene. Where is most activity and how strong is the DACH-region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)?
Thomas: Since I am the one, who lives in Germany, I take this question. We have done interviews with entrepreneurship actors from all 28 member states – seeing the immense potential and diversity of start-up scenes in Europe was tremendously impressive. Definitely, new start-up ecosystems are springing up everywhere and there are a lot of enthusiastic supporters. Of course, there are differences: While in some countries like Germany or Austria the attention for start-ups is growing rapidly and reaches the center of society, in many other places entrepreneurship enthusiasts are still seen as very exotic and they struggle for support by the government and established corporations.
However, there were positive surprises, for example Hungary, where some impressive start-up successes can be found. Generally, I feel very optimistic since many talented young people have the chance to realize their potential through starting up – and this is a much more positive picture than that of young talent being wasted because of unemployment.
