Author: Veronica Fresneau

A couple of years ago, I was at a startup event in Amsterdam. It must have been 2016/17. The room was full of young, vibrant people from very diverse backgrounds. As the evening unfollowed, I got into many conversations. There is only one that very clearly stands out in my mind today.

In Europe, investment in edtech is growing faster than in any other mature market and it is now home to three edtech unicorns (two of which passed the billion-dollar mark in the summer of 2021).

While the tech scene is undeniably booming, we shouldn’t get complacent. The road ahead might be still a long one. Europe needs to build much more than fintech and grocery delivery startups if it really wants a global startup ecosystem that’s a force to be reckoned with.

A couple of days ago, a new law was introduced in France providing 24-days parental paid leave for fathers. Many other European countries such as Denmark, Germany, Spain or Sweden have much better conditions.

There is no doubt that entrepreneurs are one of the most creative bunch out there. So many ideas being tested, so many boundaries broken every day. And so many issues to solve. One may think that it must be easy to identify THE best idea worth pursuing.

The year is off to a challenging start with brands and ad agencies in many markets still trying to figure out which channels to spend their budgets on. But as we all know, most startups do not have the luxury of expensive integrated campaigns

Mentors have been around for a while and successful founders from all industries are having mentors at different stages of their companies’ growth. But where does this concept come from and is it valuable for you to work with mentors?