Author: Veronica Fresneau

When writing about what startups can teach corporates the other week, I realized there are so many life-changing books which every innovator ought to read. No matter the type of reader you are, I think we all need to take the time to read now that “new normal” is upon us. We might not know what the future has in store for us, but reading a few books might give us the ability to make more connections at a human or business level.

In the last months, the world has been turned upside down and a number of business are laying off employees, applying for government rescue funds or filing for bankruptcy. Nonetheless, some things remain unchanged. Like the need for innovation. I’ve been working with startups for more than ten years. I have to say it’s a tough world to work in, but it’s one of the few worlds where the words “it’s impossible” do not exist. So, if you think it cannot be done, just call an entrepreneur.

In the last two months, we’ve been through a roller coaster of life-changing events and tough decisions we had to make. The next months will not be much different, but there is something we all have acquired. The experience of having dealt with a global historic event. We have been stunned, frightened, we had to adapt, protect, pivot, test, and then just do. Perhaps you have been surprised by your ability to do all these things in less than eight weeks. I know I was. It did not take months or years. It had to be now.

As the term suggests, deep tech refers to companies founded on a scientific breakthrough and which seek to make the world a better place. In the last five years we have seen an increase in funding for deep tech companies across Europe with €7.7 billions invested in 2019. An increase of almost three times compared 2015.

In 2019 92% of all funds raised by European VC-backed companies went to all-male founding teams. Based on the 2019 Gender Diversity Startup & Scaleup Report, only 11.6% of founders in the Netherlands were women. Since 2008 €538m were invested in male founded startups, while €19m (3,5%) in mixed or female-founded startups.

We’re living in a new macroeconomic narrative with major changes taking place every day. Making sense of it all is not an easy task. What are the implications for startups and for fintech startups in particular?!

Social physics analyses patterns of human experience and idea exchange using the digital crumbs we leave behind. Like credits cards transactions or GPS locations. These are different from posting on Facebook, as those are what people chose to say. Where people spend their time or what they buy, teaches us more on who they are. According to professor Pentland by using social physics we can “predict the productivity of small groups, of departments within companies, and even of entire cities."