Scene picture. It is 2003 in Tallinn, Estonia. TAAVET Hinrikus, a 20 -year -old computer, accepted an offer to become the first employee of an unknown video company, Skype. He did not know after that, but this was the beginning of a multi -point development that would make him one of the first billionaires in Estonia, and they have dozens of startups, and generate billions of dollars from the project financing throughout Europe. “The idea that you can start using this (videos technology) to have audio and visual conversations was very crazy for a boy born in the Soviet Union. But it was clear to me to be an exciting journey,” luck.
Today, at the age of 43, Hinrikus can add a founder from the wise payment platform and partner to the plural platform led by his founder to his CV, after directing many companies through countless financing rounds. Henricus's story – at the end of the century – will make him a pioneer in great works: in Europe, a large number of unicorn staff such as Skype will continue to launch more unit.
Founder of the Founder of Europe
It will be at the cheapness that the technical scene in Europe has undergone a revolution since Henricus began his first day in Skype.
“It was the idea that you can start using this (chat technique) to hold very crazy audio and visual conversations for a boy born in the Soviet Union …”
David Henrichus
About 1650 emerging companies in the field of European technology has been established throughout Europe by former employees from 215 unicorn since 2008, according to Data It is provided by the Capital Group Access and Dealroom.co.co collection. Feet luck With data on European rotation from startups in the region, after analyzing the activity of Europe and Israel stars separately during the eleventh century.
Some countries have surpassed their weight. Sweden, for example, is a prominent performer, raising companies worth billions of dollars in Spotify and Klrna. The employees of this husband established 123 other starters. King.com, the Swedish Games group behind Candy Crush Saga, has seen 43 employees who leave to create their own companies.
Skype employees will continue to launch 31 startups in total, including Hinrikus's Wise and the Ride-Hailing Group Bolt. So far, these startups raised $ 3.5 billion in financing.
1650
The number of startups for European technology that has been established throughout Europe since 2008.
Most of the founders, about 55 %, start their business in the same European city where they were working for the first time. This helped spoil the effects of the network throughout Europe, which has turned into unbearable cities, such as Tallinn, into prosperous technical centers.
Repeated founders have also flourished from the early 2000s scene. Spotify, the Foundation and CEO of Daniel Ek, and may be the prominent founder who appeared from Europe this century, has announced a new financing round with a value of $ 1.7 billion to start it in the field of health technology, Neko Health, which makes it a unicorn serial creator.
The question is, why did Europe take a long time to start the entrepreneurial chain? What has changed to allow the continent's founder's factories to prosper?
Trailblazers
When Holler Harry Nils – a partner in the American Fund Access – who has been working outside Europe over the past 21 years, is interviewing with a candidate for his company, always asking the same question: “What is the most dangerous thing that you have done in your life?”
Nelis's private answer? Marriage (he says he married happily 30 years ago). But it may be second close to Spotify. NELIS was part of the team that gave Spotify early financial support, although industrial experts warn that the flowing music company will never succeed.
“The momentum was almost indispensable,” Nilice recalls when asked why he was supported. “The product was good and very easy to use, and the reaction of the consumer is very overwhelming, the company had already had an opportunity to make it.”
Think of any European technical company in millions of dollars today, and ACCEL is likely to be involved in its beginning. After the group collected funding from the American Series such as Facebook, Nelis was the only true state of Europe to find entrepreneurs with “big ideas”. This hard summary is likely to be the reason why Ayoub candidates are still asking about the risks today.
“The biggest mistake in the project is not to lose money on investment. It is missing luck From the Access's London office.
When he returned to Europe for the first time after spent his early career in Silicon Valley, Nilice was shown in a clear difference in the situation between Americans and Europeans, meaning that it is unusual for the latter to continue building a company instead of joining a firm company.
“The biggest mistake in the project is not to lose money on investment. It misses abroad.”
Harry Nils, partner in Access
Europe has always been accused of lacking work ethics often associated with Americans. Tom Bloomfield, British founder Unicorns GoCardless and Monzo last year accused the UK of suffering from the position of “knowing your place” that suppresses entrepreneurship.
Matt Robinson, the founder of Gocardless and now a partner in Access, does not agree to this evaluation. However, his colleague NELIS, Robinson noticed a difference in the position of Europeans towards entrepreneurship when Gocardless began in 2011.
“It was not a really acceptable company. As you know, when you sit here and start a company, I think people assume that you are unemployed or unemployed,” he says.
Robinson notes that some of the decisive elements of the development of an emerging company, such as reaching seed financing, were emerging in the United Kingdom only 15 years ago.
Those who spoke with them luck For this article, though, they were aligned in their evaluation that instead of repairing the situation, Europe needed only a few successful founders to show everyone what was possible.
ILKA PAANANEN, CEO and co -founder of the Finnicorn SUPERCell, was one of the entrepreneurs who work without a road map to follow up.
“There were very few entrepreneurs in the field of European technology who could seek advice, for the simple reason that we had not many technical startups on a large scale at the time,” Bananin recalls.
Nilice says that the founders of startups in Europe were among the models of roles who made success easier to visualize their successors. One of these will be Hinrikus from Plural, who watched Skype becomes one of the first to single Europe.
“People know better drilling,” Nice says, noting that new startups are accelerating today with plans to solve big problems in a way that was not often 20 years ago.
Hinrikus of Plural says that his crystallized moment came when he realized that Niklas Zingsome, the founder of Skype, had no magic powers that made him more likely to be a successful founder: “He was an average person, like me. If he could do it, I could do so on an equal footing.”
Robinson says that the main obstacles in building a startup company have become easier for him the second time, and they attract the best talents and collect donations.
Since Nelis returned to Europe in 2004, Unicorns and Decacors appeared from the VC pipeline in Europe, with definitely an inevitable central. Robinson spoke to one company that talked about to become the first kilo, a private trillion dollar company.
“I cannot imagine that I say that or even think about it in 2011,” says Robinson.
A stick or evolution?
The operation of the prosperous entrepreneurial start -up environment brings the inherent and proven risks that employees will one day leave to start their own projects, sometimes.
Tara Ryan, Vice President of People's Experience in Monzo, does not see this as a comparison.
Monzo stands among the factories of the most abundant institution in Europe. Unicorn Bank has generated 23 startups since its establishment. Often, when a new company is formed from Monzo, it is not just one person who leaves.
“People start their own business, but often their founding team or a handful of their employees are also Monzonots,” she says.
This was something that was adopted, instead of suppressing it. In Monzo, Ryan says, the internal website of the former employees who have become founders celebrate.
“People start their own business, but often their founding team or a handful of employees are also from Monzonau.”
Tara Ryan, Vice President of Monzo
“I don't think it is good for employees or employers to try to keep people at any cost,” she says.
Robinson records another one. While he was in GoCardless, the people who were interviewed early were telling them that their hope was that they would eventually leave and form their own starters.
European dream
It deserves the bet that seems to Hinrikus, who was wearing Hoodie and sees, and speaking from the Plural's London office, is active as he did when he stumbled through Skype doors on his first day as an employee.
Skype was obtained by EBY in 2005 for $ 2.6 billion, a familiar condition now from an exciting European startup that is taken by a much larger American technical giant. Parents are no longer subsequent, Microsoft, you need Skype now after a Chat Microsoft function has been widely adopted. Likewise, DeepMind, a leading artificial intelligence research laboratory established in London, is today a Google.
Nevertheless, though, European companies are driven by increasing access to capital and talent, managed to stand on their feet.
Spotify, early betting in Europe, reached a market value of about $ 125 billion at the beginning of March. The Scandinavian Leadership team maintained its understanding of the company's operations as Spotify Barks with Apple and Amazon.
Other younger companies around Europe, such as Monzo, face the challenge of growing while maintaining what made them unique as startups. Alex Northrom, President of Spotify and Employee of Business officials, has advice for startups on that trip.
“We have tried to maintain our energy organization as we have expanded us worldwide,” he says. “In Spotify, it has always been related to great aspirations.”
Meanwhile, Supercell's Paananen believes that the erection in Europe makes it easier for the founders to remain according to their roots.
“Europe has a unique and varied culture, and a unique way of life that we all love – this is a great place to live in and develop a family. This should help us to keep attracting the best talents.”
Henricus talked about making the American dream a reality for its employees, only in Europe.
“I think we have a scar tut out of our companies' possession and construction that makes us better partners for the next generation,” says Henricus. “There may be 100 employees in different positions, even in supporting customers, who have received a million dollars from stock options.
“Now we are repeatedly showing that it is not an American dream,” he is noticed. “We have the same thing in Europe.”
This article appears in the April 2025 issue of Fortune, entitled “The EuropEan Dream”.
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com