In July, NFTC’s Global Innovation Forum hosted salon dinners in Berlin, London and Paris, and a lunch in Brussels to get to know entrepreneurs who are taking their businesses global. The forums used the release of GIF’s new report on European Startups: Global From the Get-Go as opportunities to convene a broader set of stakeholders, including globally-minded entrepreneurs, Members of national parliaments and the EU Parliament, EU Commission and national government officials, corporations and startup community partners for small-group discussions about the potential and challenges of global markets.
GIF partnered with organizations including the German Startups Association, Coadec, TechUK, Afdel and TheFamily to identify entrepreneurs from across Europe to tell their global stories, and to discuss the public policy foundations that underlie their ability to access global markets.
In Brussels, for the official report launch, GIF partnered with Startups.be, Tech.eu and Allied for Startups to host a discussion with The Honorable Kaja Kallas, MEP, Member of the Industry, Research and Energy Committee, Johanna Pangestian Harahap, Co-Founder, Nauli (Germany), Justo Hidalgo, Co-Founder, 24symbols (Spain), Bart Van der Roost, Founder and CEO, neoScores (Belgium) and Leen Segers, Chief Operating Officer at Tech.eu.
Speaking about prospects for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), Ms. Kallas suggested that, “we have a lot to gain from international markets. I’m generally of the opinion that this is good for European startups…It’s all about taking down barriers.”
In Paris, GIF partnered with TheFamily and Afdel to convene innovators including the cofounder of Azendoo, which simplifies the way teams work together, the founder of Videdressing, a leading community for fashonistas to buy and sell clothes and accessories, Taro Ugen, the manager of Bpifrance’s Corporate Hub team, and Laure de la Raudière, member of the French National Assembly, where she represents the Eure-et-Loir department, Roxanne Varza, startup lead at Microsoft Ventures Accelerator Paris and Clara Deletraz, cofounder of the French Tech initiative.
Commenting on the launch of the report in London, Antony Walker, Deputy CEO of techUK, which partnered with GIF on a dinner at the Hoxton in London, said, “This highlights the breadth of innovation and entrepreneurship in tech that is happening right across the EU – from Limerick to Berlin, London to Barcalona, European start-ups have to think global from day 1.”