research entrepreneurship europe

YES European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs

Innovation, Research and Technological Development

Thessaloniki, Greece

October 15th – 16th 2013


Linking Research with Entrepreneurship

A “Startup Revolution”

Dimitris Tsigos

President

YES – European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs


Youth of Europe, Today

• Unemployment– @ South >= 50%– It’s not the problem, it’s a symptom of the

problem– Supply / demand gap in the job market– Low confidence, low determination– Lack of vision


The EU reaction

• Youth guarantee

• Vocational training

• Mobility programs

• Apprenticeships

• One more time: Too little, too late.


Though in a completely irrelevant context, in a course proven already wrong & unfair by

history,

Secretary Rumsfeld got it right:

Europe is old.


If Europe was a person

• Would probably be a very conservative person

• Also, a rather old person

• Old persons – usually – have lower dynamism, don’t like risk-taking, go the safe way

• Do we really like this Old Europe?


EU28 GDP >> USA GDP

So, what’s going wrong?

We lack economic dynamism

Who is going create the necessary economic dynamism?

The Youth of Europe!

via creating startups


European startup growth model

• The Silicon Paranoia– There’s only one Silicon Valley– Europe deserves an authentic growth model

• The NYC example– Started only few years ago– Today is more developed than Boston and

competes with the Silicon Valley– Why?


The NYC-way: Play on your strengths!

No more “Silicon Paranoia”

Play on Europe’s unparalleled symbolic capital

Combine with human & financial capital


Europe desperately needs new, quality jobs

Who is going to create those new jobs?


Startups. Only.

Startups are creating new jobs!

“Employment Boost: 83% of U.S. Startups Plan To Hire in 2011”

http://mashable.com/2011/04/22/startup-outlook/

Eric Schmidt, Google Executive Chairman, in Athens, October 10th 2013:

“For every “new economy” job created, five more “traditional” jobs are created as well”

http://mashable.com/2011/04/22/startup-outlook/


Entrepreneurship & Education

• There is a missing link in the European educational & research system– R&D – Startups– Failure stories in the subsidized R&D projects

• We need to boost creativity in the educational system– Result orientation– Culture of failure!


How?


Tom Leighton

• Professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT• Co-founder of Akamai Technologies• Teaches “Mathematics for Computer

Science”• On his notes, as well as his MIT

homepage, both affiliations are mentioned– http://people.csail.mit.edu/ftl/

• Would this be acceptable in Europe?

http://people.csail.mit.edu/ftl/


The Ugly European Truth

• Extremely low level of entrepreneurial activity tied to the academic and research ecosystems– “Start-up migration wave”

• Most of the high-potential start-ups in the EU move to the US

– Lack of quality jobs that could have been created but haven’t

• Resulting not only in revenue loss for EU countries but also in brain-drain


Disconnected Worlds

• Disconnect between the academic/research world and entrepreneurship is not because of a lack of trying

• Linking those two has been a top priority for the EU Commission a long time now – Tens of billions of euros have been spend in

RTD support programs– Results have been anything but satisfactory


Need of a new Culture!

• The European academic and research community simply does not appreciate entrepreneurship

• Pending a paradigm shift, no amount of funding and “commercialization plans” can change that

• It’s all about inspiring a new, entrepreneurial culture!


Research & “Profit?

“A philosophy of not “mixing academic work with for profit activities” (stemming from a

mix of 20th century’s leftist mistrust for “the market” and 19th century’s notion of “pure” academic research) has been the greatest barrier in transforming European universities to knowledge hubs powering

sustainably growing entrepreneurial ecosystems.”


We all need to start-up!

• We need to inspire CREATIVITY – In the educational system– In life-long learning– In the whole society

• It’s not fancy only to consume any more, it’s even fancier to produce!


Are we really trying to start-up?

• VC Spending per capita (2010)– US: $100– EU: $10– Euro-zone: $5

– Israel: $250

• Israel alone invests more in VC than Germany, France & UK together


Can we really start-up in Europe?

• According to EBAN – European Business Angels Network, the volume of early-stage investments in 2011 has been …– US: $20B– EU: $6B

• While EU28 GDP has been considerably higher than the US GDP

• Entrepreneurship can turn ‘Old Europe’ young again!


Talking about the European startup model

What’s the new key-word?

Sustainability!

We need to push for the “ecosystem approach” in European start-ups


Creating opportunities

• Short-term– Access to capital– Special focus to increased availability of risk financing

• Beware of the death valley!

• Mid-term– Access to market– Materialize the “Single European Market” concept for

enterprises• Long-term

– Entrepreneurial culture– Promotion of new development models based on the

regional competitive advantages & culture• The end of Fordism


We must be optimistic!

• Europe is far more sustainable both from the US and from China– No over-debt, no over-consumption– Reasonable conditions in the labor market

• Mid-term we need to address the issue of political integration


The triangle of European success

• Symbolic Capital

• Human Capital

• Financial Capital

• Europe doubtlessly leads the World in the convergence of those three axis.


Be optimistic and simply Start-Up!


Thank you

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