The Further, Faster Podcast – Cristoph Klink on Europe's era of execution

You’ve probably heard the phrase: “The sick man of Europe.” But in recent years – particularly in tech circles – it’s become more common to think of Europe itself as the sick man. Is this a fair assessment of the continent? Or does Europe’s startup scene have far more to offer than meets the eye?

For the latest episode of the Further Faster Podcast, Christoph Klink, Antler partner for Central Europe, joined CCO Bede Moore to discuss perception and reality of the European tech ecosystem. Cristoph and his team have recently created the largest study of its kind into Europe’s founders – analysing 3,400 founders of 900 unicorns in Europe and the US, alongside 60,000 founders who have recently applied to Antler – which has thrown up some unexpected insights about tech activity on the continent. The results, he believes, are “more than just a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.”

From European “ rocketships” – companies founded since 2020 that have already achieved unicorn status – to the way startups are using AI to accelerate growth, Klink argues that Europe has entered an “era of execution”. 

And the profile of European founders is changing too. “Europe has never had too few engineers,” Cristoph points out, “but probably too many have chosen to work at a corporates.” He tells Bede that he’s now seeing a growing number of founders coming from a technical background – these, he believes, are the people fuelling Europe’s historic new wave of startups. 

To learn more about the evolution of Europe’s startup scene – and the cultural shifts that are shaking up the continent, listen to the full podcast episode and others on our YouTube channel.