8 Founder Podcasts On Building Startups In Europe

Last year I wrote about The Next European Renaissance, in which we explore whether Europe’s recognized enthusiasm for culture in its various forms – food, music, architecture, literature, and many more – and greater commitment to the preservation and promotion of such expressions of culture would offer a good platform for generating new and important ideas given the enabling technology of today.

Entrepreneurs, especially those based in Europe, will also find advice and inspiration from the following group of successful European entrepreneurs. Each shares their interesting journey in a 30-minute podcast interview.

Alexander Zacke, Founder and CEO of Auctionata – Alex, from Vienna, Austria, discusses his online auction house business and how he built a quintessential Web 3.0 business taking advantage of the web’s building blocks: commerce, community and content in the context of online auctions.

Ludovic Huraux, Co-founder and CEO of Attractive World and Shapr – From Paris, Ludovic discusses his journey from conception to exit. Among his many interesting points was a specific highlight on how he raised money from 80 investors.

Alexandre Wentzo, CEO of Casewise – This is an enterprise software company that started in London and has scaled in the US. The company is self-financed and did $24 Million in revenue last year. Our discussion focuses on some of the nuances of starting an enterprise software company in Europe and scaling it in the US.

Christian Blume, CEO and co-founder of Cleverbridge – From Germany, Christian offers a European perspective to the question: “Is entrepreneurship only about the exit?”

Demitris Memos is CEO of MarineTraffic – This is a $5M+ revenue startup from Greece. Much of Southern Europe, especially Greece, is in economic trouble, and there is an exodus of talent. It is great to see Demitris’ success story against that backdrop.

Fred Guelen, CFO and President of North America for Planon Group – Fred and his brother have built Planon to over $100M in revenue from the Netherlands. This is a very encouraging discussion for our global entrepreneurs.

Guy Mucklow, President and Co-founder of PCA Predict – Guy has bootstrapped PCA from London to $20 million in 2016 revenue. He also turned down a $100 million acquisition offer in 2015.

Shane Evans is Founder of Scrapinghub – This is a virtual company with 5M Euro in revenue and 132 people. Shane is based in Cork, Ireland, but they have employees in 43 countries and operate 100% virtually.

Looking For Some Hands-On Advice?

For entrepreneurs who want to discuss their specific businesses with me, I’m very happy to assess your situation during my free online 1Mby1M Roundtables, held almost every Thursday. You can also check out my LinkedIn Learning course here, my Lynda.com Bootstrapping course here, and follow my writings here.