Arnaud de la Tour: CEE startups should be connected to our global ecosystem

- I don’t think Polish startups can be successful if they are only connected to local clients, investors and talent – says Arnaud de la Tour, CEO of Hello Tomorrow, justifying the need for the CEE region to be integrated with the global deep tech network. In an interview with us, he talks about his organization’s mission and future plans, as well as explains what a middle-sized country trap is and how Poland can escape it.

How did you come up with the idea of founding Hello Tomorrow? How did it all start?

When me and my friend were doing our PhDs about 10 years ago, we noticed that there were a lot of scientific discoveries with huge potential, but the researchers were incentivized to publish in academic journals or present at conferences rather than commercialize them. It was around that time when a massive entrepreneurship wave hit Europe, but it sadly failed to affect science. We thought that it would be a good idea to bring the entrepreneurship spirit and money that comes along with it into science. This is how Hello Tomorrow was born.

Did the original concept evolve over time?

We’re still on the same mission, which is to bring scientific discoveries from labs to markets. If anything changed over time, it would be the challenges that we’re facing, e.g. climate change or healthcare. These branches are becoming more and more important, but we unfortunately cannot address them with today’s technology, which is why we need to innovate.?

You got your PhD and then went on to work in management consulting for 2 years. How did these two completely different experiences prepare you for assuming a full-time position at Hello Tomorrow?

The scientific training made me recognize the potential that lies in science, as well as developed my ability to understand what other scientists and deep tech founders are working on. This enhances my credibility when I speak to this kind of people.?

My management consulting experience at BCG was also helpful, but in another way. I remember starting this journey after 3 years of my PhD and suddenly being assigned to projects that last 6 weeks. These were very intense. This was not natural for me, so at the beginning I struggled, but eventually learnt to be more organized and efficient. These skills are definitely useful now that I run Hello Tomorrow.

What are Hello Tomorrow’s reasons for greater engagement in Central and Eastern Europe? What kind of goals do you want to achieve?

I do believe that industrial leaders of tomorrow – today’s deep tech startups – can come from anywhere in the world, including the CEE region. Actually, the winner of last year’s Hello Tomorrow Challenge – our competition that attracts 4000 applications every year – is from Ukraine. Who knows, maybe the next one is going to be Polish.?

In general, we want to be close to the CEE [deep tech] ecosystem, which is why we strive to attract local startups, investors and corporations to our community. We genuinely believe that we can bring a lot of value to the region as it is important for its startups to be connected to a global ecosystem like ours. I don’t think they can be successful if they are only connected to Polish or regional clients, investors and talent.

During today’s conference, you mentioned one very interesting term. What is the middle-sized country trap and how can Poland avoid it?

If you’re a big country, like the US, China or India, you can start national companies funded by national investors and serving national interests. These can then become giants, go abroad and crush the competition.?

This is not the case for small countries, such as Israel and Singapore. They are so small that nobody would even think of creating purely national companies. So they go global from day one.?

For middle-sized countries like France and Poland, the problem is that if they start a business that only operates nationally, they’re going to be outcompeted by international companies. At the beginning, they often decide to think about internationalization in a few years. This is a mistake. If you build a local team, everybody speaks your language and your product only caters to the needs of national consumers, it is difficult to change it at a later stage. That’s why I say it’s a trap. Ideally, it can be avoided by going global from day one. As it is not always possible – for example, you might have insufficient funds at your disposal – you should at least think globally. Even if you’re not expanding yet, you can build an international culture or start talking to potential foreign clients.

How do you find Deep Tech Summit? Do you think it’s fulfilling its mission?

Deep Tech Summit looks really great, especially since it’s the first edition, so congratulations to the organizers. I didn’t arrive long ago, but I’ve already witnessed a lot of people talking to each other and making connections. Content-wise, it’s also excellent. So if the mission is to share knowledge, exchange information and create business connections, then the goal has certainly been fulfilled.

On a global scale, what are Hello Tomorrow’s nearest plans? What do you want to achieve in 2023?

Out two biggest activities – these are the event and startup competitions – are what’s animating the ecosystem. They have been around for 8 years now. Each year, we try to improve, do things a little bit better. Not bigger, but better. We don’t want to go big and attract 100,000 people. Quite contrarily, we prefer to remain more exclusive as we believe that’s necessary to foster meaningful connections. Essentially, we try to get more relevant people on board, while staying more or less the same size.

Currently, we are developing a new activity – this time it’s a VC fund. We want it to invest in very early-stage startups as we see many startups at pre-seed and seed level who are struggling to raise money because investors prefer to wait until they secure their first clients or at least reach proof of concept in real conditions. We have a lot of internal and external expertise that help us understand their risk at this very early stage, even if there’s no product on the market yet. Therefore, I think we can succeed at making the right bets and helping these young entrepreneurs raise money so that they can get funding from VCs at a later stage. This will be launched either at the end of 2023 or maybe even a year later.

Thank you for talking to us. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for you to fulfil your ambitious plans. As far as the CEE region is concerned, we are definitely keen on helping you advance your goals.