?? Europe’s Next Tech Unicorns and Becoming a Great Leader

Which countries in Europe are producing the next wave of tech unicorns? This year, the top 100 list is dominated by three countries: the United Kingdom (22), France (21), and Germany (14). The most represented sectors are software as a service (43), AI/Big Data (16) and Digital Media (16).?

The primary criteria for inclusion on this list are actual and potential growth, total funds raised, headcount growth, geographical distribution and positive impact on society.

This list has been compiled every year for 10 years running.which is produced by Viva Technology in partnership with G.P Bullhound and various venture capital firms such as Accel, Uerazeo, Northzone and Partech. It happens to have a very high hit rate. For example, more than 40% of the companies from 2019-2021 have already achieved unicorn status (a valuation of US$1 billion or more).

I began paying attention to this list quite a few years ago, because I noticed that many of the most interesting SaaS companies I was hearing about that were based out of Europe happened to be on this very list.?

And lo and behold, here I am, working at Zappi , one of the top contenders based in the United Kingdom, prominently featured on the 2024 list!

Interested in scale-up life? Looking for new career opportunities?

Here are a few reasons I would suggest you take a look at the companies on this list:

The Scale-Up Years are Tons of Fun

I know the market has been wacky over the past few years, but there’s nothing like being part of a high-growth company during the scale-up years. I believe these are absolutely the most fun years of all. Getting to that point? It’s tough!?

Conversely, once you get too big? It feels too slow. But once you reach that magic point where growth begins to accelerate, it feels like a rocket ship reaching orbit, where you’ve broken past inertia and natural momentum helps you along.

Your Pace Will Change Forever

Once you’ve been part of a high-growth tech company in those “in-between years,” when a company is growing from a start-up into their true potential to become a larger and more mature business, it’s hard to ever operate at any other pace again. It’s like your entire way of working has been calibrated to a specific niche stage of growth, one that pushes a business forward.

When you work at a scale-up, you have to introduce just enough process to enable your business to scale. But you can’t introduce too much, lest you risk slowing things down. Achieving that sweet spot is not actually intuitive. It’s not easy to learn. But once you’ve see what this “bridging profile” between start-up and enterprise looks like, you instantly recognize it when you find other “scale-up people” who have this same background. It’s like finding long lost friends who speak the same language, and hail from the same hometown.

I cannot say enough good things about the scale-up phase of growth. It’s exciting and fun to see a business basically transform by 20% or more, every year, for many years in a row. Just imagine if you changed 20% of your home every year. Within 5 years, you’d have an entirely new one! That’s what the scale-up years feel like. You’re building something totally new, expanding it, making it bigger and better along the way.?

If You Want Growth, Find and Follow It

One of my more popular posts this week was some advice I shared to "Follow the Growth." If you need a bit of a boost, check it out .

Favorite Quotes on Becoming a Great Leader

I am a major fan of Peter Drucker's books, and I turn back to them frequently, especially for reminders on the most important fundamentals on managing teams and leadership.

Peter Drucker had such a great way with words and a wonderful ability to simplify complexity. So much of his advice is timeless.

He, like many of my favorite business minds, was an immigrant to another country (from Austria to the United States, in this case).

This week, I thought I would share some of my favorite pearls of Drucker's wisdom, with some of my favorites highlighted in bold:

• “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
• “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.”
• “What's measured improves.”
• “Strategy is a commodity, execution is an art.”
• “First things first and last things not at all.”
• “It's not important to get things done, it's important to get the right things done.”
• “Profit is not the purpose of a business, but rather the test of its validity.”
• “People often overestimate what they can accomplish in one year. But they greatly underestimate what they could accomplish in five years.”
• “The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The true dangerous thing is asking the wrong question.”
• “People in any organization are always attached to the obsolete - the things that should have worked but did not, the things that once were productive and no longer are.”
• "Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.”
• “There is nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all.”
• “Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.”
• “Leadership is defined by results not attributes.”
• “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
• “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”
• “Successful careers are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values.”
• “Meetings are by definition a concession to deficient organization. For one either meets or one works. One cannot do both at the same time.”
• “Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems.”
• “It is more productive to convert an opportunity into results than to solve a problem - which only restores the equilibrium of yesterday.”
• “Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge are essential resources, but only effectiveness converts them into results.”
• "Insights become effectiveness only through hard systematic work.”
• “If you think training is expensive, try ignorance.”
• “The less an organization has to do to produce results, the better it does its job.”
• “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”
• “Staffing the opportunities instead of the problems not only creates the most effective organization, it also creates enthusiasm and dedication.”
• "As every executive knows, nothing ever goes right. The unexpected always happens—the unexpected is indeed the only thing one can confidently expect.”
• “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

― Peter Drucker

Grace Notes

Congratulations to everyone out there, including most of my go-to-market friends working in tech and SaaS, who just finished the "triple whammy" of end of month, end of quarter, and end of H1. Hey, we made it halfway through the year! I am excited by so many things happening on both the work and home front so far this year.

In fact, I'm writing this newsletter on a flight with my family as I prepare for a week off.

This week, I was honored to be featured in an Ask an Expert series from The Drum , in which I talked about how marketers can be more consumer-centric.

I think we already have what we need: data.

The trick is, getting everyone to be data-driven can be hard. Sometimes, even getting the data into a format where you can use it the way you want is hard too.

You can watch the full video (only 30 seconds long!) here .

I was also happy to see a colleague featured my book in her Summer Reading List, along with some other truly great reads. Thank you so much, Milijana Trobradovic , for including Take Your Company Global!

Other Ways to Connect with Me

Thank you for reading this newsletter! I hope you found it helpful.

Here are 3 other ways we can connect:

1. Get my latest book.

Don't forget to get your own copy of my latest book, Take Your Company Global .

It was kindly endorsed by my longtime CEO at HubSpot , Brian Halligan.

“Take Your Company Global is the definitive guide to building a global business in the digital age.” —Brian Halligan, Co-Founder and Executive Chairperson, HubSpot and Co-Author,?Inbound Marketing

Already have it? Liked it?

Help others find it, and leave a review on Amazon .

(Thank you to everyone who has left one so far. I appreciate you!)

2. Find me online.

Looking for my books , blog , and other writing ?

Get all this and more at my (recently relaunched) website, Born to Be Global .

3. Book me for a talk.

I can do the following types of talks, depending on availability:

• Virtual author talks. Does your team need some inspiration? Collect their questions, and schedule me for a fireside chat. I cannot do individual 1:1 mentoring right now, but I've done this for teams at Salesforce, Amazon, Google, and many others.
• Conference keynotes. I'm not doing many of these in H2 2024, but for the ones I can do, I am planning into 2025. In some cases, I can build a book signing into the event if that's of interest.
• Podcast guest appearances. I'm always happy to support podcasters on topics of international business, leadership, localization, SaaS, women in tech, marketing, advertising, work/life integration, personal branding, and other topics I write about in this newsletter and elsewhere.

Want to find out if I can help you?

Just go to borntobeglobal.com and fill out the form to get in touch!

I check those messages once a week.

Have a great week ahead!

Nataly