European startups are booming. So why is Brussels still obsessed with Big Tech?
As title by Politico in an interesting take on whether policy-makers in Brussels are getting the balance right between thinking through the right regulatory parameters for big technology companies while also continuing to work to remove barriers for the fast growing startups and scale-ups across the continent.
Usually as policy professionals we stay in the background, prepare for others to make a point and work behind the scenes but I was happy to see our work with Stripe referenced here.
It's the reason I'm passionate about what our team does as we often are representing and fighting for the interest and attention of issues that helps online businesses across Europe - the more the merrier!
Politico:
That might be changing. Successful entrepreneurs, like Spotify's Daniel Ek, Patrick Collison of Stripe or Klarna's Sebastian Siemiatkowski, follow a different path, one of tweets and high profiles in Brussels.
The Collison brothers, who started their company in Silicon Valley, are applying a more assertive approach to engaging European policymakers. The company recruited its top lobbyist in Europe, Sandro Gianella, from Google.
There has been some progress.
EU countries in March agreed on the "Startup Nations Standard," a set of best practices to establish a startup-friendly environment, with an office in Lisbon tasked with monitoring progress.