Transcript Jobs, growth and values. Creating opportunities for new

Innovation, Research and
Technological Development
Thessaloniki, Greece
October 15th – 16th 2013
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
Linking Research with
Entrepreneurship
A “Startup Revolution”
Dimitris Tsigos
President
YES – European Confederation of Young
Entrepreneurs
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
Youth of Europe, Today
• Unemployment
– @ South >= 50%
– It’s not the problem, it’s a symptom of the
problem
– Supply / demand gap in the job market
– Low confidence, low determination
– Lack of vision
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
The EU reaction
•
•
•
•
Youth guarantee
Vocational training
Mobility programs
Apprenticeships
• One more time: Too little, too late.
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
Though in a completely irrelevant context, in
a course proven already wrong & unfair by
history,
Secretary Rumsfeld got it right:
Europe is
old.
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
If Europe was a person
• Would probably be a very conservative
person
• Also, a rather old person
• Old persons – usually – have lower
dynamism, don’t like risk-taking, go the
safe way
• Do we really like this Old Europe?
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
EU28 GDP >> USA GDP
So, what’s going wrong?
We lack economic dynamism
Who is going create the
necessary economic dynamism?
The Youth of Europe!
via creating startups
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
European startup growth model
• The Silicon Paranoia
– There’s only one Silicon Valley
– Europe deserves an authentic growth model
• The NYC example
– Started only few years ago
– Today is more developed than Boston and
competes with the Silicon Valley
– Why?
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
Europe desperately needs
new, quality jobs
Who is going to create those new jobs?
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
Startups. Only.
Startups are creating new jobs!
“Employment Boost: 83% of U.S. Startups Plan To Hire
in 2011”
http://mashable.com/2011/04/22/startup-outlook/
Eric Schmidt, Google Executive Chairman, in Athens,
October 10th 2013:
“For every “new economy” job created, five more
“traditional” jobs are created as well”
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
The NYC-way: Play on your
strengths!
No more “Silicon Paranoia”
Play on Europe’s unparalleled symbolic
capital
Combine with human & financial capital
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship & Education
• There is a missing link in the European
educational & research system
– R&D – Startups
– Failure stories in the subsidized R&D projects
• We need to boost creativity in the
educational system
– Result orientation
– Culture of failure!
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
How?
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
Tom Leighton
• Professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT
• Co-founder of Akamai Technologies
• Teaches “Mathematics for Computer
Science”
• On his notes, as well as his MIT
homepage, both affiliations are mentioned
– http://people.csail.mit.edu/ftl/
• Would this be acceptable in Europe?
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
The Ugly European Truth
• Extremely low level of entrepreneurial
activity tied to the academic and research
ecosystems
– “Start-up migration wave”
• Most of the high-potential start-ups in the EU move
to the US
– Lack of quality jobs that could have been
created but haven’t
• Resulting not only in revenue loss for EU countries
but also in brain-drain
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
Disconnected Worlds
• Disconnect between the
academic/research world and
entrepreneurship is not because of a lack
of trying
• Linking those two has been a top priority
for the EU Commission a long time now
– Tens of billions of euros have been spend in
RTD support programs
– Results have been anything but satisfactory
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
Need of a new Culture!
• The European academic and research
community simply does not appreciate
entrepreneurship
• Pending a paradigm shift, no amount of
funding and “commercialization plans” can
change that
• It’s all about inspiring a new,
entrepreneurial culture!
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
Research & “Profit?
“A philosophy of not “mixing academic work
with for profit activities” (stemming from a
mix of 20th century’s leftist mistrust for
“the market” and 19th century’s notion of
“pure” academic research) has been the
greatest barrier in transforming European
universities to knowledge hubs powering
sustainably growing entrepreneurial
ecosystems.”
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
We all need to start-up!
• We need to inspire CREATIVITY
– In the educational system
– In life-long learning
– In the whole society
• It’s not fancy only to consume any more,
it’s even fancier to produce!
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
Are we really trying to start-up?
• VC Spending per capita (2010)
– US: $100
– EU: $10
– Euro-zone: $5
– Israel: $250
• Israel alone invests more in VC than
Germany, France & UK together
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
Can we really start-up in Europe?
• According to EBAN – European Business
Angels Network, the volume of early-stage
investments in 2011 has been …
– US: $20B
– EU: $6B
• While EU28 GDP has been considerably higher
than the US GDP
• Entrepreneurship can turn ‘Old Europe’
young again!
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
Talking about the European
startup model
What’s the new key-word?
Sustainability!
We need to push for the “ecosystem
approach” in European start-ups
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
Creating opportunities
• Short-term
– Access to capital
– Special focus to increased availability of risk financing
• Beware of the death valley!
• Mid-term
– Access to market
– Materialize the “Single European Market” concept for
enterprises
• Long-term
– Entrepreneurial culture
– Promotion of new development models based on the
regional competitive advantages & culture
• The end of Fordism
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
We must be optimistic!
• Europe is far more sustainable both from
the US and from China
– No over-debt, no over-consumption
– Reasonable conditions in the labor market
• Mid-term we need to address the issue of
political integration
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
The triangle of European success
• Symbolic Capital
• Human Capital
• Financial Capital
• Europe doubtlessly leads the World in the
convergence of those three axis.
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
Be optimistic and simply Start-Up!
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs
Thank you 
YES European Confederation of
Young Entrepreneurs