Manifesto
This is our love letter to the most ambitious hardware startups being built right now across Europe.
We live in the golden age of wealth creation. New technology platforms like AI, drones, robots, electric vehicles, cheap energy, batteries, reusable rockets, biology and fermentation open up entirely new ways of doing things. Opportunities abound to build freshly imagined, vertically integrated companies from scratch. The startups on this list are seizing the opportunity and are building a new industrial layer that will secure Europe's prosperity and relevance in the world. Europe is an underrated place to build. Think about it: thriving universities & scientific output, a huge industrial base and a massive pool of talented engineers that (still) request modest salaries. And Europe is the nicest place to live on earth. The ultimate constraint to a great European future is the number of "all-or-nothing" founders we can cultivate at home or attract from abroad. If we can grow the number of these founders, we win. If we don't, we lose. It is not regulation, bureaucracyor lack of capital. So what makes for a great hardware startup?
- 01First principles thinking
- At the heart of every great startup is a secret about the world. Only founders that obsessively study a problem uncovers fundamental truths about the world.
- 02Vertical integration
- Instead of merely aiming to become a component supplier and selling B2B, we believe that vertical integration is the only way to take full control of your destiny.
- 03Bonus: equity for the team
- If you're asking people to do the hardest work of their lives, they should own a piece of the outcome. Equally important: breakout success will seed the next generation of hardware startups.
