Asked about whether Accel prefers US or European startups Andrei Brasoveanu answers: „We try to find the best founders in the world. We are big believers that you can start a company from everywhere in the world and that you only need the right resources and advice to then grow globally. But what is interesting in Europe, that you have founders with a more traditional industry backgrounds.“

„Do you see something that makes Europe special?“ asks Tilo Bonow.
Brasoveanu replies: „I think there is a lot of strength in the ecosystem here. We’ve seen great startups from the Rocket Internet sphere, there is an interesting OpenSource Hub in Berlin and IBM and other big industry players offer many chances for startups. […] Europe has a lot of different ‚pockets‘ where companies can grow like they could not somewhere else.“

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Paul Knecht

We are back with our next panel: Tilo Bonow from PIABO, Karen Stafford from Intel Capital and Andrei Brasoveanu from Accel discuss about the VC Culture and Ecosystems in Europe.

Karen Stafford moved to Germany from the US and is asked about the US perspective: There is lot of interesting technology in Europe. But what many people don’t understand is, that there are interesting tech startups all over in Europe, not only in Berlin or Paris. These companies are often undervalued.
Intel Capital tries to help European companies by offering unique entry chances into other markets: „When somebody wants to come from Europe to the US we are entirely open and give them access to our networks.“
One such example of help that Stafford talks about are the Intel Days where they invite all their customers. „These events and networks are really helping the founders to build up their contacts and network. As an investor you have to have the influence and power behind in order to make that happen – and at Intel we do have that."

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Paul Knecht