歐洲科技創(chuàng)業(yè)方興未艾
????馬丁?瓦薩夫斯基是歐洲頂尖的科技創(chuàng)業(yè)家之一。最近,他接受《財(cái)富》雜志(Fortune)專訪,暢談了英國(guó)和歐洲的科技創(chuàng)業(yè)趨勢(shì)以及他對(duì)Facebook、戴維?卡梅倫的初創(chuàng)企業(yè)計(jì)劃、美國(guó)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本和其他科技業(yè)務(wù)的解讀。瓦薩夫斯基創(chuàng)立了西班牙第二大電信公司Jazztel和已經(jīng)被法國(guó)電信(France Telecom)收購(gòu)的Ya.com。目前,他擔(dān)任自己創(chuàng)立的公司 FON的首席執(zhí)行官。FON的投資者包括谷歌(Google)、英國(guó)電信(BT)、Index Ventures、Atomico和紅杉資本(Sequioa). 馬丁,科技創(chuàng)業(yè)在歐洲有多活躍?有哪些亮點(diǎn)和挑戰(zhàn)?很多歐洲科技初創(chuàng)企業(yè)都在沿著Skype的足跡向全球擴(kuò)張,包括Spotify、Rovio、Hailo、Fon、Oanda等等。 ????傳統(tǒng)上,歐洲年輕人會(huì)選擇在政府或企業(yè)找一份可以干一輩子的工作。歐洲危機(jī)改變了這一切。因?yàn)楦鲊?guó)政府債臺(tái)高筑,企業(yè)薪酬縮水。目前歐洲科技創(chuàng)業(yè)最火的三個(gè)城市是倫敦、柏林和斯德哥爾摩,但在整個(gè)歐洲都能看到這樣的創(chuàng)業(yè)活動(dòng)。 ????挑戰(zhàn)是歐洲不像美國(guó)那樣有沙山路(Sand Hill Road,美國(guó)風(fēng)投行業(yè)的代名詞——譯注)。我們需要有相當(dāng)數(shù)量的風(fēng)投公司,構(gòu)建一個(gè)更加強(qiáng)勁的創(chuàng)業(yè)生態(tài)系統(tǒng)。有些美國(guó)風(fēng)投公司正在向倫敦進(jìn)發(fā),比如Accel等公司。但我們需要更多像Index、Atomico這樣的本土基金為初創(chuàng)企業(yè)提供融資。 事實(shí)上,美國(guó)一流風(fēng)投公司似乎更多地進(jìn)入了以色列,而不是英國(guó)和歐洲。 ????沒(méi)錯(cuò),我們需要吸引更多的這這樣的公司來(lái)關(guān)注這里的機(jī)會(huì)。以色列的科技創(chuàng)業(yè)活動(dòng)非?;钴S,但歐洲的創(chuàng)業(yè)活動(dòng)也在升溫,同樣需要資本和初創(chuàng)經(jīng)驗(yàn)。 ????歐洲科技創(chuàng)業(yè)發(fā)展面臨的第二大挑戰(zhàn)是文化。歐洲人必須接受這一點(diǎn),科技創(chuàng)業(yè)界的成功來(lái)自于不斷地嘗試和犯錯(cuò)。歐洲人熱衷于不會(huì)失敗的完美計(jì)劃。谷歌、Facebook、亞馬遜(Amazon)和蘋果(Apple)可不是這樣誕生的。 你在歐洲看到了什么樣的初創(chuàng)企業(yè)? ????科技企業(yè)遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超出社交媒體應(yīng)用軟件企業(yè),特別是在歐洲。歐洲盛產(chǎn)工程師,而不是市場(chǎng)營(yíng)銷師??纯船F(xiàn)在的德國(guó),經(jīng)濟(jì)形勢(shì)相當(dāng)不錯(cuò),失業(yè)率相對(duì)較低,大多數(shù)人都依賴優(yōu)質(zhì)工程技術(shù)(涉及領(lǐng)域廣泛,遠(yuǎn)不止汽車)保住了飯碗。德國(guó)人均工程師數(shù)量遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過(guò)美國(guó),而且看得出來(lái)。 ????很多歐洲初創(chuàng)企業(yè)的技術(shù)非常深?yuàn)W,要求投資者學(xué)識(shí)淵博??纯淳奂谂=虼髮W(xué)(Oxford)和劍橋大學(xué)(Cambridge)周邊的科技初創(chuàng)公司,有些公司正在解決的一些問(wèn)題即便是受過(guò)良好教育的人也需要花上幾個(gè)小時(shí)的時(shí)間才能弄懂他們的科技計(jì)劃。比如創(chuàng)新的給藥系統(tǒng)、新型顯示技術(shù)和芯片設(shè)計(jì),都是些消費(fèi)者看不到的公司,但他們推動(dòng)的很多產(chǎn)品對(duì)于當(dāng)代生活非常重要。 是不是有很多超級(jí)天使在幫助這些公司?在硅谷,我們有幾十個(gè)超級(jí)天使給超過(guò)50家初創(chuàng)企業(yè)提供融資。 ????本周我參加了戴維?卡梅倫倡議的、由唐寧街10號(hào)組織的超級(jí)天使峰會(huì)。看到那么多歐洲超級(jí)天使給人留下了深刻印象。我很高興能成為其中的一員。歐洲也有一些成功的案例,比如Skype或者我在西班牙創(chuàng)立的Jazztel和Ya.com,這些公司把財(cái)富分配給了員工,一旦他們賣出股票期權(quán),這些員工就成了天使投資人。 ????不好的一面是在英國(guó)和歐洲設(shè)立初創(chuàng)企業(yè)面臨著幾項(xiàng)挑戰(zhàn): ????1. 第一個(gè)問(wèn)題是如何征稅。在歐洲,很多稅是通過(guò)雇傭環(huán)節(jié)征收的。這對(duì)大企業(yè)沒(méi)什么,但依賴大企業(yè)和天使支持的初創(chuàng)企業(yè)也要承擔(dān)同樣的社會(huì)費(fèi)用。結(jié)果就不如為美國(guó)初創(chuàng)企業(yè)提供融資,確保在企業(yè)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)最高的時(shí)期大部分資金都能流入企業(yè)本身。歐洲的天使投資人可能要損失1/3的融資,用于為早期試錯(cuò)階段的雇傭繳納社會(huì)費(fèi)用。相比之下,美國(guó)由天使投資人支持的企業(yè)將留有更多資金用于企業(yè)自身的發(fā)展。 |
????Martin Varsavsky is one of Europe's leading technology entrepreneurs. He recently spoke to Fortune about startup trends in the UK and Europe, his take on Facebook (FB), David Cameron's startup initiative, US venture capital and other tech business. Varsavsky started Jazztel, Spain's second-largest telecom firm and Ya.com, now a division of France Telecom. He is currently the CEO of FON, a company which he founded. Investors include Google (GOOG), BT, Index Ventures, Atomico, and Sequioa. Martin, how vibrant is the startup tech scene in Europe? Where are the bright spots and what are the challenges? Quite a number of European tech startups are expanding globally including Spotify, Rovio, Hailo, Fon, Oanda and others, following in the footsteps of Skype. ????Young people in Europe have traditionally opted for lifetime government or corporate jobs. The European crisis, however, is changing all that. Governments are maxed out in debt and corporate payrolls are shrinking. The three hottest startup cities in Europe right now are London, Berlin and Stockholm but there is startup activity all over the map. ????The challenge is that there is no Sand Hill Road in Europe. We need to have a critical mass of venture firms to build a more robust startup ecosystem. Some American venture firms are coming to London, firms such as Accel but we need more homegrown funds such as Index and Atomico in Europe to finance startups. In fact, it seems that more top US venture firms have a presence in Israel than in the UK and Europe. ????Yes, we need to attract more of them to the opportunities here. Israel has a very vibrant startup scene, but things are also heating up in Europe and can use capital and startup expertise. ????The second challenge in growing the startup ecosystem in Europe is cultural. Europeans must accept that success in the tech startup world comes through trial and error. Europeans prefer great plans that don't fail. But that is not how Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple were born. What kinds of startups do you see in Europe? ????There is a lot more to tech than social media apps and especially in Europe. Europe is a continent of engineers more than marketeers. Look at Germany now, a pretty successful economy with relatively low unemployment, mostly sustained on high quality engineering in fields that go way beyond cars. Germany has many more engineers per capita than USA, and it shows. ????Many of startups in Europe are deep-technology based and require an extremely knowledgeable investor base. If you look at the technology clusters around Oxford and Cambridge universities you will see startups that are working on issues that take hours before a well-educated person can understand the technology plan. Examples include: innovative delivery systems for medications, new display technologies, chip design, companies that consumers do not see but that enable many products that are essential for modern life. Are there many superangels who help get these companies going? In silicon valley we have dozens of people who fund 50+ startups. ????This week I was at the Superangel summit organized by 10 Downing Street at the initiative of David Cameron. It was impressive to see that there are quite a few European superangels and I was happy to be part of the group. There are European success stories, such as Skype or the companies that I built, Jazztel and Ya.com in Spain in which wealth is distributed among employees and once they sell their stock options employees become angel investors. ????On the negative side there are several challenges to starting a company in the UK and Europe: ????1. The first issue how taxes are collected. In Europe a lot of taxes are collected via employment. This is fine for large corporate but social charges for large corporates and angel backed ventures are the same. As a result it is better to fund a startup in USA because most of the money goes into the venture at its most risky time. Instead an angel investment in Europe may lose about a third of its funds in social charges for jobs that are part of this trial and error effort. USA angel backed ventures have more runway. |