High tech, it’s not just in Silicon Valley

The European Commission launches a network of entrepreneurs from the old country
The idea is to encourage the inception of other Skype, Spotify or Angry Birds, all ‘Made in the EU’ software

We make free international calls with Skype, we listen to streaming music online with Spotify, and we spend hours playing with “Angry Birds.” But who do we need to thank for these small and big, high-tech novelties which we are no longer able to do without? The mind automatically passes to that Silicon Valley which over the years became the epicenter of world technological innovation.  Instead, all you need to look closer.

If it is true that brands like Facebook, Google and Apple were created on the other side of the Atlantic, even in the old country a multitude of entrepreneurs, who transformed their ideas into technological businesses of worldwide success, exists. Like Skype, through which 1/3 of international calls are made, or Spotify – available in 23 countries today, or even the game Angry Birds with 250 million active users a month: all ideas born and developed in Europe.

In spite of these successes, the number of graduates in the technology sector is decreasing and unemployment is increasing in a sector that, according to data from the EC, offers about 100,000 new jobs a year. Thus Brussels thought about using the positive examples of our own entrepreneurs who were successful as a source of inspiration for our youth. The creators of Spotify, Angry Birds, Tuenti, Skype, Seed Camp and HackFwd, and also those who gave life to Tech City in London and TheNextWeb will take part in a network in which the entrepreneurs will be able to talk about their sources of inspiration and their frustrations, refering to youth and European leaders on the potential of an entrepreneurial career.

The “StartUpEurope Leaders Club” is only the first part of Startup Europe, a 6 part initiative where the Commission wants to enhance the creation of networks among European entrepreneurs. Objective: help new businesses started in the technological sector to grow and develop in Europe before expanding their activity worldwide.

“The Europeans must be creative and resourceful. This is how dozens of technological businesses and activities on the Internet – among the most dynamic in the world market – are born in the EU. I want the rest of the world to know it,” declared Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission. “I would like for young entrepreneurs to be able to find models to inspire them with an out-and-out single digital market in which to develop their ideas.”

Letizia Pascale