When I first came to Lisbon by the invitation of João Vasconcelos to work as Founding President of Startup Portugal I had no idea what I was getting into. One thing I did know: This opportunity, to work in the national government policy for startups of a European member state, after years of working “inside the trenches” in the Berlin ecosystem, was an offer I could not resist.

For an entrepreneur, Angel Investor and real estate developer / operator this is not an obvious choice. Policy and law are the framework in which our economy - and its innovation - take place, but if you ask my founders peers “leave me alone with politicians, they should not get in our way” is the most common, move fast and break things startup attitude. I do not agree with that take.

Quite the opposite, I believe there is such a vast knowledge gap between most politicians and tech entrepreneurs, VC’s and employees working in these companies, that there is the dire need for moderation. And that worked to a degree. When we began with Startup Portugal to build that bridge into government, in 2016, foreign investors had invested around €220M into Portuguese companies. 5 years later, when I left Startup Portugal, it was already over €1.2B, which is 5X in 5 years. Not that this is our doing, this has been achieved by entrepreneurs. But dare I say there was - and is - a sentiment in Portugal around tech and entrepreneurship, that it has a chance to make a small country relevant again. Since this was fully embraced, Portugal is known across Europe for its policy innovation for startups.

During the Portuguese Presidency, Portugal with the European Commission launched the Startup Nations Standard. Out of its 8 standards, 4 were tried and tested by the team of Startup Portugal in the years before. Now, these are a standard for Europe - a startup nation is a member state that adheres to the Startup Nation Standard. 

Sounds good? Half way. In this case the glass is actually half empty. Because for over a decade we (the startup community) have been lobbying for things such as Employee Stock Option Program taxation, one-stop-shops in government, founding a company in a day and all the small parts of the bigger system that is actually flawed. We have been trying to fix the features of a buggy and outdated operating system.

What system is that, you may ask? It is our corporate law. It is where it is defined how a company is regulated, governed, and genuinely recorded to allow for it to operate in any given country. And guess what? ALL corporate law, even that of Delaware (the most common choice for governance of a startup based in the USA), has been designed before the internet. So how can it regulate this innovative, fast paced industry of tech entrepreneurship? 

And this is not all. For decades we have been producing good news in our industry. This many million raised, this many employees, oh so many billions of investment. But this approach, again, is flawed. If there is no urgency, there is very little political will to act. 

Enter the Draghi report on competitiveness. When I read that, I was so excited to see that finally, finally someone names the real problem as it should be. We are not lagging behind, we are not needing to catch up, we are not being left out in Europe. We are doomed if we dont change things, NOW. We don't have a single European product made of semiconductors in our pockets, in a room full of startup people such as at the Web Summit. Yet the only machine that can actually build the complex designs of microchips by TSMC in Taiwan is actually from the Netherlands: ASML produces it. This is a great example of how innovation comes from here, but we are incapable of producing mass market applications in Europe.

What is the solution you may ask? Is there a silver bullet? I think yes. Together with Andreas Klinger, Philipp Herkelmann and Vojtech Horna, we created a petition that couldn't be any simpler: We need one EU-Inc, that is online based, and enables cross border investment across the EU with a single point of contact for all member states, investors and founders. So to speak, an online based, API- and mobile-first company registry, where companies can connect for trusted data and build services on top of that. 

What is the game changer in this? Easy: A government service, in which handling your company in a single trusted source that spans all of Europe would be a quantum leap for Europe, as right now we have to deal with 27 legal realms to do the same. An investor from abroad needs to be comfortable with the analysis of the law in every specific country, to be able to invest. Or easier yet? Just ask the company to move to Delaware, to get an investment.

And we have backing of this idea. Not only 10.000 of Europe’s top entrepreneurs and VC’s have signed up in the first week since its launch, but also since the Draghi Report Ursula von der Leyen has agreed to bring the so called “28th Regime” (one could consider the 28th regime a virtual member state) into the mission briefings of the Vice-Presidents Stéphane Séjourné (industry) and Henna Virkkunen (technological sovereignty), and Irish candidate Michael McGrath, Commissioner designate for Justice.

Now we have to make sure this is not just another concept or strategy that has been agreed on in the EU but lacks implementation, such as the Digital Single Market (DSM). We now need to make sure this is a website we can log into, and manage our companies.

And with that, we might once and for all be leading over the US and China from Europe: People could say go to Europe to found a company, the government there created this kick-ass service where you can do all of this in a day. And from where I am sitting, that is a proper moonshot. Let’s go!

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