European Young Entrepreneurs

YES European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs


Dimitris Tsigos

President

[email protected]


About YES

• Background– The European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs– Founded in 1988– 18 Countries

• 12 EU Member States, Turkey, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, Kazakhstan

– 40.000 YE– 18-45 years old


About YES

• Objectives– Promote access-to-capital and improve access-to-market for

European Young entrepreneurs– Develop entrepreneurial culture and improve education &

training in entrepreneurship– Influence towards a more entrepreneurship-friendly legal

framework across Europe• Bankruptcy law

– To foster business cooperation and networking activities between young entrepreneurs

– Establish links with entrepreneurial organizations in Europe and elsewhere

– To maintain an ongoing dialogue with the Institutions of the European Union


Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Europe

• Young Entrepreneurs in Europe cannot be satisfied by the current entrepreneurial culture and activity

• In comparison to the US & Canada, or even the BRIC countries, one could argue that European entrepreneurship is conservative and slow-moving– According to EBAN, angel investments in Europe are approx. 4

Bn€ Vs 19 Bn € in the US• While EU27 GDP is ~ 20% higher than US

– VC investments per capita• US: $100

• EU: $10 (Eurozone: $5)– Israel alone invests more in VC than Germany, UK and France together


Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Europe

• The academic & research community in many European countries is less entrepreneurship-oriented than in the US & Canada– European leadership in R&D can result to

leadership in entrepreneurship

– There are some missing parts of the “entrepreneurial ecosystem”, mainly risk financing and entrepreneurial culture, together with barriers imposed by the legislation


The Common Market

• The common European market still remains an objective– Very few companies consider “Europe” as their

domestic market

– Cultural barriers proven harder to overcome than legal / regulatory

– Many European startups find Distributors and VARs in countries like US, Canada & Australia easier than they do in Europe


A Strategy for Improving Entrepreneurship in Europe

• Short-term: Access to capital– Immediate results– Focus to angel investments & soft-loans– EU-funded schemes for leveraging angel investments

• Mid-term: Access to markets– Efficient mediation services for supporting small, growing businesses to

access customers all around Europe and in any other region– Support European startups to access the global market– Know how transfer from successful entrepreneurs

• Long-term: Build entrepreneurial culture– Changes to the educational system towards creativity and self-

confidence– The European society should accept entrepreneurship, especially

startups, as a progressive activity


The YES Action Plan [1/2]

• Boost start-up entrepreneurship– We envision Europe as a start-up paradise

• Quality of life and cultural heritage in Europe are ideal for creative startups

– Combined efforts to overcome the access-to-capital barrier

• Cooperation with EBAN – The European Business Angels Network and the European Investment Fund

• Strategic cooperation with the “Entrepreneur Commons” movement

– World-wide peer support group for entrepreneurs


The YES Action Plan [2/2]

• Materialize the common market– We support our members to consider “Europe” as

their domestic market• It’s better to have a domestic market of 500M people!

– Organize quarterly B2B match-making events • Connect customers and suppliers from different EU member

States and other European Countries• Boost the creation of Distribution and VAR networks

– We are working closely with Enterprise Europe Network

European Young Entrepreneurs

Business

Transcript of European Young Entrepreneurs