[krn]

Over time I learned to prefer European B2B tech companies, because they strive to be profitable from the beginning, take less VC money, are more stable, predictable, cost-conscious, engineering-focused, and, therefore, often much less likely to be acquired: Adyen, MessageBird, KeyCDN, OVH, Hetzner, INWX, Mailbox. It's a bit sad to take Mailjet out of this list, even if it's considered a success for the company.

[alexis_fr]

Actually, this is a very helpful feedback for any company. And funnily enough, would Europe’s difficulty in creating a funding ecosystem be the key point that ...reinforces their startups?

[krn]

In Europe, there is still a lot of pride in completely owning your company, and not having any plans to sell it to anyone, except maybe IPO. In many cases, the original founders are still running their tech companies 20 years later. It could almost be said, that a "serial tech entrepreneur" is not a thing in such a conservative society, because even entrepreneurs prefer certainty and stability in their lives over high risks / high returns, and the fear of failure is much stronger than in the US.

[semiotagonal]

I've never understood why anyone would trust a serial entrepreneur. If a business is great, why would they exit? If it's not, why are they esteemed?