Seedtable

Allegro: Betting on Poland

Bets often have unintended consequences. In the late 1990s, a Dutchman named Arjan Bakker came to Poland after losing a bet whose stake was a trip to the country. But he fell in love with Poland, decided to stay and started a business. One day he came up with the

Can we pick the right line?

In 1951, psychologist Solomon Asch conducted an experiment to investigate how individual beliefs and opinions were affected by social pressure from a majority group. He set up groups of eight male college students. Each student viewed a card with a line on it, followed by another with three lines labeled

Companies

Damned if you do, damned if you don't

In 2007, Estonian management consultant Kristo Käärmann moved to London to work for Deloitte. Kristo still had a mortgage back in Estonia and every month had to send money from a British bank to his Estonian account to cover the payments. And every month, the bank charged him about 5%

Markets

Engineering-as-a-Moat

Businesses are like castles – they can stand on their own but without something to defend them, they are open to attack.

Companies

Klarna is the Ultimate Grower

In August last year, Klarna raised $460 million at a $5.5 billion valuation to expand its presence in the United States. Two days ago, Reuters reported the Swedish company is targeting another $500 million raise, this time at a $10 billion valuation: Swedish payments firm Klarna is in talks

Companies

The Rise of Gymshark: Winning CPG Through Loops and Mimetic Theory

This post was co-written by Pauline Guého from Heartcore Capital and me. It’s our attempt to understand the rise of Gymshark and how they managed to become a billion dollar company with no outside funding until now.A few weeks ago, Gymshark raised £200 million pounds from General Atlantic

Companies

Investment Memo: Strive School

Almost 100 days ago I challenged myself to do a daily thread on something going on in European tech, and for every miss I would donate $100. It was a forcing function to learn more, get myself out there, and increase my production cycle from weekly (this newsletter) to daily

Companies

Britannica ⟹ Encarta ⟹ Wikipedia

In 1768 in Edinburgh, Scotland the first Encyclopaedia Britannica was published. The first edition had three volumes but then the encyclopedia grew in size: the second edition was 10 volumes, and by its fourth edition (1801–1810) it had expanded to 20 volumes. As it grew in size, it grew

The Undisputed Overlord of Classifieds

Earlier this week, Norwegian Adevinta acquired eBay’s Classifieds business unit in $9.2B deal. From The Financial Times: Norway’s Adevinta is paying $9.2bn in cash and stock to create the world’s largest online classified advertising business with eBay. Ebay will receive $2.5bn in cash and

Markets

Sending Rubik’s cubes to Space

This post was co-written by Paul Klemm from Earlybird Venture Capital and me. It’s our attempt to break down why going to space is important, why we are at a turning point and why Europe is perfectly positioned to win the industry. Going to space is the Holy Grail

Companies

Two Loops and One Unicorn

Cazoo, a company that enables customers to buy a used car online and get it delivered for free “in as little as 72 hours” raised £25 million, turning it into a unicorn in record time. From Sifted: Cazoo, the used car marketplace, has become the UK’s latest billion dollar

Companies

Just Eat Takeaway and New Solutions to Old Problems

It's been a busy pandemic for Jitse Groen. Weeks after Takeaway closed an $8 billion deal for Just Eat and became Just Eat Takeaway (JET), Jitse got to work and acquired Grubhub. From the Financial Times: Just Eat Takeaway, the European food delivery app, has agreed to acquire Chicago-based Grubhub

Geographic Hubs

Unbundling Silicon Valley

In 1956, William Shockley opened Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory to innovate on the then-current transistors. Shockley was a great talent magnet but a crappy manager so a core group of Shockley employees (the famous the traitorous eight) left to start Fairchild Semiconductors and from that, start 65 other companies. That was

Companies

Castor: Fixing the Paradox of Scientific Progress

In June of 1836, Nathan Rothschild left London for Frankfurt to attend the wedding of his son Lionel. Nathan was probably the richest man in the world and, needless to say, could afford whatever he pleased. At his 59 years old, Nathan was in great health. But immediately after leaving

Geographic Hubs

Iceland: From Vikings to the Valley

Kristinn - goes by Kiddi - is the founder and editor of Northstack and has analysed the Icelandic tech and venture ecosystem for the last five years. As a real job he works in tech. When people think about Iceland, the things that probably come to mind are stunning – and

Companies

Lessons from Mercado Libre

This is a free preview of a Premium Member only post. If you want to read the full article consider subscribing for €10/month or €100/year. In the late 1990s, equity investor John Muse from Hicks Muse Capital was invited by legendary professor Jack McDonald to speak to the

Venture Capital

The Death of the Tech Company

One of the biggest causes of death in the 1700s was the lack of washable underwear. Back then clothes were made of wool. If you ever worn a woolen hand-knitted sweater, you know they are itchy and extremely hard to wash. So hands were dirty, people scratched to calm the

COVID-19

Wake up from The Big Nap, it's time to Build

On September 2nd, 1945, Imperial Japan’s foreign minister, Mamoru Shigemitsu boarded the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay and signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Japanese government. Photo: Credit: Naval Historical Center Photo # SC 213700 via Wikimedia CommonsThat photograph marked the beginning of an era that

Interview

An interview with accuRx CEO Jacob Haddad

Morning! Part of my "job" at Seedtable is surfacing interesting companies you might've not heard of. One of these companies is accuRx, a London-based company working on a platform that brings patients and their healthcare teams together. Their story is fascinating. After struggling with their initial idea and pivoting, they

COVID-19

The impact of COVID-19 on European fundraising

Everyone has an unanswered question. The City and the Stars, the wonderful novel by Arthur C. Clarke, takes place one billion years in the future, in the city of Diaspar. In Diaspar, the entire city is run by the Central Computer and as far as the people know, theirs is

COVID-19

Surveillance printer go BRRRRRR

In 2001, Argentina was in the middle of a gigantic recession because of its hard currency peg to the US dollar and extensive foreign borrowing. Back then the president was Fernando de la Rúa, a sleepy-looking lawyer who took office in late 1999 after being the first Buenos Aires' Mayor

Talent

The Golden Age for Talent is Over

Talent is at the intersection of everything happening in technology and society. So what the hell is going on right now?

COVID-19

How to react to COVID-19 — an operating guide for startup founders

The world has become a series of experiments on government efficiency, containment strategies, and personal isolation. We can’t control how those experiments play out. But we can focus on what we can control: our companies.

COVID-19

"2020 was the year the internet actually began"

“Historians of the future might write something like: 2020 was the year that the internet actually began.” – Balaji SrinivasanBefore World War II, most American women served one role: housewife. But when the United States entered World War II, American women were called on to serve the nation in many ways.

COVID-19

The effect of COVID-19 on European Tech

In the past 24 hours, the stock market crashed to bear territory, Trump pumped a $500 billions stimulus as a response, the NBA and all major sports leagues were postponed and Tom Hanks got infected.