The two most underrated reasons why there are so few tech giants in Europe (and how we can solve this)

“Are you at the office?” Maarten asks through Slack. “No, I’m working from home”, I answer. 

“Can you print these documents, sign them, and scan them?” A few moments later I receive ten PDF-documents. ‘Do they really need a manual signature?” I ask, hoping for a digital option. 

“Yes, you may scribble a real signature here. The Austrian bank is strict,” is the answer. “All that for one bank?” I asked, surprised. “Yes, and it won’t be different for the other countries.”

This is just one example of the administrative hassle when researching international expansion of the company. When you ask people why Europe doesn’t have a lot of big tech companies, you’ll often hear that it’s due to capital, investments, or the entrepreneurial culture. While this definitely plays a role, I see two reasons that aren’t highlighted enough: the first one is the administrative burden, and the second is the chronic lack of PR-chances. 

Administrative burden

Voys will be active in four new countries this year. The time I spend on administrative tasks has also increased fourfold. ‘Quickly’ going to Belgium for a signature. Back and forth to the notary in Breda for documents that also need to be valid in Spain and Portugal. A4-boxes – that’s right, the ones where printing paper comes in – with official, translated documents. That’s why it took two weeks longer, signing at the notary in Groningen. It’s all part of it. 

The bureaucracy in Europe is a real obstacle course for entrepreneurs. Whether it’s establishing a company, obtaining telecom licences, or simply opening a bank account: every country has its own procedures. Even banks and operators active in several countries treat each national branch as its own separate entity. This creates a maze of rules, documentation and obligations. Oh, and to make it even more fun: it can also differ between various regions in one country. I’m waving at Spain here. 

And as soon as you’ve figured all of this out, the next headache begins: tax laws and other administrative obligations that differ between various countries. As if that were not enough, countries also secretly maintain a form of protectionism, which makes the entry of new players especially difficult. Note that this is also immediately your big competitive advantage if you do go international.

PR-problem

Then there is a second problem that is even more underestimated than the administrative burden: PR! All influential tech media, such as TechCrunch, The Verge, and Wired are located in the United States. These platforms largely decide the public perception of tech companies and direct most of their attention to American start-ups and innovations. Dutch and European tech media often follow the American news. 

Even on Dutch platforms like Tweakers and the Dutch-founded The Next Web, you don’t come across many articles about European start-ups. The focus is mainly on American companies, causing European innovations to get little attention. Now, I could make a call for journalists to look a little more at home and Europe, but it is also good to see what you can do yourself. 

What can you do? 

There are possibilities to break through this. Firstly, I’ll tackle the PR-problem, and afterwards I’ll look for solutions on the administrative burden. 

Actively approach the tech media

Platforms such as Sifted, VentureBeat Europe, Business Insider Europe, and Tech.eu offer a European focus. Do you have an interesting article, groundbreaking insights, or innovative ideas? Then reach out to these platforms and build your PR reach within Europe! And if you’re looking for what’s going on in Europe, you’ll find it on these platforms. 

Become the company with a single front door for international customers

Too often I come across Dutch companies operating in Europe, who are forced to sign a contract and stay in contact with their local branch. It doesn’t matter whether it’s telecom operators, banks, or accountancy offices. Additionally, the local language is often enforced, meaning that I have to have the articles of incorporation from 2010 translated into Spanish by a translation agency. Whereas an accounting firm is not easily called a digital company, telecom operators and banks are simply tech companies. 

And there are plenty of tech companies that are targeting the business market, where I can just sign up online to purchase their services, without having to translate anything in the process. Do you know which companies they are? They are those big American tech companies. Google, Microsoft and Slack really don’t care if my colleagues are in the Netherlands, Belgium or Spain. And they also don’t care from which country I enter a contract with them. 

If you really want to serve your international customers well as a company, make sure you have that one single front door that allows your Dutch and international customers to enter easily. And set up your technology and processes so that internationalisation is easy. Because being internationally available starts with offering your information in the local language. 

With that, I can give you another tip. I know a good European communications provider. It provides telephone numbers and communication solutions in more than 50 countries and is based in the Netherlands. By the end of the year, they will have official branches in as many as seven European countries as well as South Africa. And if this founder gets his printer up and running, they’ll even have a bank account in Austria.