Ali Mitchell on Why Europe Struggles to Build $10B Startups

https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts211/v4/6c/36/ae/6c36aefc-653c-064f-26b3-8296ef6bee63/mza_6678887056385899990.jpg/600x600bb.jpg

Heresy

Dimitar Stanimiroff

23 episodes

1 week ago

Thinkers. Builders. Rebels. Big ideas from the edge of tech and beyond. Hosted by Dimitar Stanimiroff, Heresy started with a simple goal: learn from the sharpest minds in SaaS GTM. It’s grown into a show that follows curiosity across domains—tech, startups, investing, science, and philosophy. Past guests include Jason Lemkin (SaaStr), Aaron Ross (Predictable Revenue), Philip Su (ex-Meta, OpenAI) and execs from Uber, Box, Twilio, and Stack Overflow. New episodes drop regularly.

Business

RSS

All content for Heresy is the property of Dimitar Stanimiroff and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Business

https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/44186893/44186893-1761471285876-eed40b89078d7.jpg

Ali Mitchell on Why Europe Struggles to Build $10B Startups — and How to Fix It

Heresy

1 hour 4 minutes 7 seconds

1 month ago

Ali Mitchell on Why Europe Struggles to Build $10B Startups — and How to Fix It

Ali Mitchell has backed more than half a dozen unicorns — but his story starts with failure.

Before co-founding Huddle and later leading EQT Ventures, one of Europe’s most successful VC funds, Ali was a founder who learned firsthand how hard it is to build and scale. In this episode, we unpack what those early failures taught him about resilience, product-market fit, and what separates great founders from good ones.

We also dive into:

Why Europe still struggles to produce $10B startups
What the best founders get right about distribution and go-to-market
How to raise VC capital the right way (and what most get wrong)
Why Ali still believes in founder intuition — even in the age of AI

A conversation about hard lessons, second acts, and the patterns behind six unicorns.

🎙️ Heresy is a podcast about people who defy conventional wisdom — founders, investors, and thinkers reshaping how technology gets built and scaled.

👇 Timestamps & Resources below 👇00:00 – Trailer01:01 – Ali’s Early Journey and Entrepreneurial Roots05:32 – Building and Scaling Huddle14:27 – Go-to-Market Lessons and Missteps22:18 – Why Europe Struggles with Commercialization27:56 – From Founder to Investor: Lessons from EQT Ventures36:14 – The Cultural Contrast: US vs. Europe43:40 – What the US Gets Right: Selling, Storytelling, and Scale48:54 – The Tuck Shop Story: Teaching Entrepreneurship Early50:06 – Returning to Europe: Family, Values, and Purpose51:56 – From EQT to Odyssey: A New Mission for European Tech54:51 – Flow and the New Era of Engineering Automation56:00 – Odyssey’s Investment Focus: AI + Automation in the Real World57:30 – Lessons for Founders: Ambition, Focus, and Resilience59:41 – What Most People Get Wrong About Venture Capital01:02:31 – Final Advice for First-Time Founders01:03:41 – Closing Thoughts🔔 Don’t forget to subscribe for more unfiltered conversations on technology, business, and defying the status quo.Follow Ali:🔗 LinkedIn: / alimitchell 💰 Odyssey Ventures: https://www.odyssey.ventures/🎙 The Heresy Podcast – conversations with builders, thinkers & rebels 🔔 Subscribe: / @heresypodcast 🔗 Follow Dimitar: / stanimiroff

#Ali Mitchell #EQT Ventures #startups #venture capital #founders #SaaS #Europe #tech #VC #Heresy Podcast #DimitarStanimiroff #growth #failure #unicorns #scaling #productmarketfit #fundraising