歐洲科技創業方興未艾

????馬丁?瓦薩夫斯基是歐洲頂尖的科技創業家之一。最近，他接受《財富》雜志（Fortune）專訪，暢談了英國和歐洲的科技創業趨勢以及他對Facebook、戴維?卡梅倫的初創企業計劃、美國風險資本和其他科技業務的解讀。瓦薩夫斯基創立了西班牙第二大電信公司Jazztel和已經被法國電信（France Telecom）收購的Ya.com。目前，他擔任自己創立的公司 FON的首席執行官。FON的投資者包括谷歌（Google）、英國電信（BT）、Index Ventures、Atomico和紅杉資本（Sequioa）.

馬丁，科技創業在歐洲有多活躍？有哪些亮點和挑戰？很多歐洲科技初創企業都在沿著Skype的足跡向全球擴張，包括Spotify、Rovio、Hailo、Fon、Oanda等等。

????傳統上，歐洲年輕人會選擇在政府或企業找一份可以干一輩子的工作。歐洲危機改變了這一切。因為各國政府債臺高筑，企業薪酬縮水。目前歐洲科技創業最火的三個城市是倫敦、柏林和斯德哥爾摩，但在整個歐洲都能看到這樣的創業活動。

????挑戰是歐洲不像美國那樣有沙山路（Sand Hill Road，美國風投行業的代名詞——譯注）。我們需要有相當數量的風投公司，構建一個更加強勁的創業生態系統。有些美國風投公司正在向倫敦進發，比如Accel等公司。但我們需要更多像Index、Atomico這樣的本土基金為初創企業提供融資。

事實上，美國一流風投公司似乎更多地進入了以色列，而不是英國和歐洲。

????沒錯，我們需要吸引更多的這這樣的公司來關注這里的機會。以色列的科技創業活動非?；钴S，但歐洲的創業活動也在升溫，同樣需要資本和初創經驗。

????歐洲科技創業發展面臨的第二大挑戰是文化。歐洲人必須接受這一點，科技創業界的成功來自于不斷地嘗試和犯錯。歐洲人熱衷于不會失敗的完美計劃。谷歌、Facebook、亞馬遜（Amazon）和蘋果（Apple）可不是這樣誕生的。

你在歐洲看到了什么樣的初創企業？

????科技企業遠遠超出社交媒體應用軟件企業，特別是在歐洲。歐洲盛產工程師，而不是市場營銷師?？纯船F在的德國，經濟形勢相當不錯，失業率相對較低，大多數人都依賴優質工程技術（涉及領域廣泛，遠不止汽車）保住了飯碗。德國人均工程師數量遠遠超過美國，而且看得出來。

????很多歐洲初創企業的技術非常深奧，要求投資者學識淵博?？纯淳奂谂＝虼髮W（Oxford）和劍橋大學（Cambridge）周邊的科技初創公司，有些公司正在解決的一些問題即便是受過良好教育的人也需要花上幾個小時的時間才能弄懂他們的科技計劃。比如創新的給藥系統、新型顯示技術和芯片設計，都是些消費者看不到的公司，但他們推動的很多產品對于當代生活非常重要。

是不是有很多超級天使在幫助這些公司？在硅谷，我們有幾十個超級天使給超過50家初創企業提供融資。

????本周我參加了戴維?卡梅倫倡議的、由唐寧街10號組織的超級天使峰會?？吹侥敲炊鄽W洲超級天使給人留下了深刻印象。我很高興能成為其中的一員。歐洲也有一些成功的案例，比如Skype或者我在西班牙創立的Jazztel和Ya.com，這些公司把財富分配給了員工，一旦他們賣出股票期權，這些員工就成了天使投資人。

????不好的一面是在英國和歐洲設立初創企業面臨著幾項挑戰：

????1. 第一個問題是如何征稅。在歐洲，很多稅是通過雇傭環節征收的。這對大企業沒什么，但依賴大企業和天使支持的初創企業也要承擔同樣的社會費用。結果就不如為美國初創企業提供融資，確保在企業風險最高的時期大部分資金都能流入企業本身。歐洲的天使投資人可能要損失1/3的融資，用于為早期試錯階段的雇傭繳納社會費用。相比之下，美國由天使投資人支持的企業將留有更多資金用于企業自身的發展。

????Martin Varsavsky is one of Europe's leading technology entrepreneurs. He recently spoke to Fortune about startup trends in the UK and Europe, his take on Facebook (FB), David Cameron's startup initiative, US venture capital and other tech business. Varsavsky started Jazztel, Spain's second-largest telecom firm and Ya.com, now a division of France Telecom. He is currently the CEO of FON, a company which he founded. Investors include Google (GOOG), BT, Index Ventures, Atomico, and Sequioa.

Martin, how vibrant is the startup tech scene in Europe? Where are the bright spots and what are the challenges? Quite a number of European tech startups are expanding globally including Spotify, Rovio, Hailo, Fon, Oanda and others, following in the footsteps of Skype.

????Young people in Europe have traditionally opted for lifetime government or corporate jobs. The European crisis, however, is changing all that. Governments are maxed out in debt and corporate payrolls are shrinking. The three hottest startup cities in Europe right now are London, Berlin and Stockholm but there is startup activity all over the map.

????The challenge is that there is no Sand Hill Road in Europe. We need to have a critical mass of venture firms to build a more robust startup ecosystem. Some American venture firms are coming to London, firms such as Accel but we need more homegrown funds such as Index and Atomico in Europe to finance startups.

In fact, it seems that more top US venture firms have a presence in Israel than in the UK and Europe.

????Yes, we need to attract more of them to the opportunities here. Israel has a very vibrant startup scene, but things are also heating up in Europe and can use capital and startup expertise.

????The second challenge in growing the startup ecosystem in Europe is cultural. Europeans must accept that success in the tech startup world comes through trial and error. Europeans prefer great plans that don't fail. But that is not how Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple were born.

What kinds of startups do you see in Europe?

????There is a lot more to tech than social media apps and especially in Europe. Europe is a continent of engineers more than marketeers. Look at Germany now, a pretty successful economy with relatively low unemployment, mostly sustained on high quality engineering in fields that go way beyond cars. Germany has many more engineers per capita than USA, and it shows.

????Many of startups in Europe are deep-technology based and require an extremely knowledgeable investor base. If you look at the technology clusters around Oxford and Cambridge universities you will see startups that are working on issues that take hours before a well-educated person can understand the technology plan. Examples include: innovative delivery systems for medications, new display technologies, chip design, companies that consumers do not see but that enable many products that are essential for modern life.

Are there many superangels who help get these companies going? In silicon valley we have dozens of people who fund 50+ startups.

????This week I was at the Superangel summit organized by 10 Downing Street at the initiative of David Cameron. It was impressive to see that there are quite a few European superangels and I was happy to be part of the group. There are European success stories, such as Skype or the companies that I built, Jazztel and Ya.com in Spain in which wealth is distributed among employees and once they sell their stock options employees become angel investors.

????On the negative side there are several challenges to starting a company in the UK and Europe:

????1. The first issue how taxes are collected. In Europe a lot of taxes are collected via employment. This is fine for large corporate but social charges for large corporates and angel backed ventures are the same. As a result it is better to fund a startup in USA because most of the money goes into the venture at its most risky time. Instead an angel investment in Europe may lose about a third of its funds in social charges for jobs that are part of this trial and error effort. USA angel backed ventures have more runway.