Episode Details

Every company IVP backs in Europe competes directly with Silicon Valley. There is one global bar, and that is the level founders are measured against.

At Slush in Helsinki I spoke with Eric Liaw, General Partner at IVP, about what that actually means when you are building from Europe and how the timeline for moving to the US has shifted.

A few years ago many companies would only think about the US once they were around 50m in ARR. Today that conversation often starts much earlier, closer to 10 to 15m.

The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel - check them out here:

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Sponsors:

SurrealDB: The multi-model database for AI agents. Check them out here: https://surrealdb.com/

Omni: The AI analytics platform trusted by fast-growing companies like Perplexity, Synthesia, and dbt Labs. Check them out here: https://omni.co/

Venture Comet: The platform that gives startups and scale-ups real-time equity tracking, daily business insights and automated management information. Check them out here: https://venturecomet.com/

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction to Scaling Europe show

1:11 - Eric discusses objectives at Slush

2:10 - Importance of face-to-face interactions

4:01 - Regional talent development in Europe

6:03 - Importance of market opportunities

6:34 - Excitement about European tech ecosystem

8:12 - Global mindset for European founders

9:50 - Role in helping companies access US market

11:43 - Advice for European founders expanding to US

12:18 - Importance of having a founder on the ground

14:01 - Role of sales leaders in US market

15:04 - Eric's three proudest investment deals