Episode Details

European founders are still going to the US earlier than ever, but AI is now changing how the companies they build actually operate.

Martin Mignot, Partner at Index Ventures, looks at this shift from inside a global firm working with founders on both sides of the Atlantic. For founders and CEOs, AI is becoming much bigger than a tooling question. The challenge is to rethink how the company works before the old structure slows them down.

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

https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Sponsors:

Mishcon: https://www.mishcon.com/pop-ups/scaling-europe

Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026

SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/

Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeurope

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

0:32 - European founders going global earlier

2:12 - How AI is changing company building

3:02 - CEOs learning from San Francisco

4:39 - Founder mode and AI leadership

7:20 - How Index helps founders through the shift

9:48 - Why Index invested in Anthropic

13:04 - Index’s AI strategy

17:17 - Assessing AI founders

21:07 - Explore vs exploit in AI

22:19 - Index’s AI portfolio

24:27 - Why Index operates as one global team

27:24 - The trade-offs of a global partnership