I’m back home after an exciting week in Paris. I was there to attend LeWeb (it’s my 5th time there!) and now that I think about it I cannot imagine being elsewhere on the first week of December. This time I won’t talk about logistics: LeWeb is a very well organized event and it improves year after year. Hats off to Loic and Géraldine for putting it up. What really struck me this year was the general atmosphere, which was extremely positive if you consider the hard times we’re going through.
As my friend Luca Sartoni pointed out in his podcast, I find interesting that most of the companies and products which had been talked about on stage this year are now deeply rooted in our daily life. Airbnb, Spotify, foursquare and Twitter are now 100% part of my reality and even the new apps (e.g. Uber) are so seamless that you can use them right away and still feel like you’ve been using them forever.
LeWeb also showed me that the startup ecosystem in Europe is changing. Until a few years ago it was all about London; now things are different because the Scandinavian countries and Berlin are becoming the new centers for innovation. Berlin in particular has proven to provide the right humus to grow a startup because of its cheaper cost of living (compared to other European capitals) and the cultural groove that makes it one of the top three most exciting cities in the continent along with Paris and London. If London is the European “New York City” Berlin is definitely going to become the European “San Francisco” in terms of lifestyle and opportunities.
The enthusiasm at LeWeb has always been contagious but this year I feel more optimistic about the future: it’s great to see that creativity and ideas can still capitalize and save/change the world. I’ve heard a lot of encouraging speeches about magic, passion, curiosity and hard work. They all came from successful entrepreneurs who really believed in the power of their ideas and somehow managed to turn them into great products. I was also very proud of my fellow Italian entrepreneurs who won the startup competition with Beintoo, a smart product that has a lot of potential.
That said, I can’t wait for the next edition to come!