My comments re people need to be challenged, Lets aim for Trilicon that do good? re Can we build an Alibaba in Europe? | Davor Hebel | LinkedIn

Can we build an Alibaba in Europe? | Davor Hebel | LinkedIn:



Many congratulations Davor Hebel, its been years since we met briefly in 2007, you've achieved much! ;-)



Indeed, the ecosystem in Europe (particularly UK has improved dramatically) given all the great works many others initiatives from privately hosted functions like mine to Brent Hoberman 's Founders Forum etc. We can certainly do more, but maybe not only have initiatives or gatherings, but entrepreneurs and VCs/PEs/Family foundations all should challenge themselves more.



(especially for those exited, I would say a good % of them would become tax exile and given the anonymity afforded, they would only engage within their comfort zone, thus less could be achieved. of course, vice versa, in the valley given the hugely competitive nature, everyone is investing into the limited supply of good companies, & thus we have either group think/lemmings behaviour or "Lets invest in 150firms this year" approach).



IMHO, it might not be Alibaba of Europe that we all are looking for, nor are we looking for the great Unicorns only (think coined by our friend Dan Primack & Erin Griffith)..



In order to learn why Alibaba become successful, I would recommend you & others to watch the eloquent Jack Ma explaining his personal & business ethos (馬雲與青年有約: HKG https://youtu.be/AMzeQgCxQfE Taiwan: https://youtu.be/_dUZzcoCcuk ) you can see that potential reasons for his success so far (its rather philosophical, sounds very normal & poetic in mandarin, not pretentious at all): paraphrasing: 1.) having the right goal/mission, 2.) challenge self 3.) play long term game and do something. Particularly he explains how DataTechnology 利他 (differentiated from IT 利自) becomes key & for people to take full responsibility, transparency & fixing specific social issues of the market (hence unless he can elaborate that in English and audience resonates... Alibaba might not be able to gain similar success in the western world).



It is certainly great to have all these buzz about FinTech, Ed/AdTech and unicorn talks.. but unless we challenge ourselves and aim a lot higher, we would sadly still end up with the so so me-too products/services.. (that might still be unicorn)



Case in point, given the accounting scandal of Toshiba/Tesco, any startup fixing that?



As Jack elude to, future great companies might be coming from firms that truly fix our world's problems ... and maybe those that are not created for valuations and good multiples in exits.. they would probably be forming in intersection of social/behavioural/responsible and business+tech..



Maybe it is time that we aim for having a few Trilicon (trillion dollar cash, not valuation) that fix our worlds' systemic problems/challenges? Your £150m could become the thought leader..! ;-)