Requiem for the European VC

As we witness the end of the state-funded VC era, it is time to pay them respect with a requiem: the Requiem for the European VC

For 10 years a specific character emerged in our cities: the VC. They were easy to recognize. They wore vests, spoke strange words and acted like they belonged to a future that the rest of us could not understand

At first they seemed harmless. But they eventually managed to convince our governments that they were the only ones who could save us. They told us that if we didn’t follow them, Europe would fail and our civilisation would collapse. They were as dramatic as it gets

But their drama was just a shield. When they made you feel like you "didn’t get it," it wasn’t because they knew better, it was because they were insecure, like most of us are. And when they acted like sharks it was not because they were mean, but because they were terrified you’d realise they were actually goldfish. Most importantly, that loud confidence was a costume to ensure nobody asked how their business actually worked

The problem was that these investors exploited fears of European failure to secure billions in taxpayer money, so that they could charge a fee. It didn't really matter if the companies they picked succeeded, produced anything useful, or went bankrupt, it was only about maximising the fee. Which meant we weren't really building a future, we were mostly subsidizing the private lifestyles of a few hundred people who produced almost nothing

To justify this, they taught us the Power Law. This is the rule that out of 10 investments, 9 are expected to fail and you only need 1 giant to compensate for the rest. They also used this cold logic to claim it was good when local businesses closed or stable jobs were replaced by apps. They said the old world had to burn to make room for the new

But when public budgets dried up and easy money vanished, the investors faced the very failure they had preached for the rest. But suddenly, they weren’t so brave. They started crying for help and begging for special protections, like the 28th Regime, so that the power laws would not apply to them. They loved the Power Law when it was killing your job, they hated it when it was killing theirs

They used to say we lacked ambition because we didn't care about multiplying money by ten. And they truly could not understand that is fair and necessary to protect people who cannot defend themselves rather than "disrupting" them into unemployment

We lost an entire decade believing these people would solve the social and economic challenges we faced in Europe. In reality, they never cared about anyone but themselves

We will always remember them for the most important lesson they taught us: disruption is unavoidable, and if something is broken, it should be removed

Only that this time, the only thing being removed is them. They had a decade to prove their worth and failed. It is only fair that their own rules finally apply to them