Storytellers of Europe, unite!
#13 | On the power of storytelling
Europe is full of stories worth telling, but for some reason, only a few people are willing to tell them. We need to get better at promoting ourselves, and I believe this needs to start with better storytelling.
This time Chris had a few changes to make, and made the piece much better than it was!
I’ve often asked myself what’s special about places like Silicon Valley, and I’ve asked this question to others many times more. Among the answers, you find exactly what you would expect: density.
Density of capital, density of intelligence, density of universities, density of Big Tech, density of risk-taking culture.
None of these answers satisfies me. They’re certainly good answers and factors that contribute to the greatness of the West Coast’s startup scene, but don’t explain the whirlwind that every new idea coming from the Valley creates, that attracts and swallows the rest of the world.
I think I’ve finally answered my question: it’s storytelling.
According to Spotify, the most-listened Christmas song in Italy is All I Want For Christmas Is You. Don’t we have Christmas songs in Italian? Sure as hell we do. But none of them have the same vibe, evoke the same feelings, or inspire the same idea of Christmas.
Why is that? It’s because Americans are masters in storytelling.
Storytelling is so important because it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Every success story starts with an idea and someone who knows how to tell it, how to touch the right chords. Once the idea is told the right way, people will get behind it and make it theirs without questioning its merits too much. It shapes the world in such a way that it becomes true: that’s what a self-fulfilling prophecy does.
In the startup-world, this can translate into securing investments, but it goes beyond that. It convinces people that this idea is the next big thing, that they should pay attention, build in that space if they can, or invest in it if they can’t. When this happens, once your thing becomes THE thing, you have already won.
America in general, and Silicon Valley in particular, own this tool and use it as they like. In my work, I see it everyday. It might be because venture capital in Europe still lives under the shadow of its big American cousin, but whatever is the next thing over there, becomes the next thing here.
This is the main difference between here and there. This is, in my opinion, what we need to change to start our journey as a startup-friendly continent.
Where is the European Packy McCormick or Joe Rogan or Mario Gabriele1 or Jason Carman?
I don’t buy the geography argument: discussions happen online and I, as a European sitting in Rome, live in the same “place” as someone living in the Valley - I read the same Substacks, I follow the same people on Twitter, I listen to the same podcasts. When I talk to other investors, I could say in which blog post they read most of the ideas they claim to be their own.
What we really lack is the concept of grouping together behind an idea and pushing everybody in the same direction, the ambition to believe that ideas are important and even if people don’t believe in them now, they will in the future.
Take as an example the EU Inc. petition. If you are an investor in Europe, you know that the fragmentation of our corporate systems is a huge pain and waste of money. There is no way you can define yourself a “VC” without having faced this reality.
Well, as of December, the petition had 13,000 signatures from VCs, founders, and institutions. Searching for “VC” on Linkedin, there are 54,000 people with that word in their job title in the UK, France, Germany, and Italy alone. Why didn’t these people sign the petition? Do they oppose it, do they think it’s useless and nothing is going to change anyway, or don’t they know it exists at all?
We are not good at telling stories, and this is causing harm.
I’m writing this with a little envy toward the US, but with no resentment. They mastered this skill, proved it works, and happily used it for their own interest.
Europe is not as bad as it is depicted. We have people building incredible stuff here - I know them, I have invested in them, I visited their labs and heard their stories.
These stories are stories worth telling, and they deserve hype around them.