The Entrepreneurial Age, viewed from Europe
Global insights & perspectives on technology, straight to your inbox
Strong theses and curated links on industries, countries, and individual firms
The occasional Building Bridges podcast, co-hosted with Laetitia Vitaud 🎧
Enjoyed by founders, financiers, executives & policymakers worldwide
What readers say
It’s rare to find a tech thinker who thinks as eclectically as Nicolas, elegantly fusing together the latest in politics and business with deeper thoughts drawn from authors you always thought you should read, but never quite got round to. His e-mails are that nicest of things: an intellectual treat, and one that always comes with something interesting and unexpected at its heart.
— James Crabtree, author of The Billionaire Raj 🇬🇧🇸🇬
Nicolas is schizophrenic but in a good way: he has this rare ability to look at the world from two different angles at the same time. He's both an entrepreneur and policymaker, which gives his newsletter a unique perspective on tech, society, and how they interact.
— Martin Mignot, Partner, Index Ventures 🇫🇷🇬🇧
Always impressed by Nicolas’s capacity to cover the depth and breadth of each topic, with well organised information and powerful insights.
— Carlota Perez, author of Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital 🇻🇪🇬🇧
About Nicolas Colin
I am an investor and former senior civil servant with more than a decade of experience in tech—first from a policy perspective, then as an entrepreneur, and since 2013 as a co-founder & director of The Family, a global investment firm headquartered in London. Over the past decade, my family and I have lived in Paris, London, and now Munich. My views on the tech landscape in Europe have appeared in The Financial Times, Sifted, Politico Europe, Foreign Affairs, and this newsletter, which I’ve been writing since early 2017. I’m also the co-host of Capital Call, a weekly digest of what European VCs are thinking—in their own words. On Twitter: @Nicolas_Colin
Become a subscriber
10,000+ founders, financiers, executives, policymakers, journalists and academics from all over the globe read European Straits to have a better view of the tech world from a European perspective. Here are some of the most popular editions:
🇫🇷 France, As Revealed by its Elite (July 2020)
🌐 My Worldview in 10 Ideas (January 2021)
👔 11 Notes on McKinsey (May 2020)
📖 12 Articles That Changed My Views Over the Past Decade (January 2020)
⚖️ Bill Janeway on Who Should Be in Control (April 2021)
🤑 Capitalism and the Future of Nation States (December 2019)
🏛 Can Anyone Reshape the State? (January 2020)
📊 Moneyball in Consulting Services (March 2021)
🧱 11 Notes on Lego (February 2020)
🇺🇸 Adieu to Old America (April 2020)
More praise
If tech is really spreading into everything, then people in tech need to get much more curious about how the rest of the world works. Europe has so much figured out from which we in the U.S. can learn. Reading Nicolas’ newsletter is an unfair cheat for cribbing for that understand-the-rest-of-the-world exam.
— Roy Bahat, Head, Bloomberg Beta 🇺🇸
Nicolas’s newsletter is a must-read for anyone interested in entrepreneurship and technology on a global basis. With his atypical background (a high-level French public servant turned entrepreneur!), he brings perspective to emerging trends and sets forth clear stances on complex matters.
— Barthélémy de Beaupuy, Managing Partner, Committed Advisors 🇫🇷🇸🇬
I find European Straits very refreshing. It provides the much-needed big picture in tech and startups, tapping into the lessons from economic, technological and political history, always giving hints on what lies ahead. I like how Nicolas tackles different trending topics from the public policy angle, which is too often missing in other analyses. That’s exactly what I need in my work at the World Bank, as we support governments’ designing and implementing tech & entrepreneurship ecosystem building.
— Simon Duchatelet, Entrepreneurship Ecosystems Enabler, The World Bank Group 🇫🇷🇱🇧
Nicolas’s insights are thought-provoking, insightful, and put what are often complex and broad ideas into context in a simple manner. One of my favourite newsletters!
— Marieke Flament, CEO, Mettle (Royal Bank of Scotland) 🇫🇷🇬🇧
I love the way Nicolas has adapted Joe Studwell's How Asia Works framework to understand a revolutionary path forward for European economies. Very smart and original. Deserves a great deal of attention.
— Tim O’Reilly, Founder, O’Reilly Media 🇺🇸
There are only a few newsletters worth paying for out there. This is 💯 one of them. European Straits from Nicolas will give you the unfair advantage you need.
— Ben Robinson & Dan Colceriu, Co-Founders, Aperture 🇬🇧🇷🇴🇨🇭
Super impressed with Nicolas’s thinking, analysis and synthesis around some of the most critical issues and trends in technology, policy and global issues. His curation of further reading is the best I have seen. Single most important reading list on a weekly basis for me.
— Nawal Roy, Founder & CEO, Holmusk 🇮🇳🇸🇬
I consume *a lot* of information on European tech. But I look forward to each edition of European Straits because Nicolas always manages to surprise me. He is able to distill complex topics into fascinating reads with ridiculous ease. I don't think I'll ever unsubscribe.
— Gonz Sanchez, Founder, Seedtable 🇦🇷🇪🇸
Often asked about the great new tech innovation out there today, I tell people for me the greatest phenomena is not about the tech itself but near universal access to it. It has unleashed talent everywhere, and is making mass problem solving and scaled enterprises come from anywhere. Nothing has or will have more impact in the global economy, innovation and societies in a positive sense. Nicolas has been at the bleeding edge of this shift across Europe and beyond, and European Straits is the must-read to a front row seat of it all.
— Christopher M. Schroeder, author of Startup Rising 🇺🇸
Nicolas connects the dots between technology, finance, society and politics in a way that stands out in the European tech ecosystem. His European Straits newsletter is elevating the quality of discourse around the key questions that matter to those operating, investing or simply interested in European tech. I don’t always agree with him, in fact sometimes I find myself on the other side of his arguments entirely. But that’s precisely the point; he is challenging the way we think about European tech and brings fresh and relevant perspectives to the table.
— Tom Wehmeier, Partner, Head of Research, Atomico 🇬🇧