Businessweek: Europe's Mr. Entrepreneurialism - by Jennifer L. Schenker
Europe's Mr. Entrepreneurialism - by Jennifer L. Schenker
Philippe Pouletty is a man on a mission to boost entrepreneurialism in Europe. A 49-year-old French medical doctor, he launched two successful biotech companies in North America in the 1990s before returning to France in 2000 to launch three more biotechs and to co-found a $385 million Paris venture fund, called Truffle Capital.
Yet for all of his own success as a serial entrepreneur, Pouletty worries that the Old World still isn't producing enough enduring high-fliers in the mold of Genentech (DNA), Cisco Systems (CSCO), or Google (GOOG). He has an interesting take on the problem: It's not a shortage of good ideas or a lack of entrepreneurs willing to leap into the void. Rather, Pouletty says, European venture capital firms and startups don't have enough money to work with because risk-averse institutional investors in Europe aren't placing their bets on entrepreneurialism.
Labels: Entrepreneurial, EU, France
