A small group of successful entrepreneurs can have tremendous impact on building a tech community. It only requires four to five successful entrepreneurs setting up a variety of basic building blocks that become powerful conduits for knowledge transfer through sharing deals, comparing notes and explaining what is globally best-in-class. This includes seed funds, accelerators, creating shared working and meeting spaces. These become talent magnets and inherently form healthy competition between the new generation of entrepreneurs building even more impactful products and businesses. Building a vibrant tech ecosystem is the modern alchemy for any economy serious about becoming a global leader.

We’re witnessing several initiatives dedicated to strengthening the connections between local hubs, especially evident in the Nordics and CEE. Unfortunately, Western Europe isn’t showing any signs of progress as Paris, London and Berlin continue competing to be crowned "tech capital" of the continent. Without more ambitious contributions from the private sector to create more sustainable bridges between these tech hubs, we will have no choice but to continue relying on current public initiatives that show little to no sign of solving this issue.