DeepMind

Saul Klein: Europe Is Quietly Building the New Silicon Valley

Aug 19, 2026 · 57:23

Saul Klein, Phoenix Court co-founder, argues that Europe—London especially—is quietly becoming the world's next Silicon Valley, calling the UK the third-biggest innovation economy after the US and China. He recounts building LoveFilm from Netflix-like DVD rental into a £100M+ revenue business via partnerships with Tesco, ITV, and Odeon, and joining Skype as it grew 400,000 users a day through network effects. Klein says founders should not blindly go to the US, capital is a commodity, and most of the world's 20,000 VCs add little beyond money; only 28 have backed 11+ companies to $100M revenue at seed. He details Phoenix Court's structure: a company, carry for every employee, and a foundation as 30% shareholder; he names London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, and Amsterdam as leading hubs.

We Ignored Silicon Valley Advice for 3 Years | Nicolas Sharp (Attio)

Apr 30, 2026 · 57:49

Nicolas Sharp, co-founder of Attio, explains why the CRM startup spent 1,000 days building in stealth—a deliberate counter to the 'ship fast' philosophy he learned from a previous venture—and how that architectural investment now powers Attio's AI-native platform. He argues that the half-life of product-market fit has collapsed, forcing companies to simultaneously iterate and scale, and that Attio's high-resolution data pipelines are critical for deploying AI agents. Sharp also details how Attio used manual waitlist onboarding to validate demand, how fundraising expectations have risen dramatically (Attio raised $52M at Series B with accelerating growth), and why Europe is having a breakout moment as an AI hub, citing talent from DeepMind and Palantir as catalysts.