Entrepreneurs of Europe
Our cOverage Of france’s economic enlightenment takes us into the heart of Europe at the same time that Forbes is diving into the whole of Europe. In February, Forbes acquired a London-based online business publication, The Memo, that gives us a full-fledged editorial operation on that continent—six full-time journalists, along with ten or so commercial staffers and another 200 or so freelance contributors, fanned out across every major country in the EU.
“It’s the most interesting time in recent history to be covering business here,” says Alex
Wood, our new Europe editor.
“We have a perfect storm, with the U.K. and northern Europe pulling away, and France,
Germany and southern Europe striving to be more united.”
Of course, political dysfunction and latent nationalism are as old as the Continent itself.
The real story: an entrepreneurial zeal across Europe, particular among the young and digitally savvy, who see opportunities, not borders. Wood came from that camp. Forbes saw him as a potential honoree for the 30 Under 30 media list. Our reporter called him to kick the tires . . . on his 30th birthday. The bad timing turned out to be fortuitous: Wood became a scout and judge for the list, and we got a front-row view as he started and expanded The Memo. “Having covered and written about entrepreneurs, it’s infectious,” says Wood. “You want to have a go yourself.” Three years later, he sold to Forbes, which now gives the him the platform to be even more ambitious.
It was in this spirit that we started looking into what’s happening in France, where President Emmanuel Macron has embraced free trade, lower taxes and less regulation. “I was initially skeptical,” says our Londonbased staff writer Parmy Olson. “Over many years, I’d heard the Finnish, Irish, Portuguese and more proclaim their respective capitals were the hot new startup hub.”
But over numerous trips and interviews, Olson discovered a new pulse led by entrepreneurs like billionaire Xavier Niel and Macron himself. When she and I interviewed the president, the former banker spoke with a private sector fluency that pretty much no other leader in the world can match. The tell that something is different: Rather than choose between trekking to Paris and an impersonal phone conversation, we held a three-way face-toface meeting via a favorite Macron channel—Skype. Can Macron’s France finally realize its potential? Judge for yourself, starting on page 70.