Europe's startup ecosystem is maturing rapidly, with companies like Revolut, Loveable, and Ligora

demonstrating that world-class technology businesses can be built and scaled on the continent.

While the U.S. remains the dominant force and venture-backed software as home to the largest

markets, the deepest capital pools, and the most ambitious exit culture, a growing

number of European founders are choosing to build at home. Edward Keelan is a partner at Octopus

Ventures, one of Europe's largest and most active venture capital firms, where he has spent

over 16 years leading the B2B Software and Enterprise AI Fund. His portfolio spans seed through

CRIC with a focus on European founders building in AI, VerticalSAS, and Enterprise Software.

This long view experience gives him a rare perspective on what it takes to build enduring technology

companies in Europe.

In this episode, Edward joins Elena Baroda to discuss what separates great founders from the rest,

how AI is reshaping the software landscape and threatening established players,

the state of the European startup ecosystem and what it needs to compete globally,

and what engineers and founders should be thinking about as the industry enters a new era.

Elena Baroda focuses on GTM for developer tools and AI startups, with experience and observability

and building tools for MCP servers.

She is based in Berlin.

Thank you. and building tools for MCP servers. She is based in Berlin. Welcome to Software Engineering Daily.

Today's guests is Edward Keelan, a partner at Octopus Ventures. Great to

have you on the pod, Edward. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's a real privilege to have

been asked to be on the podcast, but also really nerve-wracking as well. I feel like, I don't know,

a few people sort of frowning at VCs already and engineers wondering

...