A practical framework to identify key people, assess risks, and decide what to do next.
Founders spend most of their time finding market fit, checking out competitors, hiring, fundraising, attending board meetings and analyzing financials and projections. In CEE markets, where startups and scaleups are founder heavy, one type of...
Around 90% of startups fail, and nearly half do so because they build something no one actually needs. The root cause is simple: founders fall in love with their idea, skip user validation, and assume the market will care. It rarely does.
Success often depends on clearly understanding the problem,...
AI is complicated. But what if we’re the ones making it more complicated than it needs to be?
In most conversations today, AI sounds like alchemy. Acronyms, hype, and talk of billion-parameter models dominate the narrative. Yet the most impactful AI systems I’ve seen or helped build...
What if your startup’s next major milestone didn’t require raising another round, but signing your first serious client?
Across the world, founders are often trained to think in fundraising cycles. From pre-seed to seed to Series A, everything is framed around equity capital. But in today’s...
In 2024, startups across the UK secured around $17 billion in investment, positioning the UK as the most popular destination for early-stage ventures in Europe. The nation’s thriving ecosystem is further highlighted by its more than 30 unicorns, reflecting strong growth and innovation, which makes the UK a...
“Europe is not ready to defend itself,” warns Kate McKenna, a strategic consultant for Ukraine’s defense and intelligence sector. Her analysis first appeared in The Recursive’s editorial topic “Europe Is Preparing for War to Keep the Peace” in the report State of defense and cybersecurity tech in CEE....
Let’s be honest: fintech loves talking about diversity. Panels, hashtags, initiatives, you name it. But on the ground, things aren’t moving fast enough.
In 2024, women-only founding teams in Europe received just 12% of total VC funding, around €5.76 billion across more than 1,300 rounds,...
Marijn Markus, a Dutch data scientist known for his detailed analysis of Russian propaganda on LinkedIn, argues that Europe’s slow response to strengthening its defenses stems from decades of military neglect and targeted disinformation. Part of his commentary first appeared in The Recursive’s editorial topic “Europe Is Preparing...
86% of employers believe that AI and technology could transform their businesses by 2030. And more than half of them have already planned to make it happen.
These interesting figures come from The Future of Jobs Report 2025. Of course, these numbers reflect the views and opinions of a specific...
Over the last 8 years, I’ve worked with fintech startups at various stages – from early teams still shaping their go-to-market strategy, to later-stage scaleups managing multi-million dollar budgets. For instance, at Zilch, a UK-based unicorn, I helped build the paid acquisition department from the...
