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- In today’s CEO Daily: Unpacking the areas where Europe still has an edge.
- The big leadership story: Are we on the cusp of a productivity boom?
- The markets: Mostly down as investors await news of an Iran peace deal.
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. I’m in Monaco this week, speaking with leaders from 46 countries competing in EY’s World Entrepreneur of the Year competition, which takes place tonight. Being here is a reminder that U.S. leaders may be too quick to write off Europe as a place to invest, hire or expand. For all the complaints about regulatory costs, labor laws, risk-taking, energy costs and other challenges, there are merits to creating companies here. A new EY study found 60% of businesses surveyed expect Europe’s attractiveness to increase over the next three years. Here are some perspectives from successful CEOs there who help explain why.
Johannes Reck is CEO of GetYourGuide, a Berlin-based travel platform valued at more than $2 billion, with 50,000 supply partners, over 200,000 experiences and more than 33 million bookings logged in the past year. Reck has turned down multiple offers to move to Silicon Valley since the site launched in 2009 because Europe has clear advantages. “It’s where most of the international tourists actually go,” he told me recently, noting that the continent also boasts a strong immigration system and deep pool of multilingual talent. “We see a lot more loyalty of staff in Europe versus the U.S. If I look at longevity and turnover costs, it’s much, much lower here …The U.S. is fantastic if you want to scale really fast. But for a business like ours that takes decades to build, Europe has a lot of advantages.”
David Reger, CEO of NEURA Robotics and an EY finalist from Germany, knew the challenges of producing smart robots in Europe when he set up near Stuttgart in 2019. But building a factory in a region that gave birth to brands like Mercedes-Benz and Porsche also gave him access to engineering talent from top schools in a land of universal health care and a strong social safety net. His stint as a social worker with homeless clients in San Francisco in 2009 inspired him to build a business back in Germany. “I want to become the biggest taxpayer in Europe and create a sustainable tech ecosystem here,” he told me. “With AI, governments will not be able to catch up. I think the responsibility of the entrepreneur will rise by like 100x because you’re not just thinking about how to make your business successful but the whole social impact it will bring.”
There’s another advantage that’s often overlooked. Stina Ehrensvard, last year’s WEOY winner and founder of Stockholm cybersecurity firm Yubico, credits Sweden’s childcare system with making her path possible. “I could be a mom and create a company,” she told me yesterday. Ask some of the women on the 2026 Fortune Most Powerful Women list if they had that choice, and you might get a different answer.
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at [email protected]
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
