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This week's happenings in startup and investing land. Getting underneath VC, and discussing how to better support the European startup eco-system.
Every week we share what's been on our mind and get under the skin of VC, investing, startups and founder psychology.
From the team behind SuperSeed who invest in technical teams solving difficult business problems.
The network is run on LinkedIn so join me there - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danbowyer/
With full interview audio and video uploaded to all major outlets.
Love to hear from you - dan@superseed.com
83 Episodes
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Every week we dig into the news affecting European venture, startups and investing. This week, Trump may have speed-run a global recession. Europe is having a moment. Cursor might be toast. And Jensen Huang promises a chip that will "surprise the world." 00:00 — The Oil Shock: Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz, 20M barrels/day offline, IEA buffer lasts ~20 days. Dan calls it: we're in recession territory. 01:37 — Europe's Energy Crisis 2.0: Gas storage down 40%, prices doubled, the post-...
Every week we unpack the real stories behind the headlines affecting European venture. Hosts: Dan, Lomax and Mads - All European early stage VCs. 02:00 — Why Hormuz matters more than you think. 04:08 — Europe: affected, not influential. Europe keeps ending up front row for crises it cannot shape. 10:38 — The startup angles: energy, drones, sovereignty 13:29 — “Fast fashion” warfare. Ukraine-style low-cost interceptor drones versus million-dollar missiles. Warfare has entered its b...
Upside is a weekly review of all of the news affecting European venture, startups and investing. VC Hosts: Dan, Mads, Lomax [03:05] Nvidia Earnings — 14th consecutive beat. Data centre rev up 75% to $62B. Stock basically flat. The market has priced in perfection. Bull case: 16x 2028 earnings, Rubin shipping, China at zero = pure upside. Bear case: custom ASICs climbing, 75% margins under siege. "The question is whether the AI companies can actually monetise it." [09:11] Ukraine, Four Ye...
For the week's latest news behind the headlines affecting European Venture, startups and investing. Hosts: Dan Bowyer, Lomax Ward Guest: Eyal Malinger — Co-founder, Resurge Growth Partners (venture equity — the gap between VC and PE) [02:18] Humanoid Robots at China's Spring Festival Gala Four Chinese firms showed off cable-free dancing robots. Eyal's reaction progression: "game over" → "Clone Wars" → "why are there swords near children?" China controls ~90% of humanoid shipments. H1/G...
01:52 - Anthropic's Insane $30B Round Started as $10B rumour, became $20B in January, closed at $30B. 03:21 - The Great Model Migration Sam finally kicked OpenAI off his iPhone homepage. Claude's in. 08:23 - Claude Code: Mads' Love Letter Mads hasn't looked back since discovering Claude Code's skills and agentic workflows. It's not just better writing anymore—it's a whole different way of working. 09:36 - HBR Report: AI Makes Us Work MORE Generative AI isn't reducing work, it's in...
Upside captures all of the week's news affecting European Venture. 01:22 — AI models: two flagships drop 20 minutes apart Anthropic ships Opus 4.6; OpenAI replies with GPT 5.3. Key tension: best model vs stickiest workflow (tooling + habits = raw benchmarks). China keeps coming: Kimi K2.5, Qwen3 Max — strong performance at lower cost, plus “swarm”/multi-agent vibes. 07:02 — Recursive AI + security flex OpenAI: “GPT 5.3 helped build itself” (debugging training pipeline). Anthropic: claims mod...
00:59 — Saudi surprises, NEOM shrinks, Vision 2030 = Europe takes notes. 02:58 — Europe: zero vibes, zero mission. 03:55 — War bonds?! Saudi winter games postponed. Reality intrudes. 🤖 AI Corner 07:32 — Clawdbot → Moltbot now OpenClaw?! AI intern… with admin rights. 09:19 — Early wins: negotiates car deals, plans diets, orders Tesco shops. 10:38 — Early fear: unconstrained agents + inbox access = mild terror. 12:22 — It wakes itself up and takes action. Cool. Also horrifying. 13:17 — Security...
01:35–10:24 — UK data centres: blocked… but a way through A £1bn London-area data-centre project gets halted after a planning/EIA mess-up → delays of 9–12+ months, potentially worse. The twist: data centres are being upgraded to “nationally significant infrastructure,” enabling central-government fast-track (DCO route) instead of local NIMBY planning. Still: EIAs + judicial reviews can keep slowing everything down. Core complaint: the system keeps “deciding whether to build” after we’ve alrea...
BBC yeets kids shows onto YouTube, EU does a mega trade deal, Open Cosmos tries to be European-ish Starlink, Meta buys nuclear vibes, UK bins digital IDs (again), Anthropic’s “CoWork”, Grok vs governments, plus Deals of the Week. Basically: geopolitics, space, energy, AI, and British admin disintegration. (00:34) BBC on YouTube: “iPlayer walked so Netflix could run” Dan: YouTube is enormous; BBC is adapting for younger audiences (and maybe… survival mode).Mads: iPlayer was genuinely visionar...
Hosts: Dan Bowyer, Lomax Ward, Mads Jensen Episode summary This week we cover Trump’s Greenland rhetoric and the broader implications for NATO, European defence spending, and sovereignty. Then we dive into the tech and markets that (quietly) moved: Meta’s acquisition of Manus, Octopus/“Kraken” spinning out as a major energy-software player, Discord’s IPO momentum, Revolut’s Turkey expansion via license acquisition, and why UK pensions are underperforming (plus what reform could actually fix)....
Guests: Dan Bowyer, Mads Jensen, Lomax Ward and Dan Gray Part 1 — 2025 predictions: what hit, what missed? 02:59 — OpenAI “dethroned”: debate, but mostly “yes” 04:47 — China/Taiwan “decisive year”: mostly no 05:46 — Defence tech surge: yes 06:46 — Europe/UK tech sovereignty: yes-ish but hard to measure 07:25 — Space enabling tech keeps attracting capital: yes 07:30 — US recession H2 2025: nope 09:07 — Stock correction early 2025: correct-ish 09:45 — M&A rebounds: yes 10:24 — IPO window re...
With European VCs Lomax, Mads, Andrew and Dan 2025 year-in-review for European tech: capital, unicorns, geopolitics, AI, health, defence, and space space spaaaace. 01:25 – European tech in numbers $45bn into European startups (flat vs 2023–24, still ~½ of 2021 peak).28 new unicorns in 2025 (up from 14 in 2024).US dominates: ~$250bn private tech funding.VC fundraising still tight (~$10bn into European funds).Exits are back: Wiz–Google, Klarna IPO, SMG IPO.04:16 – 2025 in one sentence Dan: “Ext...
Upside is a weekly pod that looks at the global news headlines and works out what really matters for European tech, venture, startups and investing. With European VCs - Lomax Ward, Dan Bowyer and Mads Jensen What’s on the docket this week: •SpaceX mega-raise / IPO noise: “what are you really buying?” •“Europe’s euro success”: North–South polarity flipping •China’s $1T+ goods trade surplus + what it means for Europe •US defence spend reality check •AI corner: chips, models, and AI bubble chatt...
Upside #69 - For the real news behind the headlines affecting European venture, startups and investing. Every week Mads, Lomax, Andrew and myself (Dan) get together and chat. Bending Spoons 01:27 Berkshire-like roll-up; mostly debt-funded; big integration/tech-debt execution risk. 3:30 “US→Italy arbitrage”—cut expensive US costs, rebuild with top Italian talent + high-efficiency culture; cash-cow ops; high employee satisfaction. 05:13 Success likely hinges on better distribution/ops than prev...
Upside #68 w/ Robin Haak (Robin Capital), Lomax (Outsized), Mads and Dan (SuperSeed). Topics: Germany’s slowdown • Social media bans • UK budget • Solo GPs • N26 • Europe vs Big Tech • AI Corner 01:21 – Robin’s Background 100+ investments, 8 unicorns. Co-founded SmartRecruiters → sold to SAP ($100M ARR). Former GP at Revaya (€600M AUM). Now building a 50-year solo GP franchise. 03:58 – Social Media Ban for Under-16s Mads: EU Parliament pushes advisory resolution; strong evidence social media ...
This week in Upside #67 Mads returns from Slush with 24 one-to-ones under his belt and a head full of insights. Dan and Lomax dig into Germany’s €35B space strategy, the surprising data behind immigrant-founded unicorns, and Europe’s defence-IPO boom. They break down Vinted’s huge secondary, the EU’s attempt to kill cookie banners, and the UK’s sudden wave of AI investment initiatives. In AI Corner: why 70% of AI startups now ship on open-source models, Google’s new TPU-trained Gemini 3, and ...
Each week a small bunch of us try and makes sense of the latest news affecting European venture. Upside #66 - The theme this week is back to tech sovereignty, what that really means, what’s trade, what’s security - and ultimately will we all become full stack nations? 01:04 – UK exit tax: what it was and why it was dropped The mooted UK “exit tax” (tax on unrealised gains when leaving the country), why it would be disastrous for founders, political “pitch-rolling” before budgets, and T...
Upside Ep #65 - A Baltic Boom, Matt Clifford Rouses, A Tale Of Two Quants A weekly show that unpacks the shenanigans affecting European venture. Dan (host), Mads, Lomax, Special Guest: Jone (Yo neh) — Managing Partner, First Pick (Lithuania) 3:26 — Pre-seed vs Seed in the Baltics •Why pre-seed fits: seed still feels early; when companies inflect, foreign funds out-gun local check sizes. Funds in region typically €10–€100M AUM, so Series A+ is handed off. 05:39 — Foreign funds’ interest &...
The pod that unpacks the real news behind the clickbait affecting European venture. Hosts: Dan, Mads, Lomax, Andrew 02:41 — Bending Spoons deep dive Debt-fuelled roll-up, “Berkshire of consumer apps” analogy; Ukrainian peer Gentek noted; why more post-COVID roll-ups didn’t materialise. 04:34 — US debt vs Europe risk Market’s view on capital allocation/dynamism; Decacorns vs unicorns; power-law returns reinforce Botha’s point. 06:01 — “VC isn’t an asset class” debate Power-law concentration...
Upside - the weekly pod exploring the real news behind the clickrage affecting European venture, startups and investing. Hosts: Dan, Mads, Lomax, Andrew 04:56 - Amazon, Robots & Europe’s Automation • Amazon aims for 75% robotised operations by 2033 in the US. • Automation = productivity growth, not mass layoffs. • Europe: >80% of warehouses still manual; Germany highly automated. • Debate: displacement vs. growth; Europe can't fall behind. 18:50 - AI & Europe’s Industrial Revolu...
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