Scaling a company is a demanding process: only 1 in 10 companies in Europe manages to scale on average by more than 10% annually, over a three-year period. Then, when the growth finally comes, it bring its own set of challenges to manage and sustain it.
While every startup aims to scale, managing that growth effectively is critical for long-term success and sustainability. Growth affects every aspect of an organization, from its internal structure to its culture and processes. Without the right strategies and tools, the growth that is eagerly pursued can quickly lead to chaos and increased risk.
After all - as we already explained in a previous article - Growing a business is about getting bigger, while scaling up a business is about handling growth efficiently. In the previous article, we discussed several successful examples of scaleups in Europe and introduced the concept of the "Transition Moment." This is the phase when planned growth is achieved, but often comes as a surprise, requiring startups to deploy new resources.
In the upcoming sections, we will outline five major challenges that high-growth companies encounter during this transition moment and provide practical advice to address them effectively.

Scaling a business from startup to scaleup is notably challenging, especially in the fragmented and diverse European market. Entrepreneurs often face hurdles such as market fragmentation, lack of regulatory harmonisation, funding limitations, and cultural and institutional challenges. Nonetheless, a notable number of European startups and SMEs have managed to not only survive but thrive, providing crucial insights into their paths of rapid growth.

In this article, we explore successful scaleup cases as highlighted by the European Scaleup Monitor 2023 and compare them with the most recent insights from the 2024 edition. We also integrate several insights from our own experiences and practice.

Is there a replicable formula for scaling success? What elements are essential to the elusive 'scaling DNA'? And how do specific market demands shape the scaling process?

Our goal is to uncover common patterns among these high-growth European firms, offering practical insights for managers and decision-makers to tackle their own growth challenges and seize new opportunities.

Our founder and managing director Arnbjörn Eggerz will give a workshop on May 11th at the Free University of Bolzano lecturing about the topic
"Navigating the Next 20 Years: Leading in times of Radical Technology and Geopolitical Shifts".

Since we started our seminar for managers and managing owners "Wirtschaft 2030 - Strategien für Unternehmen in Zeiten der Eurokrise, Digitalisierung und Energiewende" in 2015/16 shifts in secular trends are an important topic for us. As we see more and more requests from our clints to cover not only pure business process topics, but global developments with the eyes of C-level management and private investors (Family Offices, Families PE/VSs), we kept constantly upgrading the depth and areas of coverage.
This workshop is a great occasion to share some key insights into global economic and technologic developments and how the transcendent to managers of companies and private equity in the wider sense.

The first edition has just been published. Finally, and in the process with some glitches. And already the second editions is supposed to follow. Here we go. As so many concurrent topical events happen, I decided to focus, in this edition, on a meta topic.

Observations

The bubble that … did not burst - yet

The New York Times featured an article about VCs talking for years about a bubble,

Marktrecherche, Business-Insights und qualitative Diskussionen sind alles Bausteine des Business Development, für Wachstum einer Firma und dem Entstehen und Pflegen eines guten Ökosystems.

Und es sind Themen von Iceventure. Deswegen freut sich das Team von Iceventure bekannt geben zu dürfen, dass wir für die DEEP Ecosystem Konferenz 2022 die Research-Sponsorenschaft übernehmen.

Dies bedeutet: Zu vier Themen, die heute und in den nächsten Jahren für europäische und internationale Startup-Ökosysteme erhebliche Auswirkungen haben werden, trägt Iceventure vier unserer Deep Dives, also umfangreiche und fundierte Recherchen, zusammen und stellt sie den Organisatoren und damit den Teilnehmer der DEEP Ecosystems Conference 2022 zur Verfügung.

A short intro into this newsletter Nr 1

My team and I often brief customers on current developments in tech, mostly with European focus. Also, we keep track of relevant developments for ourselves and discuss them. So, the idea came up, why not to share some parts of this digestion in form of a public Iceventure newsletter? This is an experiment, so format and frequency are undefined and subject to experiments. Maybe it will turn paid, maybe not. Let’s try. Content in this edition:

Volkswagen vs. Tesla - in the end, it is the car industry and how established industries end
Twitter, Elon Musk and thoughts about Europe 
Graph - Ukraine's energy reserves
Readings

Observations

Volkswagen vs. Tesla

Volkswagen just published its Q1/2022 earnings announcement.

An dieser Stelle hätte eigentlich der jährliche Artikel mit dem Themenschwerpunkt Technologieausblick 2022 erscheinen sollen.

Nun geht es um die Ukraine, besser um eine erste Einordnung und Reflektion zu den möglichen langfristigen Auswirkungen auf Volkswirtschaft, Unternehmen und den internationalen Techsektor.

Zuerst: Der Angriff auf die Ukraine ist ein entsetzlicher Moment der Geschichte, der eine Wende, eine Zäsur bedeutet. Wenn man allerdings sowohl die Reaktionen, Reden als auch die mediale Berichterstattung, insbesondere die Aussagen diverser dt. und europäischer Politiker auswertet, überrascht die Blauäugigkeit und die „Blase“ aus der die deutsche und europäische Öffentlichkeit aufgewacht.

Für unsere Kunden hingegen ist der Fakt einer zugenommenen Volatilität, die sich nun traurigerweise realisiert, keine größere Überraschung. Ordnen wir also die Ereignisse in Rahmen unseres Analysekontext ein.

Das große Thema der letzten Zeit ist Mark Zuckerbergs Bekanntgabe, dass Facebook zu “Meta” umbenannt wird. Seine über 80-minütige Keynote-Präsentation drehte sich aber nicht direkt um das Facebook, wie man es kennt, sondern um den Begriff “Metaverse”. Was hat es mit der Vision Metaverse auf sich, warum kommt die Ankündigung gerade jetzt, und vor allem, was bedeutet das für den europäischen Technologiemarkt? Hier lohnt sich ein Blick jenseits der PR-Inszenierung hin zu den Hintergründen in den Bereichen Markenstrategie, Produktvision, Technologie sowie dem Verhältnis von Markt und Innovation.