Just a couple of months ago here on HN, I sent a "message in a bottle" for US-based founders who are looking to move to Europe and contribute to a more stable future. I have personally helped several take the leap in the last few years, and I wanted to do it in a more structured way.
The response has been astonishing. I have talked to over 50 founders with sometimes up to 25-30 years of experience, who want nothing but the opportunity to do just that: Uproot their life, move their company, start again in Europe.
I took time to restructure this as an incubator, which I have designed with constant feedback from the founders who reached out. What you see at https://sevenseed.eu is the result of this work.
I've founded startups and exited in both US & Europe. The EU mindset is different - sometimes that's for the better, sometimes not. There are many flaws and issues, but I can attest that Europe is working on those (for example through EU Inc: https://www.eu-inc.org), whereas the US is simply not going in the right direction.
My goal with Seven Seed is to create a space and 6 months program specially crafted for founders currently residing in NA, wishing to make the leap. Brussels is the perfect place for it. It's extremely international (one of the most international cities in the world), making it extremely welcoming to English speakers. It's geographically convenient, within 2h train rides of London, Paris, Amsterdam (and many more if you take the plane). As a human sized capital city, it's super walkable; you don't need a car. But despite being human-sized it's still buzzing with activity. It also has no capital gains tax, something most people seemingly don't know.
Many EU programs are very inward-looking. We are not. The program looks towards all of Europe and we bring expertise in tech, AI, cybersecurity, climate and defence. We are privately funded (part-cohort, part-angels), which gives us a lot more flexibility and neutrality when it comes to helping startups make choices.
One last thing... everyone in the program is automatically invested in each others' exits. We have a profit sharing system which redistributes 25% of all proceeds from the startups directly to all the other members of the same cohort. I have yet to see another incubator/accelerator do this, and I hope this will change because IMO it creates an amazing incentive to help each other within the program.
I'm around for a while, but my email's in my profile as well!
anovikov · 8h ago
What is your position on hardware-rich startups? Especially those that plan to manufacture here in EU? Defence/mixed use tech. Are these too much of a pain/unscalable/little monetisation potential, or OK?
scrollaway · 8h ago
Depends what kind of hardware. B2C is difficult. But in dual-use/defence there are a LOT of opportunities - and several we can assist with (we have strong experience in drones and other dual-use hardware startups, as well as direct links to Ukraine to help battletest said hardware)
If you're just manufacturing drones, truth is you'll be in a red ocean and will be unlikely to make it. OTOH, specific components, drone modules, etc are all very hot right now.
If you're doing much more deeptech-style hardware, there are opportunities and EU is a good place for it but we'd likely be looking at helping get EIC funding (2.5M nondilutive funding, ~5% success rate but very tough application). NL and southern france have interesting ecosystems for this.
Do you have something specific in mind?
anovikov · 8h ago
Yes i do have a very specific thing is mind but i don't want to sound like a typical American pie-in-the-sky founder so i'd only apply once we have at least a crude working prototype.
scrollaway · 8h ago
Don't hesitate to apply anyway! We're OK with idea-stage startups. Program is for idea stage to early seed.
anovikov · 9h ago
Why incorporating in Belgium? Let's revisit one big benefit of being in Europe: plenty of countries, very different tax regimes. OK forget Hungary because it's one more little MAGA land, but there are also Malta and Cyprus that have very low corporate taxes. Both also have fantastic, well-functioning legal system when it comes to corporate and IP law. Why not there?
scrollaway · 9h ago
In EU, you will have an easier time incorporating in the same country you actually live/operate in, due to paperwork, admin, costs, benefits etc. The sole exception to this rule is that of Estonia, which has e-residency.
It's not a hard requirement for this program to incorporate in BE, but I recommend it and we take on all costs of BE incorporation as part of it.
The EU Inc project (https://www.eu-inc.org/) I mentioned is very promising when it comes to how incorporation should actually eventually work, but it's not live yet. Once it is, it will likely be our strong recommendation.
The response has been astonishing. I have talked to over 50 founders with sometimes up to 25-30 years of experience, who want nothing but the opportunity to do just that: Uproot their life, move their company, start again in Europe.
I took time to restructure this as an incubator, which I have designed with constant feedback from the founders who reached out. What you see at https://sevenseed.eu is the result of this work.
I've founded startups and exited in both US & Europe. The EU mindset is different - sometimes that's for the better, sometimes not. There are many flaws and issues, but I can attest that Europe is working on those (for example through EU Inc: https://www.eu-inc.org), whereas the US is simply not going in the right direction.
My goal with Seven Seed is to create a space and 6 months program specially crafted for founders currently residing in NA, wishing to make the leap. Brussels is the perfect place for it. It's extremely international (one of the most international cities in the world), making it extremely welcoming to English speakers. It's geographically convenient, within 2h train rides of London, Paris, Amsterdam (and many more if you take the plane). As a human sized capital city, it's super walkable; you don't need a car. But despite being human-sized it's still buzzing with activity. It also has no capital gains tax, something most people seemingly don't know.
Many EU programs are very inward-looking. We are not. The program looks towards all of Europe and we bring expertise in tech, AI, cybersecurity, climate and defence. We are privately funded (part-cohort, part-angels), which gives us a lot more flexibility and neutrality when it comes to helping startups make choices.
One last thing... everyone in the program is automatically invested in each others' exits. We have a profit sharing system which redistributes 25% of all proceeds from the startups directly to all the other members of the same cohort. I have yet to see another incubator/accelerator do this, and I hope this will change because IMO it creates an amazing incentive to help each other within the program.
I'm around for a while, but my email's in my profile as well!
If you're just manufacturing drones, truth is you'll be in a red ocean and will be unlikely to make it. OTOH, specific components, drone modules, etc are all very hot right now.
If you're doing much more deeptech-style hardware, there are opportunities and EU is a good place for it but we'd likely be looking at helping get EIC funding (2.5M nondilutive funding, ~5% success rate but very tough application). NL and southern france have interesting ecosystems for this.
Do you have something specific in mind?
It's not a hard requirement for this program to incorporate in BE, but I recommend it and we take on all costs of BE incorporation as part of it.
The EU Inc project (https://www.eu-inc.org/) I mentioned is very promising when it comes to how incorporation should actually eventually work, but it's not live yet. Once it is, it will likely be our strong recommendation.