Our team is pleased to introduce “Perspectives” — a monthly newsletter and bi-annual journal featuring real-time updates from European tech founders on their best (and worst) strategies for achieving growth and profitability.

Observing closely as new trends and tactics evolve, while others fade away — month on month, semester on semester.

Read Stephane’s take on H1 2024 as we begin our review of this semester👇

2023 ends, for most founders and investors in Europe, with a bittersweet taste

The hopes of improved performance, the big plans, the newly hired CROs, the team motivational speeches, none of that, unfortunately, has beaten the market conditions. Financial plans were missed, big times, by most companies on our old continent.  

I have no right not to say that next year will be harder than the one that just passed for SMB and Mid-Market-focused businesses, as recession is coming in 2024 in Europe and eventually in the US.

Yet, truly Enterprise-focused companies will manage their way out of the storm as their target customers will still consider their services and products as potential levers for growth. 

An inch, a 1% improvement for MNC (multinational company), represents millions of dollars, sometimes more. For small and mid-sized companies, though, if products and services do not have a significant impact on their savings or growth, meaning double digits, it will be considered as it is: a nice-to-have. 

We’re consequently seeing a golden rush from VCs and entrepreneurs to move up-market. Most, if not all, SMB and Mid-Market companies now want to build an Enterprise sales channel.

Somewhat like PLG (product-led growth) was a buzzword 5 to 10 years ago. 

Those drastic changes, of course, result in product madness and team disorientation. I tend to consider those attempts like transplanting a porc heart into a man. It is noble, it is courageous, and it is definitely advancing science, but the graft has limited chances to take.

The one and only possibility for this move to work is to profoundly change the nature and the DNA of the company, starting with the leadership team.

Then, a new product roadmap has to be built and executed, and, ultimately, the sales and account manager team has to be entirely replaced. How many companies will do so? Very few, since most of them tend to underestimate what real-enterprise deals, ranging from $100k to $1M, require.

Hence, for technology and cloud companies, 2024 will be around mutations and survival

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Will founders resist that extreme pressure? It will lead, no doubt, to increased tensions within leadership teams, deviant behaviors of CEOs, micromanagement, and VC-CEO full stop of honeymoon time. 

Like in the real-world economy, 2024 tech & cloud survivors will be the ones led by CEOs and co-founders who are exceptional human beings, combining the non-intuitive skills of self-awareness, humility, empathy and obsession to stay on course vs plan. 

We need them and can’t wait to see them emerge from the crowd.