Adyen co-founder urges European startups to tell bigger stories
In a Fortune commentary, the Adyen veteran said Europe has strong founders and products but often fails to turn ambition into a public narrative.
By Sofia Marchetti · World Affairs Correspondent
3 min read
An Adyen co-founder is urging European technology founders to be more open about their ambitions, arguing that the continent’s startups often lose momentum by staying too quiet. In a commentary for Fortune, he said Europe already has the founders, technology and global companies needed to compete, but needs to do a better job explaining its vision.
The argument draws on his experience at Adyen, the Amsterdam payments company he said he joined in 2007 as its ninth employee. According to the commentary, Adyen went public in Amsterdam in 2018 and was Europe’s most valuable fintech at that point.
He described Adyen’s growth from a young startup into a global payments company as one of his proudest professional achievements. He credited the company’s team and said Adyen’s approach centered on customers, execution and product rather than promotional noise.
After leaving, he said he spent time traveling, serving on boards, investing and returning to personal interests. He later decided he missed company-building and the work of turning an idea into a business with a small, ambitious team.
That led to a new venture. In the commentary, he said he met Shah Ramezani in March 2024 and was struck by Ramezani’s belief that stablecoins could improve the way money moves globally. A little more than a year later, they launched Noah, a company focused on infrastructure for faster movement of money using internet-era rails.
The broader message was aimed at Europe’s startup culture. The Adyen co-founder wrote that the lesson from Adyen was not that Europe lacks ambition, but that it often keeps that ambition out of view.
He argued that European founders are often taught to build quietly, promise less than they expect to deliver and let results make the case. That discipline can help create durable companies, he said, but it can also make it harder to attract employees, investors and customers before a company has reached scale.
In his view, founders need more than strong products. He said talented workers want a mission, investors want to hear a case for a future market and customers want to know why a company matters.
The commentary contrasted that tendency with the United States, where he said founders are generally more comfortable describing a future before it has arrived. He acknowledged that American startup storytelling can run ahead of reality, but argued that it helps gather support around a company before the final results are visible.
He also framed some common European constraints as strengths. Because European home markets are fragmented, companies such as Adyen, Wise and Revolut had to think internationally from the beginning, he wrote. He also said tighter access to capital can force companies to build with more discipline than rivals that can spend heavily to grow.
The Adyen co-founder’s conclusion was that storytelling should not replace execution. Instead, he said European startups need to combine strong products and disciplined operations with a clearer public account of the future they are trying to build.
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.