In just a few years, Bela Wiertz has established {Tech: Europe} as the largest builder community across the largest builder community across Europe's leading tech hubs – with hackathons in seven cities, a physical builder space in Berlin, and now the Applied AI Conference on May 28th. His team's mission: to be the glue that holds Europe's distributed ecosystems together and give the continent's best builders every reason to stay and build here.

In this interview, Bela talks about what drove him to start {Tech: Europe}, why Berlin's international character gives it a higher ceiling than most European hubs, and what it will take to build the next generation of truly global tech companies in Europe.

{Tech: Europe} has grown into Europe's largest builder community in just a few years – focused on the „-1 stage": the phase before a company is founded, incorporated, or funded. What drove you to build this, and why does Europe need it right now?

The reason to build this was that I had this problem myself. I was in Berlin, and there were no ways to connect with other people building cool stuff. Actually, the first hackathon that we did was because I was looking for hackathons to join. I couldn't find any, so I just started: "Okay, yeah, just do things yourself and build the first one." I believe that, because Europe is such a distributed ecosystem, it needs these ecosystem players that can be the glue between them and can bring the right people together.

Berlin's tech ecosystem went through a quieter phase after the Rocket Internet era and the post-COVID slowdown. Now you see new momentum, driven by younger, more technical founders with global ambition. What has changed – and what is driving this renewed energy?

I think it's not just a phenomenon in Berlin. I think everywhere around Europe you can see that people feel empowered by AI. People see what's possible, and they start to realize that you can actually build from everywhere. Berlin, in particular, has a lot of upside by being a very international city where a lot of people with a lot of different backgrounds are coming together to build. It's easy for outsiders to get into the ecosystem.

Berlin attracts talent from across Europe and beyond – drawn by the talent density and the livability of the city. How does that differ from hubs like Munich, Zurich, or Stockholm – and what makes Berlin's ecosystem distinctive?

I believe that hubs like Munich, Zurich, and Stockholm draw most of the talent from the local university ecosystem, which is definitely something Berlin is missing. I think Berlin would be way better off with a very good, high-throughput technical university that is also very much connected to the startup ecosystem, which we don't have. On the flip side, this makes it possible that you have a way more diverse crowd and a way higher ceiling for the ecosystem itself, because it is not dependent on a single source of talent.

From hackathons across seven European cities to The Sandbox, your three-month, zero-equity programme in Berlin – how do these formats connect, and what does it take to keep Europe's best builders here instead of losing them to Silicon Valley?

I think you just have to give the people logical reasons to build their companies here. I think if you push too much on patriotism for Europe or your country that you're coming from, this isn't solving the problem. You actually have to make offerings to the people and build an environment where they can thrive. Everything that we do tries to work towards that – whether it's the hackathons, the Sandbox, or other new endeavors like the conference.

The Applied AI Conference on May 28th in Berlin brings together teams building and running AI systems in production. Why was this the right next step for Tech: Europe?

We felt like there was no modern event experience to bring the relevant people together who are actually already shipping stuff into production. We started with a lot of event formats for people who are just starting out and experimenting, but we felt that also at the later stage you need those rooms to come together to exchange ideas and to show each other what's possible and how to build certain things. This is why we decided that we want to set up a new kind of conference that does this.

Your vision is to enable at least ten $100 billion tech companies built in Europe over the next decade. Where does Europe stand today – and what needs to happen to make that realistic?

I mean, I think Europe has produced one company over a hundred billion in the 21st century, which is Spotify, and that also depends on the ups and downs of the stock market. Every day, I think there are too many things that have to move in the right direction to make that possible.

Essentially, I think the biggest lever is mindset and size of ambition. We need more people who continue to build a company beyond one billion, beyond ten billion – not because of monetary incentives, but because of creating and building. And to make this possible, we also have to get a little bit more of the American mindset of actually seeing this as a positive thing. I think a lot of people in the tech scene do, but the vast majority of Europeans still don't.

What does the next chapter of {Tech: Europe} look like – and what role do you see Berlin playing in the future of European tech?

We are very much still in the first chapter, I would say. There are so many things still ahead of us. Essentially, we want to be the glue that is holding the European ecosystems together and, through that, make it feel like it would be one. Through that, we are empowering founders from the very start up until they build big companies along their journey.

Berlin's role in this is that I believe, in continental Europe and the European Union, it is one of the cities with the highest ceiling. I think, especially on the AI application layer, Berlin has an important role to play – as I see more and more specialization of the different ecosystems.