Welcome back to another episode of Upside at the EUVC Podcast, where Dan Bowyer, Mads Jensen of SuperSeed, Lomax Ward of Outsized Ventures, and this week’s special guest Robin Haak break down the real stories behind the headlines shaping European tech and venture.
Robin joins us as the founder of Robin Capital, an early employee at SmartRecruiters, angel in 100+ companies, including eight unicorns, and one of the most active emerging GPs in Europe. He brings deep operator insight, especially into the German ecosystem, politics, and economy, which this episode leans heavily into.
We cover everything from UK policy signals to German recession warnings, AI dominance to Europe’s bureaucratic drag, the rise of solo GPs, and why the next decade of tech will be won or lost on energy availability more than anything else.
What’s covered:
04:00 EU wants to restrict social media for minors
The team debates the proposals to ban or limit social media for children under 16, the mental health case, and the tension between safety and overreach.06:00 Surveillance creep & messaging regulation
Robin explains concerning drafts that would’ve allowed governments to read private messages. The group breaks down the slippery slope of “protect the children” legislation.10:00 UK Budget: surprisingly startup-friendly
Dan and Lomax unpack EMI reforms, EIS/VCT clarity, and why the market reacted calmly. Signals of a more innovation-forward UK emerge.12:45 Lovable.ai’s VAT scandal & Europe’s compliance maze
A Swedish engineer’s viral post on LinkedIn sparks a discussion on Europe’s inconsistent VAT rules, compliance complexity, and whether hypergrowth and European regulation can co-exist.17:00 N26’s long struggle with German regulators
Robin, an early angel, offers an insider's view on the fintech’s challenges—BaFin restrictions, governance issues, and the counterfactual: “Would N26 be worth €20B if it were French?”20:00 Germany’s big macro problem: stagnation + overload
A brutally honest breakdown of the German economy: energy scarcity, migration overload, rising welfare costs, labor shortages, and political paralysis.28:00 Education, welfare, pensions & the cost structure crisis
Robin explains why Germany’s systems are buckling: the collapse of PISA scores, overloaded municipalities, and an economic model no longer supported by productivity.33:00 Nuclear shutdowns & Europe’s AI energy deficit
Why Germany shut down its safest reactors, how it backfired, and why France and the Nordics will become the new AI infrastructure hubs.40:00 Startup ecosystem: the good, the bad, the bureaucratic
From Munich’s deep tech boom to notary nightmares, ESOP fixes, GmbH limitations, and how founders are learning to hack the system.55:00 The rise of Solo GPs
The team discusses the American roots, European trajectory, operator funds, fund-of-funds appetite, and why founders increasingly prefer solo GPs.01:00:00 AI Corner
OpenAI’s trillion-dollar capex future, Google’s TPU resurgence, Anthropic momentum, Michael Burry shorting AI (and why it’s misguided), and the geopolitics of compute.
✍️ Show Notes
Europe’s Social Media Crackdown: Safety vs Surveillance
The EU is circling new proposals to restrict social media use for minors, framed as child protection, but with drafts that would have enabled governments to scan private messages.
Dan calls it what it is: a well-intentioned gateway to surveillance creep.
Mads highlights the tension: real harms exist, but regulation must not break encryption.
Robin brings the German angle where political pressure is building to intervene more aggressively.
The takeaway: Europe wants to protect kids but risks undermining the privacy of everyone.
The Lovable.ai Debacle: VAT Meets Viral Outrage
A Swedish engineer’s viral post about EU VAT chaos sparks a roundtable rant.
Lomax: “This is why startups can’t scale effortlessly in Europe — it’s death by compliance.”
Dan points out how wildly inconsistent cross-border VAT rules are.
Mads sums it up: this is the trade-off of Europe’s market fragmentation.
But here’s the truth:
This isn’t just a Lovable.ai story, it’s a European SaaS story.
N26 & Bafin: When Regulation Shapes Outcomes
Robin, an early angel in N26, gives the inside scoop on years of BaFin restrictions, governance fights, and missed momentum.
His provocation: If N26 had been French, it might be worth €20B today.
The group reflects on:
regulatory asymmetry across Europe
Germany’s uniquely heavy supervisory culture
The cost of moving too fast in fintech
Lesson: In Europe, regulation doesn’t just shape markets, it shapes winners.
Germany’s Macro Unravelling: An Economy Out of Balance
This is where Robin goes deep.
Germany faces a structural squeeze:
energy scarcity post-nuclear
overstretched welfare systems
collapsing education outcomes
overloaded municipalities
falling productivity
rising insolvencies
political paralysis
The contrast is stark:
“I’m extremely negative on German politics, but extremely positive on German founders.”
Germany’s entrepreneurs are world-class, even as the system around them frays.
AI Will Run on Energy and Europe Doesn’t Have Enough
The group aligns on one thing: compute isn’t the limiting factor — energy is.
Robin explains why Germany shutting down world-class reactors was a historic policy error.
Lomax sees France, the UK and the Nordics becoming Europe’s AI-infrastructure backbone.
Mads frames it simply: AI clusters will form where electrons are cheap.
Europe’s competitive edge in AI may ultimately depend on who can keep the lights on.
Europe’s Startup Ecosystem: A Tale of Two Realities
The founders and operators entering the market now are stronger than ever.
But the system still drags:
Notaries
ESOP limitations
GmbH friction
slow M&A markets
patchwork regulation
Munich, Warsaw, Prague, Helsinki, Paris — all booming with deep tech talent.
Germany’s old institutions? Not so much.
Europe’s next giants will emerge despite the bureaucracy, not because of it.
The Solo GP Boom: Europe Finally Catches Up
Robin walks through why he’s backing 20+ solo GPs:
operators with edge
faster decisions
real founder empathy
LPs increasingly allocating
founders preferring experience over brand
Dan notes the structural shift: traditional funds aren’t disappearing — but seed is being rewired.
This is the American playbook arriving in Europe, two years late but right on time.
AI Corner: The Compute Arms Race Heats Up
OpenAI’s trillion-dollar energy appetite.
Google’s TPU comeback.
Anthropic scaling quietly but aggressively.
Michael Burry betting against AI (a rare miss).
Nations treating compute like oil.
The panel agrees: AI is no longer a “tech trend” — it’s industrial policy.
The real question is no longer “Who has the models?”
But “Who controls the infrastructure?”
💡 One-Liner Takeaway
Europe is entering a new era shaped by energy scarcity, regulatory shakeups, AI acceleration, and founders who are more determined than ever. The future belongs to those who can execute through complexity.
