Every B2B founder knows about Web Summit, Slush, and the major venture conferences. These are high-profile events that attract thousands of startups, investors, and media. But for DACH market entry, these mega-events are often less valuable than smaller, specialized events that attract concentrated decision-maker audiences and build deep industry credibility. This is not to say Web Summit and similar events are useless — they're valuable for fundraising and international visi

Europe is not short of scientific founders or early capital. It is short of the specific combination that produced BioNTech: patient anchor capital plus state co-financing plus a global commercial partner, sustained over a decade, without forcing the founder team to relocate to the US. That combination still exists in DACH only by accident. Until it exists by design, BioNTech remains a one-off rather than a model. Executive summary Europe has world-class scientific founders,