The Flame of the West
This post is a culmination of everything I have come to learn during the 20 years I have worked in technology. I believe technology progress is our destiny. Technology drives economic growth and economic growth makes our lives better in countless ways. Without technology progress the world descents into a zero-sum rivalry.
Economic growth, geo-political power and ultimately our freedom are downstream of technology. Those who lead in technology, own the future.
The Flame of the West was born out of the belief that only technology leadership can ensure our freedom. The US vs. Europe is a false dichotomy. We belong to the same rebel alliance that fights for the free world and we should combine what each is good at to make sure it’s the free world that will prevail. We must construct a superhighway for our most ambitious founders to build world-historical technology companies irrespective of geography.
We need a geography-independent playbook for startups to access the smartest capital, advice and strategic early customer while building across an archipelago of specialized high-tech islands of world-leading science and engineering, where each country and city can lead in a specific mix of industries. A network of people and capital spanning across the US and Europe that maximizes your changes of winning.
This is the new playbook that takes us to the Ambitious New Technology Age for Europe and the US. It combines the best of Europe and the US to help founders build world-historical technology companies so we will win the future. This is what The Flame is designed to do.
Concretely, The Flame is a network that starts out as a four week remote program for pre-seed and seed stage startups solving difficult problems with technology. We connect you to the right investors, the right domain advice, and early customers that will validate your business. We will work with you so you get the best from the US and Europe regardless of where you want to build. You can read more and apply at www.theflame.org. I look forward to working together with all the great investors, domain experts and leading technology companies across the US and Europe. If you want to join the network, please reach out to ville[at]theflame.org
As of today, the application for the first cohort is open. We can accept only a selected few teams and solo founders, and I will personally work for the founders to maximize their magnitude of success. You can apply here until August 1st. Even if we can’t fit you into the program I will try to help you out as much as I can, continuously unlocking new resources for everyone who applies.
I can’t wait for us to get going.