E580 | EUVC Summit 2025 | Marius Istrate, Romanian Tech Angels: The Need for Inspirational Leadership in Europe

At EUVC Summit 2025, Marius Istrate didn’t come to pitch a fund or debate capital structures.
He came to talk about something harder to define—but more urgent than ever: inspirational European leadership.

And it wasn’t all comfortable.

“It’s great to win together with others. But we should be capable of winning alone if needed.”

Marius spoke as someone who’s helped shape ecosystems from the ground up. As the leader of Romania’s largest angel group, he’s seen firsthand what local ambition looks like—and what it lacks.

“I don’t want to be the VC who accidentally becomes a politician because no one else stepped up.”

But leadership, he argued, isn’t about power. It’s about clarity, empathy, and ownership.

“If you pinned every place in Europe that calls itself the ‘Silicon Valley of Europe,’ the map would collapse.”

The obsession with copying Silicon Valley is a distraction. What Europe needs isn’t mimicry—it’s confidence in its own identity. And that means policies, capital structures, and culture that reflect our values, not someone else’s blueprint.

One of the most poignant parts of Marius’ talk centered on something distinctly European:

“It’s not fair that I should work more than my parents. It’s not fair that my retirement is uncertain.”

That sense of fairness—a shared European moral compass—isn’t a bug. It’s a feature.
And it can inform the kind of political and ecosystem leadership we need now.

“People don’t want perfection. They want dignity. And when possible, empathy.”

In a time of rising populism and political gridlock, this felt like a quiet manifesto for something different.

“It shouldn’t be our job to inspire people—because our political leaders should already be doing that.”

Marius wasn’t calling for VCs to become politicians. He was calling for a renaissance of purpose in Europe. For a generation of builders, thinkers, and yes, investors, to step up and fill the vacuum—not with slogans, but with systems, strategy, and soul.

“Give us something to hope for—something we can call our own.”

This wasn’t a policy talk. It was a wake-up call.
And in classic EUVC fashion, it ended with an open invitation: Let’s talk more. Let’s build better. Let’s define what European leadership really means—together.

From VC to VisionSilicon Valley of Europe? Please.Fairness, Dignity, EmpathyA Call to Build What’s Ours