Why we need @euinc_petition. 🇪🇺 🙏 @patrickc

is neko the ikea of healthcare? 🇸🇪 tomorrow, neko opens its first american clinic, in new york. i had my first scan in london in 2024 - and i think americans are about to find out what swedes and brits already know: a proper health check shouldn't need a referral or a $2,500 mri. neko is $499. 60 minutes, no radiation, a doctor walks you through your results before you leave. preventive health for everyone. results come first. year three data from 80k+ members in sweden and the uk: ~1% of swedish members with zero symptoms had something life-threatening found: melanoma, valve disease, aortic aneurysms another ~4% had a significant condition that needed treatment 9,000+ members came back for a second scan and on average improved on all 7 heart and metabolic markers then there's the feeling. the clinics are beautiful, the staff are excellent, and it feels nothing like a waiting room. and so, 75% of members book and prepay their next scan before they leave. we've backed neko since their first clinic in stockholm. our bet from day one: healthcare is built for sick people, and if you feel "fine" - there's no way in. neko built that front door, and it owns everything behind it: the clinics, the hardware, the doctors and the data. we still believe that. watching daniel, hjalmar and the team execute on it has been humbling. swedish-born healthcare, now in the us. can't wait 🗽 @eldsjal @HNilsonne @sarahmcbride @KimFaiKok

I absolutely hate the way Claude (Fable and Opus) writes - it’s so full of itself, so fake-eloquent without saying anything, so know-it-all, presenting the simplest insights in a repulsively smug tone - and it seems impossible to get rid of all these Claude-isms it produces even with strict global instructions. Can’t stand any more “load-bearing assumptions”, any sentences that end with “and that’s the one point that lands with me”, generally any short sentences that start with “And” and a complete over-use of references to “the one XYZ”. It feels like AI for people who have never learned how to communicate succinctly, and who constantly have the need to feel smarter than everyone around them (hint: they’re not smarter, they’re just insecure). ChatGPT, Grok and Kimi are miles ahead on producing a more natural communication style. The actual analysis, the automations and the artifacts might (often) be better - but Claude just feels so repulsively unlikeable to interact with.

The only successful entrepreneur at Die Linke's election-winner party was the head of Berlin's most notorious criminal clan. There was a moment in time in the mid 2010's where Berlin was becoming pro-progress - the tech industry had matured, large infrastructure projects (train station, airport, housing) were underway, young people were moving to Berlin for jobs (and at least not exclusively for the nightlife), even the rent policies weren't quite as stupid yet - and there was a general sense of optimism, that Berlin would eventually become an important part of the nation's economy. I miss that time. I still madly love this city - the energy, the creativity, the people, the cafes, the river, the art, the honesty and directness / "Berliner Schnauze", the football - but I left seven years ago and I sadly don't feel I'll be moving back any time soon.

Normalize going to a library on your first date and reading about German employment law

🇸🇪🔥

Neko Health is as good as advertised. I got to be the 4th person to preview the new NYC location yesterday. The whole experience, from the moment you enter and head down the stairs, was dialed in. It felt like the future. Beautiful combo of design, technology, and people. Got a bunch of scans, bloodwork, and blood pressure done in ~30 minutes and as soon as it was done, they took me into a room to explain the results, which were all ready that quickly because there’s a lab on site (I won’t spoil how the blood gets there, maybe the coolest part). Luckily, I’m basically healthy but need to get my fat ass in shape. It’s wild that it costs $499, and they’re going to keep squeezing more tests into that price. They were nice enough to give me this one on the house but I already paid for my next appointment in 12 months. 10/10 would recommend.

So damn impressive. Congrats! 🇩🇪🇪🇺

a fallen giant: volkswagen's board just approved 50k more job cuts and the end of car production at 4 german plants. unanimously, after a summer of open war with the workers council. so what did the workers reps get for signing? - nothing closes before 2031. the 4 plants wind down 2031 to 2034 - no plant gets abandoned. vw committed to find alternative uses or outside investors for all 4 sites as models run out 2031 to 2034 - proposed split of the vw passenger car brand from the components business is off the table management wanted to shut plants. labor turned it into a slow wind-down with a promise to keep every site alive. how? who governs volkswagen (20 board seats): - 10 workers council members - 8 shareholders (porsche/piëch family + qatar + 2 independents) - 2 politicians from the great state of lower saxony every german AG >2,000 employees needs to have half their board seats occupied by workers' representatives (which is why many flip to a SE). normally, the casting vote sits with the chair, appointed by the shareholders. so the standard "capitalist rules" set the direction. however: volkswagen is an exception - the effective tie-breaker vote is held by the two reps from the state of lower saxony (who usually vote with labor)- the minister president, and the minister of education. now guess why restructuring volkswagen takes decades and why the stock is down 63% in the last 5 years?

we have been in this era for a while...

47% of Europe’s assets are managed by US firms. However, less than 1% of America’s assets are managed by non-US managers. We spend a lot of time debating who buys and who invests in Europe’s companies, and almost none on who manages Europe’s capital - a layer with meaningful influence over everything downstream of it. cc @twehmeier

Subjective views based on 20+ flights from/to each of these European airports below’ Generally, European airports are actually pretty phenomenal, especially considering the constraints they’re facing - limited space (which is why you have to take a bus to a remote stand sometimes), noise / time regulations, slot constraints, etc. I genuinely think the average EU airport offers a better experience than the average US airport - and the Skytrax ratings would agree. Top tier 🇬🇧 LHR - gets a bad rep for some reason, isn’t pretty, but it’s the best connected airport in Europe, and it’s surprisingly efficient for the traffic it handles. It’s not a place to hang out but it’s a place that gets you somewhere. Short wait at security, and immigration simply works despite being non-Schengen. 🇩🇰 CPH - fast, efficient, genuinely good shops and food options, 15-20 mins to city center, long lines for non-EU citizens at passport control though (doesn’t apply to me, luckily) 🇨🇭 ZRH - the Swiss just know how to run things, 15-20 mins to the center, phenomenally efficient for the scale 🇩🇪 MUC - the transfer takes forever. But when you’re there, it’s what everyone thinks Germany is like - fast, efficient, clean, well-connected 🇫🇮 HEL - it’s marvelous. The efficiency, the lounges, the architecture - incredible. 🇬🇧 LCY - chef’s kiss. Works every time, the most efficient piece of infra in the UK. Plus, the legroom in the E190s BA is flying from LCY is just soooo nice, and the views on climb / descent are insane 🇳🇱 AMS - objectively the nicest of the huge airports. Everything is efficient, great food options, so many connections, never a remote stand / bus gate - only the taxiing takes forever 🇩🇪 TXL - rest in peace, sweet prince Good tier 🇳🇴 OSL - it’s a great airport once you’re actually in it: food options, shops, architecture. But the transfer to the city, plus the long lines (you’re the richest country in Europe, please buy modern scanners?) - meh 🇸🇪 ARN - the new T5 is top tier, T2+3 is… very much not. Fast train to the city, great food options, horrible lounge in T2 - and why are you guys not building passport egates? 🇩🇪 FRA - it’s just so huge, transferring in Frankfurt is a nightmare. New T3 is very neat though (we can still build infrastructure in Germany!), and the regional train connections via ICE are a massive win 🇪🇸 BCN - same issue, it’s nice, it’s just huge so everything takes forever. Great short connection into town. Needs improvement 🇫🇷 CDG - controversial maybe but security is never efficient (new scanners please?), lounges, shops and especially food are nowhere near what one would expect of the French. Some people love it though, I might just have been to the wrong terminal 🇬🇧 LGW - I don’t mind it, but it needs a renovation… everything is just a bit outdated, and distances are longer than they should be (esp to the North terminal). Gail’s in the South Terminal is a nice addition though. 🇬🇧 STN - avoid. It’s just a huge duty free (unnecessary) and a Whetherspoons (don’t mind that actually), plus you usually walk a marathon to the gate, and security lines take forever because everyone there is acting like it’s the first time they’ve ever been to an airport 🇩🇪 BER - I will say it has gotten better (esp the security lines). But it’s still a national embarrassment. The 40+ degrees in the non-AC-ed jet bridges, the sheer distance (even though it doesn’t have a huge capacity?), the connection to the city, the security (you have new scanners but you still pull every second bag out to check the liquids? Why?), the unfriendliest staff - nope. 🇩🇪 SXF - what in the world was this iron shed masquerading as an airport? That was even worse than BER. (For completeness, I have additionally flown 20+ times in/out of TLL, STR, and VCE - they’re small and they do the job, nothing remarkable)

True - I’ve been involved in 20+ investments in Germany and NEVER went to the notary. You just get a PoA, your external counsel then sends some junior, or you give the PoA to the founders if they attend. (Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t change this dinosaur of a system.)

The forced notarization of capital increases is definitely not the only, and certainly not the most important issue that’s holding tech startups in Germany back. But the whole process is just so incredibly ridiculous that it goes viral on international tech Twitter every couple of months. Can we please FINALLY start abolishing this ridiculous and unnecessary financing round dance from the 18th century that makes Germany the butt of all jokes in the international investing industry?

RIP SaaSpocalypse (01/2026 - 08/2026)

potentially a step in the right direction. but why stop at the nordics? europe still treats stock exchanges like national trophies, with every country fiercely protecting its own. but you don’t build deep markets by splitting liquidity into national pools. the ambition has to be one pan-european capital market with real scale and depth. i’m almost worried that building a nordic exchange will make a pan-european one even less likely. let's scrap national and regional - local maxima - and think european.

Yoram is spot on - if we want to be serious about creating European innovation, resilience (and returns!), the pension fund gap needs to close. Was chatting about exactly this on @etnshow a couple of weeks back!

last few days in good old germany 🇩🇪 taxing diet coke: government introduces a new 26ct/l tax on sugary drinks. except they’re also taxing drinks with sweetener. so… drinks without sugar. 10g of bread: a baker sells half a loaf for half the price. because cutting bread creates crumbs, the half loaf is 10g lighter than exactly 50%. a customer reports him to the office of weights and measurement. result: he needs a new weighing system costing €15k. corporate suicide: porsche sells its consulting arm to tata for €320m, then signs a deal to pay tata €1.25bn for ai consulting over the next 5 years. can we please get our shit together as a country. overtaxing. over-bureaucracy. people reporting their local baker over 10g of cutting crumbs. companies making decisions that look outright suicidal. i really want to be optimistic about germany. we have more - and better - founders than ever. but we are standing in our own way. all. the. time.