Over the past weeks, I’ve spoken with many Millennials and Gen Zs. Again and again, I heard the same sentence: “The deal no longer works.” The reflex today is no longer to found movements—but to leave Europe. And who could blame them? Rising geopolitical risks and the prospect of military service. Being told they don’t work hard enough. Climate anxiety. A bleak economic outlook.

But another side of the story gives me hope.

Last year, I personally witnessed several new political initiatives forming quietly across Europe. We have seen a first wave of political startups: En Marche (France), Ciudadanos (Spain), NEOS (Austria), Yesh Atid (Israel). Imperfect, yes—but successful in breaking open closed systems. Now, a second wave emerges. Less visible. Earlier stage. A new kind of political entrepreneurship. 

I love this attitude. These people do not complain. They go into political founder mode. They don’t build companies—but movements and parties.

If Europe is serious about its future, we need movements with the courage to drive paradigm shifts. Here are five ideas of what those shifts could look like:

1. Presidential democracies with real executive power.

How do we escape lazy coalition compromises while safeguarding democracy? Today, many European systems operate with handbrakes pulled tight. Why not loosen them and enable faster leadership changes? Give presidents or chancellors the power to issue a limited number of executive orders without prior parliamentary approval, balanced by constitutional courts that can intervene quickly. Limit leaders to one re-election. Synchronize regional elections to a single mid-cycle point to end permanent campaigning.

2. The simplest tax law in the world.

From case-by-case fairness to radical simplicity. Why should citizens need tax advisors just to meet their civic duty? We must reset the tax code entirely: income, corporate, and consumption taxes—nothing else. Remove subsidies and exemptions at scale; lower rates instead. Replace receipts with flat allowances. Filing taxes should take minutes for individuals and hours for small companies, not weeks.

3. The leanest company regulation globally.

Make Europe the easiest place in the world to do business, with Singapore as the benchmark. Today, too many people are paid to design regulations. Let’s cut up to 50% of those positions and shift capacity to implementation. Fewer people drafting supply chain due diligence laws; more people issuing building permits and IDs. At DTM25, Eric Schmidt suggested a radical idea: exempt tech companies under five years old from most regulation—except taxes, health, and safety. Done right, this would be transformative. Add "EU Inc.": company formation within 24 hours, anywhere in Europe.

4. The flexicurity system at scale.

Less job status protection, more mobility. Reduce dismissal protection for high earners, balanced by a strong social safety net and active job placement. Merge hundreds of fragmented social benefits into one unified program, administered in one place.

5. The largest capital market in the world.

Build a deep, liquid capital market with unified insolvency and listing rules. The state acts as an anchor investor at growth stages. Fast-track IPOs. Dual-class shares. Most importantly, pension funds and insurers must allocate at least 5% of their assets to venture and growth capital. Italy has shown the way: under Giorgia Meloni, tax incentives now reward pension institutions that invest in venture capital. If widely adopted, this could redirect €12–13 billion into Italy’s ecosystem. Applied to Germany, a similar approach could unlock €15–20 billion in additional venture and growth capital.

Let’s not default to voting for extremists. Let’s have the courage to build new political movements instead.

Here’s to a year of political founder mode,
Martin

Ronja Stoffregen is Director of Corporate Venturing at REHAU New Ventures, where she leads Venture Clienting, Venture Capital, and Venture Building to bring startup innovation into the REHAU Group. REHAU is a global polymer-based solutions provider with €4 bn+ in revenue, operating across construction, automotive, industrial, and medical applications.

As a global leader in polymer-based system solutions across Window Solutions, Building Solutions, Furniture Solutions, Industrial Solutions, we focus on deep tech that delivers tangible industrial impact. At REHAU New Ventures, we prioritise industrial AI for production and quality optimisation, energy and resource efficiency technologies, flexible automation and robotics, digital twins for operational decision-making, and secure enterprise AI, all with a clear path to deployment and measurable ROI in existing operations.

Approach us with a clear industrial use case and a concrete value proposition—not just a technology pitch. The greatest impact emerges when we work closely with the business, understand industrial realities, and focus early on measurable outcomes and a clear path to scale. Venture clienting works best when both sides see each other as partners with a shared goal: turning pilots into real operational value.

Delivering real business impact: Startups succeed when they solve a concrete operational problem, demonstrate measurable cost or efficiency gains, and design the pilot with scaling in mind from day one. Clear KPIs, business ownership, and early alignment on what “success” means make the difference.

Staying open-minded and resilient. Some of the most meaningful innovation partnerships, and in fact all of my roles, have emerged from unexpected conversations after keynotes, during travel, or in informal settings. Open innovation and business in general work best when you stay curious, listen deeply, and are prepared to act when opportunity shows up. #BornReady

The true purpose of education is to drive meaningful change.

➔ NEURA isn’t just building humanoids — its robots like 4NE1 can see, hear & feel touch thanks to proprietary sensory and AI systems, and the company has created a whole “Neuraverse” ecosystem (like an app store for robotics skills).

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➔ PAL Robotics has been building humanoid platforms since the early 2000s, with models like REEM-C capable of recognising and grasping objects while avoiding obstacles, traits originally developed more than a decade ago

Humanoid robotics is officially big business: $1.5B+ was invested in 2024*, and pilots are popping up everywhere. But the Humanoid Robotics Report by Plug and Play makes one thing clear — we’re still early.

The report dropped last month, and you can preview the teaser here. It features high-value visualisations that benchmark global markets and clarify the critical distinctions between full, semi, and humanoid-like form factors.

Here are our five key takeaways:

*The report was released in late 2025, before full-year figures were available. However, early data from Forbes indicates that investors committed about $4.6 billion to the humanoid robotics industry in 2025, roughly triple the 2024 total.

Great companies are shaped by the quality of their people decisions. Few are as costly as hiring or investing in the wrong leaders.

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In his article How Successful Founders Make Smart People Decisions, Klaus Eberhard explores how leaders navigate these success factors – a perspective that also forms the basis for an exclusive 45‑minute coaching session.

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Last Week’s Winner: Congratulations to Bettina Scheibe, who won an iconic Deep Tech Momentum hoodie!