Things that could help include:
- organising events for startups across Europe
- building a simple "how-to-start" guide/website for first time entrepreneurs
- working alongside incubators and accelerators

All the above, plus knowledge and experience sharing tools.
Learning from successful startups is equally important to learning from those who failed.

This is the kind of business environment where networking, legal help and aid for development are necessary.

Current funding instruments like loans and venture capital are not an option for many young entrepreneurs. The reason for this is that in the web industry, if your product is innovative, there is nothing to compare it to and there is nothing available to tell whether the product will be a total failure or a huge success.

Also, in web industry, the hard work is done first for years perhaps. Money will come only when the product has attracted enough people to be able to provide visibility for companies or other kinds of things, like data analysis.

I would suggest an EU wide accelerator program. We have a good example here in Finland called Protomo(.fi). Protomo gives entrepreneurs a place to come and sit, meet new people and work on the product and business model. Protomo provides us with expert trainings, meetings with investor panels and support.

What Protomo cannot provide for us now is sufficient money to focus _completely_ on the product and business development. The focus needs to be in the own business full-time or the development will span, span and span even further.

My kind of accelerator:
- Working EU wide.
- Providing small (like student benefits) funding so that the entrepreneur can focus on the product and not work in many other places at the same time.
- Providing legal and administrative support.
- Arranging get-togethers on city, nation and also EU level.
- Pitching competitions. Demo events. Arranging investor meetings
- Collect protfolios of different kind of companies from companies in the accelerator. Arrange meetings with investors specialized in the field of those protfolios.
- Provide visibility in media.

Great points Tomi, although I believe that the business environments are not homogeneous accross Europe, and while being accelerated Start-ups require very specific, targetted aid (for example, in legal concerns, you have to go locally to each country-regions specific laws).

I would suggest empowering young entrepreneurs while in their last years of university studies. The ERASMUS programme has worked extremely well, we could find a similar proposal for promoting and helping entrepreneurs. Also, connecting these young talents with the experience of senior or retired European managers who wish to give a hand by mentoring them could be an interestign project (in Spain we have SECOT[.org], works great)

I would like to see information about opportunities for entrepreneurs clearly organized in one spot filtered by country and industry.

Great comments so far, especially by Tomi.

The basic funding levels for a period (e.g. 3 months) are critical as is a shared, open innovation environment where peers are on same development journey.

After 3 months most ventures should have determined their feasibility whereby private funding can then take over.

An organisation I work with, NDRC has an accelerator with these ingredients:
www.ndrc.ie/launchpad/

This is now open for its next call for Autumn, and increasingly applicants are coming to Dublin from all over Europe.

In future, I would see a network of such accelerators around Europe would be or major benefit to our economy.

As well as the ingredients already identified, other critical ones are:
Excellent mentoring
Good wider peer contacts
Good experienced entrepreneur network
Excellent promotion to investors
Excellent access to customers

Again, the thoughts of Tomi as the exact type of entrepreneur who should be supported are central to this.

European Union Commission & Eureka Network for SMEs

Thanks to a welcome from the Eureka Network and Host Company INNOVA from Sweden, I was welcomed to participate and listen in to SME Innovation Conference on the 7th November in Brussels this week.

I experienced preparations & plans to care for Funds for SMEs in the Future of Horizon 2020 Agenda. How very lucky for me, I was offered a voice!

More Entrepreneurs and Innovators,the individuals who shall be the future recipients truly needed to be there to offer their needs, however I did my very best for you all.

I proposed for Individuals in Business already know what they need to grow their Businesses and that no Business Person young or otherwise would risk to ask for a Loan for too much money, based on the simple fact that debt is frowned upon most heavily in European Market, not just by Banks, but by fellow Business people and family and friends. In Holland even more so, it is considered shameful to be in debt!

Also, Loans were being discussed mainly for Scientists and Technologists and many old fashioned businesses and essential services were forgotten, becase an agenda was circling around Innovation.

I was pushing to emphasise the fact that a person knows that they are an entrepreneur, and no matter what the product they are making, even if it be themselves and their talents. And in knowing this, a business person is not always a scientist or engineer with a PhD.

The paramenters and criteria build up of selection measures all seemed to involve scientific assessment when needing to justify why one business startup would be permitted to access a loan or grant versus another who might fail.

Intuitive by nature, I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach, because the qualifying points being made, would mean instantly that my business and myself would not pass the test being designed!

And Artists and Inventors and Entrepreneurs would have cringed with me, I am sure! So, I offered the discussion to work together with us individuals, who are self-nominated as SMEs already and let us work with the EU Brains Trust and show them what kind of mentors we wish for and how much we need to loan and how we wish to pay it back and what insurances and life protection measures we might need!

The EU Commission decides upon the Consultants and who is delegated the monies, so as Citizens operating as SMEs you all need to attend and self-invite yourselves to participate!

It is the only way to know, that Consultants processing the future Horizon 2020 are not absorbing the bulk of the funds delegated for you the SME!

It is important that we work together with Export Agencies also, as the Market reality for Traders and Exporters was not a pivotal point which I tried to force into the day! Governments and World Authorities need to work together really in unison and adapt faster to the way more tech and old fashioned savvy people are doing business!

If you start up a Farm or a Bakery or a Computer Gifting E Commerce Site is anyone more important than the other to the Economy?

If you plan to employ people in Europe and Internationally what extra protection measures can you achieve that are only granted to big Corporates - are SMEs of equal importance to the Economy?

To sum up I always come back to how much Europa has to offer and it is her People! You are the assets, your languages, art and stories to your architecture and advances!

I like to concentrate on the uniqueness of your businesses each individually, and not package you all up as dependents of your Homeland Nation, but I want your Export Agencies to know you exist here in Europe and ask them to start supporting you sell to other EU Export Agencies, after all they actually work for you!

Because we all know as SMEs there are no Banks in Europe having serious Business Fiannce discussions with you!

Good Luck & Email me if you wish to attend any future Events! I will offer help wherever I can! And please do not forget the European Patent Office is now talking supporting SMEs!!!

Best Regards
Jacinta