# Europe needs to tell its story better Adyen co-founder's advice to European entrepreneurs - **Source:** [Fortune](https://fortune.com) - **Published:** 2026-07-23 - **Topic:** [Entrepreneurship](https://brifing.si/c/entrepreneurship) - **Original article:** - **On Brifing:** https://brifing.si/s/f6e4637d-e4ad-44c2-947a-8119d4a02132 ## Adyen's success story The Adyen co-founder recounts the journey from being employee #9 in 2007 to building Europe's most valuable fintech. He emphasizes customer focus, product quality, and disciplined execution as key to this success. ## New venture Noah After meeting his new partner in 2024, the founder launched Noah, a stablecoin-based platform. Their mission is to build infrastructure enabling money to move at internet speed, promising fundamental changes to financial systems. ## Europe's quiet strength The article highlights how European entrepreneurs' modest approach is both a strength and weakness. While product focus is crucial, the ability to articulate vision is equally important for attracting resources. ## Lesson from the US American entrepreneurs' skill in describing futures that don't yet exist is cited as exemplary. Storytelling is framed not as exaggeration but as belief-building, crucial for attracting talent and investment. ## Europe's hidden advantages Fragmented markets forcing global thinking from day one, resource constraints breeding discipline - these apparent disadvantages are revealed as competitive strengths for European startups. ## Vision-execution balance The conclusion stresses that category-defining companies combine great products with compelling visions. Europe doesn't lack ambition but needs to stop hiding it and start telling its story more effectively. ## Sources covering this story - https://fortune.com/2026/07/23/europe-startups-storytelling-ambition-adyen-lamers/ — --- _Summary written by Brifing from the original reporting. Copyright in the original article belongs to its publisher; read the full piece at the link above._