Let’s be real…
If you’ve ever tried scaling a business in Europe, you’ve probably asked yourself:
❓“Why does it feel like I need a lawyer just to hire someone?”
❓“Why is AI innovation moving faster in San Francisco than in Stuttgart?”
❓“And why does a funding application feel like applying for citizenship in another galaxy?”
Whether you’re running a 2-person startup in Berlin, a 200-person SaaS company in Amsterdam, or a 2,000-head corporate beast in Paris—you’re not imagining things.
It really is this hard.
💥 What’s crushing us all (no matter the size)?
🔻 Red Tape
Too many overlapping laws. Too little coordination.
From AI Act to ESG, from GDPR to MiCA, from VAT to DSA—it’s chaos. The paperwork often feels endless. Especially for smaller teams without compliance departments.
🔻 Rising Costs & Inflation
Energy prices, materials, supply chain disruptions, and inflation continue to hit both margins and planning. Many businesses are delaying innovation just to stay afloat.
🔻 Talent Shortages
Digital roles, Data engineers, Green jobs remain hard to fill. And no, current bootcamps alone won’t save us.
🔻 Cyber Risks
While cloud and AI adoption is booming globally, European SMEs still struggle with resources, skills, and cybersecurity vulnerabilities. One phishing email, and it’s game over.
🔻 Digitalization = wishful thinking
AI this, cloud that. Most companies don’t have the team or time to even start—especially outside the big tech hubs.
🧩 Specific Business Size Challenges
🏭 SMEs
We see you.
Fighting to stay profitable while juggling GDPR, late payments, and missing developers. Everyone tells you to “go digital” — but with what budget? With what people?
And let’s not even mention those 40-page cybersecurity forms your client asked you to fill.
What helps?
🟠 Funding for SMEs (if someone helps you apply)
🟠 Automation tools & project support
🟠 Outsourced cybersecurity experts and developers who actually deliver (this is where ITLords becomes your tech co-pilot)
👔 Large enterprises
You’ve got departments for everything.
But now you’re stuck interpreting the AI Act while also filing ESG disclosures, avoiding greenwashing fines, and building something vaguely called a “digital twin”.
Meanwhile, U.S. and Chinese competitors are shipping AI products like candy.
What helps?
🟠 Public funding (if you can fight through the forms)
🟠 Smart consulting (if you can afford the Big 4)
🟠 Or: lean, trusted dev/AI teams that move fast (👉 ITLords 🤭)
🚀 Startups
You’re not building a product, raising future unicorns. You’re fighting legal dragons.
Funding’s dried up: EU venture capital dropped 53% since 2021.
Overwhelmed by compliance: even basic scaling now demands deep legal knowledge. Not to mention AI compliance…
Lack of fast and affordable access to tech, legal, and product development expertise.
What helps?
🟠 Regulatory sandboxes
🟠 Support from acceleratorswho’ve seen the playbook
🟠 Fast, affordable devs who can build your MVP and integrate AI safely (spoiler: ITLords, again)
📈 Scale-ups
You’re growing. Congrats!
… but now you get to deal with 27 versions of the same law.
You want to scale across Europe, but it feels like starting from scratch in every country. Legal, payroll, contracts, taxes — all different. Growth becomes a grind.
What helps?
🟠 EU-wide legal structures (coming, slowly…)
🟠 Smart VCs + pan-EU partners
🟠 Cross-border tech experts who don’t need hand-holding (yes — ITLords has you covered in 30+ countries)
🔧 TODO List (if Brussels is listening)
🟠 Simplify and harmonise regulatory frameworks — but for real
🟠 Make EU funding & tendering processesaccessible without a PhD in form-filling
🟠 Boost funding access through public-private initiatives.
🟠 Prioritise digital and green skills pipelines — especially for SMEs
🟠 Support scale-up growth with pan-European backing
🟠 And please, let’s stop announcing initiatives and start delivering!
💡 What’s Working and Who Can Help
✅ Public Programs:
⚜️ EU’s Competitiveness Compass aims to reduce red tape.
⚜️ Green Deal grants and Horizon Europe provide funding for innovation and sustainability.
⚜️ Pact for Skills and EU Talent Pool support reskilling and mobility.
✅ Private Sector Enablers:
⚜️ Consultants, advisors, and digital agencies help navigate transformation.
⚜️ IT partners like ITLords provide AI integration, tech strategy, outsourced product development and staffing tech teams with nearshore and local IT specialists — fast and flexibly.
✅ Policy Shifts:
⚜️ Regulatory sandboxes are helping startups experiment without full compliance risk.
⚜️ National reforms like Spain’s Startup Law are easing barriers for founders.
⚜️ Pan-EU proposals (like a single legal corporate structure) are gaining traction.
…and while we wait for the big reforms, the rest of us?..
We’re hacking growth, dodging red tape, and building regardless any obstacles.
Europe’s future doesn’t belong to the best-funded — it belongs to the ones who can outmaneuver the chaos, and still deliver.
So let’s get down to work! And if you need IT help? 👉 Remember about ITLords!
