Attention Beats Capital

Attention beats capital. In Europe the money is there but the attention is not, and the founders who work that out get ahead of the ones still waiting for a grant. In the first episode of White Box Rodeo, Robert Valentine and Kayvan Nikjou crack open European entrepreneurship. Why a €50,000 grant takes six months and a consultant. Why Dutch founders stay off camera while American CEOs turn into cult leaders. Why Stockholm punches above its weight and what Scott Galloway's line about making money in America and spending it in Europe is worth once you actually build here. Then the money. Revenue per employee from OnlyFans to OpenAI, how Nvidia turned its staff into millionaires, founders with immigrant roots from Brin to Musk and why the people who get rich think in ten-year cycles. A friend of Kayvan's lived on ramen for two years to get there. And late in the episode, Miro. Valued at $17.5 billion in 2022, sold to Bending Spoons on 10 September at an enterprise value of $1.36 billion. Kayvan got the news from the founders the day before we recorded, so we work through who actually gets paid. New episode every Friday. Recorded at Berghaus, Amsterdam. Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:32 Why we're starting White Box Rodeo 6:24 The €50,000 grant that takes six months 7:46 Make money in America, spend it in Europe (Scott Galloway) 8:45 Tier-one cities, from London to Stockholm 11:28 Why Dutch founders stay camera-shy 15:24 Attention beats capital 23:29 Finland vs Sweden: the distribution gap 26:06 Revenue per employee, from OnlyFans to OpenAI 27:20 How Nvidia made its staff millionaires 30:55 Cult CEOs and the ASML boss nobody knows 37:56 Founders with immigrant roots, from Brin to Musk 41:46 Miro: 15 years, $17.5B, sold to Bending Spoons 46:02 The SaaS apocalypse theory 52:24 Who gets paid: founders, staff and VCs 1:00:06 Think in ten-year cycles Sources Bending Spoons agrees to acquire Miro (10 Sep 2026): https://investors.bendingspoons.com/newsroom/bending-spoons-agrees-to-acquire-miro Miro valued at $17.5B after $400M Series C (TechCrunch, 5 Jan 2022): https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/05/visual-collaboration-company-miro-valued-at-17-5b-following-400m-in-new-funding/ White Box Rodeo is for information and entertainment only and is not investment advice. The hosts may hold interests in companies they discuss. Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c0-cDMooOs White Box Rodeo: https://whiteboxrodeo.com Hosts: Robert Valentine and Kayvan Nikjou