Big Tech in a Fragmented World

European Straits #146

Hi, it’s Nicolas from The Family. Today, I’m reflecting on our fragmented world, why it’s a problem for US tech companies, and (maybe) an opportunity for European ones.

Last week my colleague Pietro Invernizzi and I had dinner with Tina Asgari and Erik Torenberg in London. Tina is a seasoned product manager, while Erik hosts a superb podcast, Venture Stories, for his VC firm Village Global. You should definitely check it out if you’re interested in radical thinking (disclaimer: I was once a guest on the show).

Like anyone active in the podcast space, Erik reads a lot. You need to read books if you want to identify inspiring guests! So we discussed several notable works, and Erik mentioned Peter Zeihan’s The Accidental Superpower, a book about geopolitics, the coming global disorder, and how the US is bound to renounce free trade altogether and then retreat into itself—both resulting in and a result of a more fragmented world. Needless to say, I immediately rushed to buy the book from Am…