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The excuses are gone.
For years, founders in Central and Eastern Europe could point to real constraints – too little capital, limited access to global networks, fewer experienced mentors, and distance from major markets.
Today, most of those barriers have fallen. Technology is cheaper to build, markets are a call away, and small teams can achieve in weeks what once took months.
At Founders Weekend, our Partner Daniel Tomov’s message was clear – the remaining constraint is mindset.
Community is the antidote
Founders Weekend has always been one of the most important moments in the Eleven calendar. Throughout the year, we speak with founders, mentors, LPs, and partners individually. But bringing everyone into the same room creates something different – conversations, relationships, and new possibilities that stay with the community long after the weekend ends.
This matters even more today. We live in a world that is more connected than ever, yet often more isolating. AI and digital tools are changing how we work, communicate, and build. But they cannot replace the human support systems that help people keep going through difficult moments.
Community is not a nice-to-have. It is infrastructure.
Paul Graham once wrote about Silicon Valley’s lower startup failure rate, pointing to an “antidote” embedded in the ecosystem – the people around you. In a strong ecosystem, failure does not have to be final. Someone has seen the problem before. Someone can make an introduction, offer a perspective, or simply remind you that the hard period will pass.
That is what the #Oneof11 community is built for. There are hundreds of founders in the network, alongside mentors, LPs, operators, and investors who are willing to share their experience. The value is not only in being able to ask for help when things get difficult, it is also in offering it.
AI has changed the rules of the game
Two years ago, the practical advice for most companies was to apply AI at the periphery: improve workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and avoid touching the core of the business too early. That advice has already aged.
AI is now transforming the fundamentals of company building. Software is cheaper to build. Teams can move much faster. Experiments that once took months can happen in days or weeks. A small group of people can now achieve what previously required a much larger organization and far more capital.
We are already seeing this across the Eleven portfolio and beyond. Companies that started with teams of 10 or 15 can now operate with two, three, or four people – and in some cases, perform better than before.
This is why we believe that, in many ways, seed is the new growth. A seed round can now take a company significantly further than it could five years ago. It can get founders to real product-market fit, enable faster learning cycles, and create meaningful early scale with much less capital.
But this shift also changes what matters.
Technology alone is no longer a durable moat. If something can be built quickly by one team, it can often be replicated quickly by another. The moats that matter are harder to copy: distribution, customer insight, brand and narrative, the ability to execute with exceptional people.
The tools have changed. The fundamentals of building a great company have not. Talent still matters. Resilience still matters. Ambition still matters.
The next challenge is becoming a consensus company
The environment for early-stage building may be better than ever. But scaling has become a different game.
There is significant growth capital in the market, yet it is increasingly concentrated in a small number of companies. These are the companies that become the obvious winners in their categories – the companies investors feel they have to back.
In other words, consensus companies.
That status is not created through KPIs alone. Of course, traction matters. But perception matters too. How does the market see you? What do customers, talent, investors, and partners believe about the company you are building? Do they understand why you are positioned to win? Can they repeat your story when you are not in the room?
This is where brand and narrative become strategic assets, not marketing extras. Founders should be intentional about the perception they create. A strong brand is not just a polished visual identity or a clever tagline. It is a clear, consistent story about what you believe, what you are building, why it matters, and why your team is uniquely positioned to make it happen.
When capital flows toward perceived winners, building conviction around your company becomes part of building the company itself.
The biggest remaining constraint may be mindset
For years, founders in CEE faced real structural constraints – limited access to capital, global networks, experienced mentors, and international markets.
When Eleven was founded in 2012, its name was a metaphor for escape velocity – the ability to help founders overcome those constraints and build beyond the limits of the region. Today, many of those barriers have fallen away. A founder can speak with a customer, hire a specialist, find a partner, or pitch an investor anywhere in the world with a few clicks. The starting point matters far less than it once did.
But one constraint can still linger: mindset.
The opportunity in front of founders from this region is enormous. Yet claiming it requires more courage, more conviction, and a willingness to be visibly ambitious before the numbers fully catch up.
Ambition is not a substitute for traction. But it is often what gives founders the resilience to keep building until traction arrives.
No more excuses
This is a defining moment for founders in Central and Eastern Europe.
The old excuses are disappearing. Capital is available. Markets are accessible. Technology is more democratized than ever. The region has stronger talent, more experienced operators, more role models, and a growing base of globally ambitious companies.
That does not make the path easy. It makes it possible.
The opportunity now is to build companies that are not merely successful relative to their local markets, but globally relevant by default.
And in that journey, founders do not have to build alone. The most powerful asset available may still be the people around you – fellow founders who understand the pressure, mentors who have seen the pattern before, investors who are ready to engage, and a community that wants to see each other win.
Use the tools. Move fast. Build trust. Be ambitious.
And when you need help, ask the room.
