At the dawn of every transformative era, humanity faces a pivotal moment—one that defines
not just the trajectory of technology but the future of society itself.
In the late 1800s, it was electricity. In the 1990s, it was the internet, just beginning to connect the world. If we're
drawing parallels, 2025 might well be our version of 1997: a moment when something new was in the air but few could fully see it.
Today, that something is generative AI—and beyond it. A deeper shift we call the ground state: the new conditions that
shape how everything is build.
Let’s break it down.
- The barriers to innovation, once defined by cost and complexity, are dissolving. Today, a single person with a laptop and an internet connection has the power to reshape industries and redefine the world around us, building what once demanded entire teams and millions of dollars. Innovation belongs to those who move fast and build smart.
- The line between digital and physical is disappearing. For two decades, the world’s most valuable companies were
built in code. But in 2025, innovation is shifting: AI, automation, immersive technologies, and synthetic biology are blurring the boundaries between bits and atoms.
- At the same time, the world feels increasingly fragmented. Democracies are under pressure, inequality is growing
and the spread of misinformation erodes public trust. And yet, technology races forward. The big question is no longer what technology can do—it’s what it should do. And how we ensure that progress doesn’t come at the cost of connection.
In short: the ground state has changed.
But how does Slush play a part in all this? At Slush, our mission is simple: to help and create founders to change
the world.
But that mission means little if we don’t first understand the challenges standing in the way. Each year, as we shape
the event, we ask ourselves: What do founders truly need? What’s holding them back? And how can Slush be useful in answering that need?
So, what’s holding founders back in 2025?
In February, we asked over 600 early-stage founders from across Europe about their biggest challenges. What they
us wasn't surprising—but it was sobering. The struggle is existential. The hardest problems are the ones that keep companies alive: funding and growth (Source: Startup Struggle Survey 2025).
But that’s not the whole story.
The struggle is real, but so is the determination. Founders are under immense pressure—to grow, to raise, to hire,
to deliver—but they are not giving up. They’re more mission-driven, more globally ambitious, and more focused than ever on building meaningful companies that endure in a volatile world.
At Slush, we’ve never believed in sugarcoating the founder journey. We’re here to meet it head-on, with speed, velocity,
and respect for the people building the future. And today, that future feels closer than ever.
I believe this is Europe’s moment.
Not just because some of the best founders are returning from overseas, but because more are choosing to stay, and to build here in the first place. Across the continent, a new generation of founders is rising: more mission-driven, more globally ambitious, and more determined than ever to create companies that matter.
That’s why we exist: to support this generation, to remove barriers, and to help founders turn ambition into action.
To make Europe to best place to build and scale companies.
Slush is the world’s leading startup event and the largest gathering of venture capital, bringing over $4 trillion
in assets under management to Helsinki for one week. We organize over 1,000 pre-scheduled meetings every hour during the Slush Main Event and fill the week with more than 600 side events, all curated to support early-stage founders. But more than that, it’s a platform for pushing the ecosystem forward, for asking the hard questions and creating space for the next wave of bold ideas.