Some patterns of behaviour in the European tech ecosystem have become so normalised that few consider questioning them anymore.
In recent years, these icks of the trade have fast become staples of an industry that prides itself on original thinking, while quietly singing from the same hymn book.
Following some (ahem) extensive internal polling, Sifted pulled together a list of the definitive European tech “icks” — defined in Urban Dictionary as romantic turn-offs or “things that makes you uncomfortable or weirded out”.
The icks humbly presented here are by no means moral failings. They are small, everyday habits that signal something more insidious: a creeping sameness dependent on style over substance.
If any of the below feel familiar, that’s unfortunate. If several do, it may be time for a quiet rethink.
1. ‘Commenting for reach’
What began as gentle attempts to feed the algorithm have become bloated banquets of bravado.
Founders, operators and investors alike dutifully type the same dull phrase under one another’s posts, letting it be known their momentary flutter of keyboard activism could change someone’s life (or at least ensure the same dozen or so people see the same update twice).
The end result is a comments section that looks less like a conversation and more like a growth hack support group.
2. Over-enthusiastic emoji usage
Flames. Rocket ships. Rolling cry-laughing faces.
In theory, there is nothing wrong with a well-placed emoji. But this ick is less about the emojis, so much as what they’ve come to represent.
Those plugged into Europe’s tech ecosystem already have enough work on their plates delineating the truly exceptional startups and funding rounds from the run-of-the-mill. That such announcements are uniformly transforming into walls of 🚀👏🔥 helps no-one.
3. Announcing new funds without completing a first close
If a VC hasn’t had a first close yet (and not just commitments, but an actual close), they shouldn’t be announcing new funds.
Increasingly, the announcement has become a kind of pre-announcement. A signal to onlookers that something definitely is happening, we promise, even if it hasn’t happened yet.
4. Wearing baseball caps
Hats of any kind can be an elusively difficult accessory to pull off at the best of times.
Emerging as an ironic staple of tech bro fashion in Silicon Valley in the 2000s, baseball caps make a degree more sense in the US context, subtly used to elevate the everyman credentials of ludicrously wealthy innovators with a subtle nod to the game widely considered America’s unofficial national sport.
Europe has little to no deep-rooted relationship with baseball. Only two countries in Europe, the Netherlands and Italy, host fully professional leagues with just a handful of teams each. We humbly suggest kookaburra cricket hats, French berets or Spanish boinas become European tech's signature headgear of choice going forward.
5. AI-generated LinkedIn posts
You can tell. We can tell. Everyone can tell.
What was meant to make posting more accessible to even the most incoherent of founders and VCs has dulled an already cringe-inducing medium, producing a feed where every post reads like it was written by the hivemind alien from Pluribus.
6. Raising a down round
OK, this one feels a little mean.
Down rounds happen, markets turn and plenty of good companies end up raising at lower valuations through no great fault of their own. If anything, there’s something refreshingly honest about admitting the numbers don’t quite line up anymore.
And yet, the ick creeps in around the edges: the excuses, the sudden narrative pivots, the megalomaniacal commitment to a sinking ship. If things get hairy, do what you can to own the situation.
7. VCs putting “founder-friendly” in their bio like it’s a differentiator
Why wouldn’t a VC be founder-friendly??? What???
8. “I don’t usually post like this, but…” (posts like that weekly)
Welcome to the new era of performative reluctance.
So compromised is Europe’s tech ecosystem, forever playing catch-up with Silicon Valley while navigating deep-rooted funding gaps and the well-meaning if occasionally misguided diktats of Brussels bureaucrats, the industry’s leading voices are on-hand to remind us it’s time to #Get Real and #HaveDifficultConversations.
And it’ll be time to do that around the same time the following week. And the one after that. And the one after that. And the one after that…
9. Free tote bags
I’ve heard of “securing the bag” but this is ridiculous.
What European tech event is complete without the mandatory branded tote bag giveaway? Attendees will of course receive them gaily — partly out of habit; partly out of a lingering belief they might someday, somehow, prove useful.
But they rarely are. Most end up folded away at home, quiet relics of conferences that promised insight and delivered, at the least, a bag.
10. 'Building something new'
This deliberately vague LinkedIn status update is suggestive without committing to detail. The ambiguity is the point, inviting curiosity and, ideally, a few inbound messages from more naive VCs.
But overuse has stripped it of intrigue. At this stage, “building something new” often translates to “not quite ready to say what yet,” which is fair — just not very compelling.
11. Bragging about your VC firm’s AI tools
VC firms have been using AI tools to sift through deal pipelines and run a number of processes behind the scenes for a while now. Unless you completely automate deals from start to finish or do something particularly unique with yours, it’s not a differentiator.
12. Everything-maxxing
Enough already! By the time “maxxing” reached the tech world, it wasn’t cool anymore.
What began elsewhere as a tongue-in-cheek suffix borrowed from the darker corners of the internet has been enthusiastically adopted and applied to everything: from LinkedInmaxxing to Londonmaxxing. This linguistic overreach is a sign the industry will co-opt any trend, no matter how tired, if it sounds vaguely optimised.
