Europe imports 70% of the cybersecurity products it uses. That number isn’t just an economic statistic. It’s a strategic vulnerability.

And while the debate around digital sovereignty often stays at the policy level, a small group of builders in France is doing something different: writing a new playbook from scratch.

In this episode of Scaling Cyber, I sat down with Laurent Hausermann and Aurélie Clerc, co-founders of Cygo Entrepreneurs, a cybersecurity venture studio based in Lyon and Paris, to understand what it actually takes to build European cyber champions in 2026.

Who They Are

Laurent and Aurélie are not typical investors. They’ve both been founders. They’ve felt the gaps in the European ecosystem firsthand:

* the missing middle layer between early-stage startups and global champions,

* the fragmented market,

* the talent that too often ends up working for Symantec or McAfee rather than building something European.

Cygo was born from that frustration. Instead of deploying capital and stepping back, they co-build companies alongside founders:

* pairing technical co-founders with commercial co-founders,

* validating problems with practitioners before writing a single line of code,

* bringing in design partners who become customers.

The Key Insights

The European market is fragmented and that’s not going away. NIS2 is implemented differently in Germany, Belgium, and Spain. There’s no single 300-million-person market to dominate. Any playbook that ignores this is already broken.

The solution isn’t to copy the US, it’s to build for European reality. That means going international from day one (not after funding), building through channel partners and MSSPs rather than direct sales, and leveraging European regulatory complexity as a forcing function for differentiation.

Design partners beat POCs. Cygo portfolio companies like Glev and Harven built their first products with design partners: CISOs and security teams who co-built alongside them before the company was even incorporated. No POC theatre. Just real co-creation.

“Le Club” is the unfair advantage. Cygo’s private network of CISOs, MSSPs, system integrators, and VCs gives founders immediate access to the practitioners they need. Not after fundraising, but from day one.

Why It Matters

Europe has the talent. It has the regulatory momentum. What it’s been missing is a structured model for converting all of that into companies that actually scale. Cygo is one of the first attempts to build that infrastructure deliberately, and the early signals are positive.

Scaling Lessons

* Start with the market, not the technology. Validate pain before building product.

* Pair technical and commercial talent from the very beginning.

* Go European from day one. Not French, not German. European.

* Use indirect channels (MSSPs, system integrators) as your GTM engine, not an afterthought.

* Leverage AI — especially open-source and fine-tuned models — to scale security practices, not just to build security products.

Key Takeaways for Cyber Founders & Leaders

* Europe’s fragmentation is a challenge AND an opportunity if you design for it from the start.

* The design partner model eliminates the POC problem. Build with customers, not for them.

* Community is infrastructure. A CISO network isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a GTM asset.

* “Made in Europe” can mean technical excellence, not just geopolitical preference.

* It’s never too late. The next wave of European cyber champions is being built right now.

About the Guests

Laurent Hausermann and Aurélie Clerc are co-founders of Cygo Entrepreneurs, a cybersecurity venture studio based in France. Laurent is a serial entrepreneur and one of Europe’s most vocal advocates for building a sovereign cybersecurity ecosystem. Aurélie brings deep expertise in market validation and founder support. Together, they lead a portfolio of companies co-built with “Le Club”, their private network of CISOs, MSSPs, and security practitioners.

🎙️ About Scaling Cyber

Scaling Cyber spotlights cybersecurity founders and ecosystem leaders outside the traditional US/Israel hubs — surfacing the real stories behind building global cyber companies.

If you’re a founder, investor, CISO, or partner looking beyond the obvious markets — this is your front-row seat.

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