Book excerpt: This project seeks to understand more about the scale and nature, strengths and weaknesses of, and the relationships between, Europe's startup ecosystems. In doing this it has been one of the most ambitious projects of its kind undertaken. The project has revolved around two inter-related components: first, the development of a dynamic mapping platform, which has created - for the first time - a business level analysis across 20 European ecosystems; second, an extensive stakeholder engagement process across the 20 ecosystems engaging with over 200 entrepreneurs, investors, accelerators, co-working spaces, government officials, universities, businesses, network groups and other market influencers and shapers. Together these activities have provided rich insight into the barriers and opportunities that exist within these startup ecosystems. Through this insight this report identifies a number of important findings and recommendations for policy makers, investors and other actors involved in European startup activity.