Serial entrepreneur Mario Schraepen on speed, access and startup potential

Serial entrepreneur Mario Schraepen has offered a first-hand assessment of Malta’s startup ecosystem following a recent visit to the island, describing it as compact in size but unusually accessible in terms of institutional engagement.

Reflecting on Malta’s geographic scale, Mr Schraepen noted that while the main island stretches roughly 27 kilometres from end to end, it offers a “layered, lived-in” environment shaped by diverse cultures, architecture and business activity. However, his primary focus was not lifestyle or scale, but whether Malta functions effectively as a base for startups.

According to Mr Schraepen, the answer lies less in incentives and more in execution speed. While acknowledging familiar factors such as Malta’s use of English, tax structures and climate, he said he was more interested in testing how quickly meaningful discussions could take place once physically present on the island.

Within a single day, he secured meetings with Malta Enterprise, Tech.mt and Malta Venture Capital – three government-controlled entities with roles spanning enterprise support, technology policy and early-stage investment.

Mr Schraepen said the ease with which those meetings were arranged stood out, particularly when compared to larger jurisdictions where similar engagements can take weeks or months to organise. In his view, this level of access reflects an institutional setup that is aligned with the pace at which founders typically operate.

He argued that startup ecosystems are not sustained solely by favourable regulation or fiscal incentives, but by the ability of public institutions to engage quickly and decisively with entrepreneurs. Where access to decision-makers is slow or fragmented, momentum is often lost, he said.

By contrast, Mr Schraepen suggested Malta’s smaller scale enables shorter decision-making chains and more direct communication between founders and policymakers. He described this as a structural advantage rather than a coincidence, noting that it removes uncertainty at early stages of market entry or project evaluation.