That's what Tim Knotnerus would say about listing his company Agomab on the Nasdaq (see.. It can be done in Europe 🇪🇺✨). When I say he is brave taking such a step, he frames it as strategic and logic. And while many say Europe lacks that strength, he showed that you can build it yourself. Here are a few of the many ways I’ve seen him build that strength.

✨ Preparing for multiple futures

Biotech outcomes are unpredictable, even with excellent science.

Tim plans for every scenario; good, bad, and unlikely, so nothing catches him unprepared.

🧩 Optionality as the foundation of confidence.

Agomab has built real alternatives for all the core elements like pipeline, team, strategy, syndicate, so they do not depend on a single outcome. When you create real alternatives across all core elements, that creates genuine confidence. People feel that.

 ⚠️ Anticipating roadblocks long before they might appear.

Raising before results, shifting stakeholders before potential misalignment, investing in the next asset before the lead might fail. Strength comes from acting early.

 🚴‍♂️ Truly taking time for reflection

There are so many details that show how Tim reflects. Where I fill my long flights with work, he just thinks and reflects. Where I fill every gap in my agenda, he takes a bike ride or calls a friend to reflect. It shows in the clarity of his decisions.

🌊 Honesty about uncertainty builds more momentum than false certainty ever will.

Tim doesn’t pretend to know the outcome but he is great about laying out the opportunity: if it works, you’ll want to have been part of it, and if you don’t join, your competitors will.

Put these together and the outcome looks bold. I still think it is. But there is also a lot of structure, discipline, and operating from strength.

🚀🇪🇺 Now more than ever I feel that Europe needs to grow from our own strength. And news like this remind us: we absolutely can.

About

Tim Knotnerus is the (Dutch) CEO of the Belgian biotech company Agomab Therapeutics, developing therapies that aim to preserve and restore organ function in fibrotic disease. The company was the first European company in five years to go public on the Nasdaq and Tim is the first Dutch CEO in ten years bringing a company to the Nasdaq stock exchange.