With Europe’s top event for small and medium-sized enterprises, the SME Assembly, taking place in Tallinn, Estonia, the European Investment Bank commissioned Madis Ots, a one-man SME from Estonia, to illustrate some of the challenges that SME’s, particularly start-up companies, face when trying to access finance with a start-up cartoon Welcome to “The Brood”, a weekly dose of a hedgehog, a rabbit and a wolf trying to get the bear to finance them (plus assorted antics).
“Rabbit, wolf and hedgehog represent entrepreneurs, including start-uppers, with all their merits and flaws. They’re always full of ideas – some brilliant, some a bit blurry, some completely over the top,” Madis explains. “The bear symbolizes the old-school companies and bankers – slow, uninspiring and inflexible.