The nordic startup scene has been growing nicely in the last few years. There is a lot of potential in the companies that have sprung up. The Nordic curse, at least here in Finland, has been that we innovate and patent many of those innovations, but fail to commercialise them. With the recent development in the startup scene I'm beginning to feel more hopeful.
It's usually not the problem of money. The Nordic countries have one of the best support systems to start a company. In may cases startups can ask for grants to start the company and to follow up on lowering R&D costs, there are organisations such as TEKES in Finland that help leverage the use of money. Depending on the program of TEKES, companies can usually receive grants of up to 70% of R&D costs.
If you think about it, one of the biggest problems with the startup culture in the Nordics is that we haven't got that many serial entrepreneurs that would teach and mentor the new entrepreneurs. Especially from the point of view that the same mistakes that can be avoided - should be avoided.
Companies such as Spotify have a solid background with serial entrepreneurs. The founders of Spotify have started other companies in the past, namely TradeDoubler. The Finnish serial entrepreneur Taneli Tikka, has been attached to several companies after selling his most famous company IRC-Galleria to Sulake, the company behind Habbo Hotel. Taneli is a common visitor in many of the startup gatherings that are organised and it's him that many people turn to in need of help.
Taneli sharing some valuable advice.
One of the reasons why ArcticStartup was founded back in 2007 was that I realised we need a movement to enable entrepreneurship on the grassroots level. Our focus is to overcome these obstacles behind starting companies - we want to network people and ideas so more new innovative companies can be created. One of the ways we are doing this is organising events across the region called ArcticEvenings. These events are held in the evenings in one of the local pubs, getting together entrepreneurs from near and far, listening to a panel and talks, having a drink while networking with people you might not have known before. Our next event is held in Helsinki, but are looking to have one in Stockholm and St. Petersburg before summer.
Northern Europe might not have the strong history in entrepreneurship that is needed to have better chances of success, but the new generations are definitely showing that there's will and passion in commercialising new ideas. I'm extremely glad we can be a part of this and help entrepreneurs succeed.
Antti Vilpponen is the founder of ArcticStartup, a movement promoting entrepreneurship in the Nordics and Baltics. Antti is also a co-founder of Gyllene Skor, a digital agency located in Helsinki Finland.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=5905a24d-e64e-4b22-9704-f37077058018)
It's usually not the problem of money. The Nordic countries have one of the best support systems to start a company. In may cases startups can ask for grants to start the company and to follow up on lowering R&D costs, there are organisations such as TEKES in Finland that help leverage the use of money. Depending on the program of TEKES, companies can usually receive grants of up to 70% of R&D costs.
If you think about it, one of the biggest problems with the startup culture in the Nordics is that we haven't got that many serial entrepreneurs that would teach and mentor the new entrepreneurs. Especially from the point of view that the same mistakes that can be avoided - should be avoided.
Companies such as Spotify have a solid background with serial entrepreneurs. The founders of Spotify have started other companies in the past, namely TradeDoubler. The Finnish serial entrepreneur Taneli Tikka, has been attached to several companies after selling his most famous company IRC-Galleria to Sulake, the company behind Habbo Hotel. Taneli is a common visitor in many of the startup gatherings that are organised and it's him that many people turn to in need of help.
Taneli sharing some valuable advice.
One of the reasons why ArcticStartup was founded back in 2007 was that I realised we need a movement to enable entrepreneurship on the grassroots level. Our focus is to overcome these obstacles behind starting companies - we want to network people and ideas so more new innovative companies can be created. One of the ways we are doing this is organising events across the region called ArcticEvenings. These events are held in the evenings in one of the local pubs, getting together entrepreneurs from near and far, listening to a panel and talks, having a drink while networking with people you might not have known before. Our next event is held in Helsinki, but are looking to have one in Stockholm and St. Petersburg before summer.
Northern Europe might not have the strong history in entrepreneurship that is needed to have better chances of success, but the new generations are definitely showing that there's will and passion in commercialising new ideas. I'm extremely glad we can be a part of this and help entrepreneurs succeed.
Antti Vilpponen is the founder of ArcticStartup, a movement promoting entrepreneurship in the Nordics and Baltics. Antti is also a co-founder of Gyllene Skor, a digital agency located in Helsinki Finland.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=779ce5d7-05dd-4bb8-8b2d-776af7a9c1cd)
