Saying Something Over And Over Again Doesn't Make It So
Om Malik, the founder of GigaOm was speaking in Helsinki to a room of media representatives yesterday morning at the Aalto Venture Garage. His visit to Finland is part of a tour to come understand the companies and environment the local startups work in. Before Helsinki, he had visited Berlin and the LeWeb conference in Paris. I managed to talk to Malik about the way he sees these entrepreneurial hubs.
The big part of our discussion circled around the fact that people in Europe always look up to Silicon Valley and how they succeed in everything they do, while failing to see all the potential in front of their eyes. I have to say, while I knowledge the value Silicon Valley has on companies - I wonder how much possibility is wasted when following a given path without truly thinking of the possibilities closer to you. After all, Rovio didn't go to Silicon Valley to succeed - it all started with an innocent tweet by a Swedish athlete in the Nordics (going international I mean).
Later on in the evening, Aalto Venture Garage based Startup Sauna seed accelerator had their Demo Day. 11 companies made it to the stage of the original 18 that made it to the program. The tight criteria inside the program pushed several companies to drop out.
The event itself was very impressive. Startup Sauna is really pushing the limits of grassroots level action in Finland, but also in Northern Europe. This effort is very welcome and we definitely need more of this.
However, there is something that we don't need more of. Startup Sauna praises itself for pulling in much of the talent from the region in a very impressive way, but most of the promotion was towards seeking validation which comes across as bad self confidence.
Much of the pitching was towards positioning Finland as the next startup hub in the region. I'd very much like this, but you can't only push it - it also has to be earned. Even Malik said that if he was given 100k euros and he'd be given the choice to invest it between Helsinki and Berlin, he'd invest it 50-50.
I'm a big fan of Estonia and especially their work in pushing across the e-government solutions through out the society. Estonians weren't the only guests in the room who were left cold in my opinion. There were Russians, Lithuanians and others. Finland can't take credit for something when it invites companies to work here through an incentive paid by Finnish tax payers. It's not fully market driven and thus, it's not really so until private money follows the talk.
I may sound too critical here (and trust me - the Startup Sauna organisers are good friends, putting on a great show and this is a really difficult issue, however it has to be said), but startups and the organizations in Northern Europe building the ecosystem really need to apply the "kick the shit out" -method to themselves that Startup Sauna applies to their startups each week. Be critical of yourself even if you're succeeding. We too, at ArcticStartup, need to do more of this.
Entrepreneurship in the Nordics and Baltics isn't the same as it was in 2007 when we started amateurishly covering startups. Back then entrepreneurship was seen as the last resort of getting employed. The ecosystem needed boosting.
A lot has changed since. Startups have become mainstream and many of the Nordic and Baltic countries are living a true golden age in terms of this. Politicians are competing for publicity in the face of entrepreneurs, startups are competing for visibility and investors are competing for possibilities in investing in the next best thing.
Something that hasn't changed, that should change - is the view of our own industry. We need to become ever more critical as more people choose this path. Entrepreneurship isn't a shortcut to riches, fame or world domination. Far from it, it's a really hard road many will lose a lot of money on. More importantly, some may lose their belief in changing the world and even in themselves.
It's a long rant, but this is something of a larger trend I have observed. Let's become more critical of ourselves here in Northern Europe. Let's raise the bar and fucking earn the title of startup Mecca of Europe without ever having to validate that in the future with Silicon Valley professionals.
Northern Europe - you need to earn this. You will prevail.
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Thanks Antti for covering us extensively and being such a great supporter throughout the years.
I completely agree that there are a lot of people who do pitch very Helsinki and Finland centric. However, I do have to remind you that we in Startup Sauna are all about building the ecosystem from a regional aspect.
I believe we haven't emphasized the message clearly enough as our audience seems to keep on repeating the Finland-centric pitch. Yesterday at our Investor Breakfast we had invited 11 companies out of 21 outside of Finland and/or Startup Sauna to be shown to investors like Index, Sunstone Capital, Ambient Sound Investments, Open Ocean Capital, BV Capital which is another proof that Startup Sauna is doing this from a regional aspect. We tried reaching out for even more and hopefully we are able to a better job next time!
Regarding the central location, I agree that this "meeting point" should be the one city or country that does the best work and is able to achieve this goal. The central location seems to make perfect sense to the investors also as our countries are very scattered and "far away" which means that easier to reach out for them if we can assure that the best deal flow will show up at single location twice a year.
We've been consistently building the ecosystem here in Finland for the last 3 years (you also Antti!) and Aalto Venture Garage here in Finland has become our dear home. Startup Sauna was rebranded in the beginning of 2011 from Bootcamp after which we've reached out the region as extensively as possible with 2,5 full time employees. :-)
As I said out loud on stage at our demo day yesterday - we do not care if the central point is Helsinki, Moscow, Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw... the things that we care are that:
a) we have more great startups from the region
b) we have a reason for talent and inside outside of our region to fly in twice a year to check out the deal flow
c) we are able to create the pay-it-forward culture into the region.
Thank you for the feedback and if there's anything we can do for you, just let us know! We're off to Ukraine this Saturday to check out if there's a possibility to help fellow companies during the next spring.
- Antti
Antti, thanks for taking the time to comment on this. Much appreciated.
I don't think I worry about the location too much and to be honest, I don't really care where that is. I care about the points you mentioned in the post as well - it's all about building the ecosystem in a sustainable way.
The point I wanted to put across and start some healthy discussion around is that we should also look at ourselves critically in what we do (and us included). It should not contradict in anyway with all the pitching that's taking place for the region, but we also need to realise that we're still very very far from being the best place to build a startup in Europe (in a sustainable way).
But even though there is a lot of hype on this - I believe we also need to remind ourselves from time to time that we really need to earn the respect instead of simply try to push it across in the midst of all the pitching.
It's something that people are able to see through easily and if that is the case, it doesn't increase trust and believe towards us.
But like I said in the article itself - you guys do a stellar job in running Startup Sauna, it's exactly what we need to create great companies and earn that respect.
Thank you Antti for bringing up this topic. There hasn't been too much open discussion about the internal issues of the Northern European startup scene, while many seem to be aware of the minor tensions that are out there.
I doubt that any player in the Northern scene really wants to build a local startup ecosystem of their own, especially at the cost of others. I believe this is more of a rhetorical issue stemming from some momentum, little excitement and a bit of over-marketing to get the attention of international VCs/media.
Let's focus on helping those startups as much as possible, and the rest will take care of itself. As for any misplaced statements from our part, I apologize, no harm meant.
Thanks Miki, and don't get me wrong. This isn't aimed at you or Startup Sauna specifically. It's part of the larger trend in Finland in my opinion. We have fallen victims to it as well in many cases online and offline.
We forget that while we keep iterating our pitches on the greatness of the region each time - we forget that we really have to earn some of the respect as well. It's a small thing to remember and note.
Otherwise it's nothing more than a pitch, when we really want to build a sustaining startup ecosystem that will gain respect throughout the world.
In the meanwhile - the more we focus on pushing those companies forward, the closer we will be to that goal :) Last night saw some great companies pitching in Startup Sauna Demo Day. If they execute right, all the winners will go far.
No worries Antti, have been thinking about this too - sometimes, it seems that the reality gets confused with bold goals and visions for the future.
There's been a lot of hype for the past half a year, which is a good thing, but it also calls for responsibility from the startup scene. Times will get tough at some point, so we need to be realistic about where we are and where we want to end up, while not confusing the two (too much). Otherwise, we risk losing all like happened in 2001, when the scene was overloaded with economic expectations.
--Miki