We’ve been looking closely at the startup scene in the Nordics and Baltics for the last two and a half years and I have to say, the amount of events on the market these days is very attractive. There are a lot of different kind of events and I’m sure there’s something for everyone. While these events have their own functions and drive their own agendas, there’s no getting round it – they’re great fun and will surely improve your business if not by any other means than at least by networking with the other visitors there.
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Summary Of Some Of This Spring’s Startup Events
CCP Games – Iceland’s Pride
During my visit to Iceland a few weeks ago, I had the chance to visit one of the greatest “startups” in a while – CCP Games. CCP Games has its offices in the Silicon Docks area of Reykjavik. While the other startups are doing the proper bootstrapping and sharing offices next door, CCP Games has grown to cover three stories employing some 450 people at the moment. Those who aren’t that familiar with CCP Games, they are the developer of Eve Online one of the most popular MMORPGs out there. In short, there are over 300 000 registered players on Eve Online and almost everyone is paying about 15 USD a month for the membership (some have 14-day trial accounts). This in turn sky rockets their revenue well past 50 000 000 USD annually.
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Uppspretta To Help Battle Recession In Iceland
Uppspretta is an Icelandic startup focused in social lending. At the moment Uppspretta is only available in Iceland. It was co-founded by Ragnheiður Magnúsdóttir, one of the panelists in the ArcticEvening Iceland. The site works in such a way that it works as a facilitator between people who want a loan and people who are willing to lend some money. For the time being, the site is concentrating on smaller companies and startups as their market.
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Global Call Stirs Up The Market In Iceland
During my visit to Iceland earlier this week I met with a local VoIP company called Global Call. While there are many VoIP companies around, Global Call had managed to arouse some serious interest and hate towards them. First of all, many of their clients like them for their low rates where as the other telcos seriously hate them for competing with them. I talked to Benedikt Bjarnason and Höskuldur Darri Ellertsson about their business and how they’re doing.
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Thoughts On Iceland And Its Startup Scene
I’m in Reykjavik, Iceland, hosting an ArcticEvening event for the local startup scene tonight. I thought I’d do a little write up of the thoughts and discoveries regarding the startup scene up here. First of all, to put things into perspective, you need to understand the size of things we’re talking with. Iceland has a population of around 320 000 people and that’s scattered across the island. On the other hand, they’re a relatively wealthy bunch of people, despite the current economic crisis, with a GDP per capita a little over $40 000 USD for 2008. Talking about the econmic crisis, it is definitely the biggest subject in discussions these days. On my way to meet up with some local entrepreneurs last night, the cab driver said that he’s sure there will be something happening in the coming months. According to him, “regular people are tired of paying the mess of the large companies.” I can understand his rage completely.
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ArcticEvening Reykjavik – Reminder: Be There!
A quick reminder before the weekend regarding our ArcticEvening in Reykjavik coming up Tuesday the 12th of October. We’ll have a very interesting show planned for you so I strongly suggest all the locals and foreigners who happen to be in Iceland next week join in. The show will begin at 8pm at Grandagardi 2. You don’t have to sign up or anything, just show up!
ArcticStartup Goes Reykjavik
On October 13th we’ll kick off our autumn agenda for ArcticEvenings with an event in Reykjavik, Iceland. Our agenda for our event in Reykjavik is little different to our events before. We’re combining two very interesting concepts together, speed networking and a panel. Even though the country and city are small, we hear it’s a powerhouse of entrepreneurs compared to its size!
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Biovakka Suomi Oy 
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