Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Helsinki - We Have A Problem
Allan Martinson, one of the most best known and experienced investors from Estonia (currently the founding and managing partner of MTVP), has cast concern about the amount of new accelerators and different support programs for startups. He states a valid point, that if every town and your brother has an accelerator they will fail to attract critical mass to support their functions. Martinson states that Baltics really need one big accelerator with strong financing and a strong team to make a splash in the global pond of startup activities.
There really cannot be too much discussion around this topic, and therefore we have included Allan Martinson's original statement from his public Facebook status below.
Liiqu Is Yammer For Sports
Management isn’t just about having to manage your team at work or offices, it is essential everywhere where groups are involved. We at ArcticStartup are always on the lookout for interesting startups from diverse categories, keeping the interest factor in mind. Today we bring Liiqu, a startup that helps team management, for sports.
The startup helps you to effectively manage your sports team effectively. This offers an easy way to track statistics for the team and individuals as well as maintain effective communication amongst the teams. From where I see it, it is more of a tool for coaches of sports, be it football, ice hockey or footsal, to keep track of their team. Lets talk about the features separately and see what package Liiqu actually has:
PickyDomains Helping Your Brand Find The Right Name Online
You have a killer idea with proven demand, but what you don’t have is the right domain name that does justice to your brand. You can hire me and I will charge a hefty sum for consultation without a guarantee that you would even like my suggestions. Or you can try PickyDomains. I will tell you why.
Golden Rules Of PR By Christina Forsgård
Tech start-ups come up with great ideas and build brilliant products but often lag behind marketing them. Main reason for that is usually lack of resources: entrepreneurs would rather spend their limited funds on developing a product than on marketing it. However, most agree that it’s important for your product to be known and talked about. We talked with one the main PR gurus in Finland Christina Forgård (founder and Chairman of the Board of Netprofile) who shed light on the world of PR and shattered some common myths and misconceptions.
Startups: Deadline For Arctic15 VC Meetings End Of This Month!
Startups, we're closing the signups to the VC matchmaking event, held on Friday September 23rd, at the end of August. This is because we have to book the meetings with the VCs, many whom are flying in from overseas. Therefore we ask you to sign-up immediately, if you'd like to have the chance to meet international VCs coming to Arctic15.
Symptoms Of The Norwegian Startup Ecosystem
This guest post is by Tor R. Grønsund. He is the founder of Lingo Social, a lecturer of Entrepreneurship at the University of Oslo, and the writer of the blog Methodologist. Follow him on Twitter at @tor.
As inventors of the object-oriented programming language and the modern GSM technology, you would expect Norway to have the perfect ingredients for a vibrant startup scene. If you, however, search this or any other notable tech blog for news on early-stage Norwegian startups, you would find next to nothing. While Nordic and Baltic startups seems to thrive, why don’t we see any ventures emerging out of Norway, several Nordic and European professionals questioned me. After talking to a handful of entrepreneurs, investors, and scholars about why this is the case, I discovered seven symptoms of the Norwegian start-up ecosystem that might explain why Norway’s tech innovation is lagging behind that of its neighbors.
Witsbits Announces Improvements, Opens Office In San Francisco
Sweden based Witsbits, a cloud computing company in the Nordic and the Scandinavian region recently announced an update to their Go Cloud product. This includes a new “Boot from CD-ROM” functionality that enables physical servers to remotely connect to the Witsbits' external Go Cloud management system. System administrators can then manage their physical servers and virtual machines from any web browser.
Microsoft BizSpark European Summit Finalists Announced
Microsoft BizSpark European Summit released the names of the 14 finalists from the whole of Europe. The competition involved hundreds of startups from all over Europe and making it to the top means that the selected startups had great potential to impress the selectors. Each of the finalists had to battle their way to this spot against numerous companies and two qualification rounds to grab a chance to pitch their ideas live in front of an audience of investors and a panel of expert judges. This final event will be held on June 14, in Brussels. Impressively, 4 companies are from the Northern European region.
TechStars Outshines Y-Combinator As The Top Startup Accelerator Program In The US
When you mention startups, funding, mentoring and networking are the most essential ingredients needed by each aspiring founder. There are great ideas waiting to be put into practicality and the only thing that keeps them from shooting from their roots has been the absence of incubators and accelerator programs. Things have been changing and a number of startup accelerator programs and incubators have surfaced, this is where ideas are carved into reality, founders are provided guidance, the essential tips to direct them towards success and the ever needed funding.
Yandex.Factory To Finance Startups
Russian firm, Yandex is waking up to assist startups with funding with the initiation of Yandex.Factory. Yandex.Factory is a startup investment program that will provide funding to startup projects in Russia as well as those from the International arena and this investment is by no means small.
Garage48 Goes Africa Times 5!
We at ArcticStartup heart the Garage48 event for all the rush and enthusiasm that comes forth in the 48 hours of pure innovation. But the weather at the events here in the Nordics and Baltics was perhaps just a bit too cold and needed some equatorial treatment, which is exactly the treatment Garage48 will be getting. Garage48 has announced that they will be holding 5 events in Africa.
Founder2be Partners With Startup Weekend And YourStory
Founder2be, a start-up that built a network that helps entrepreneurial-minded people find each other, has recently added some mighty force from overseas to its Global Alliance Program. First came the announcement of Startup Weekend joinning the network and this week Founder2be announced Your Story, the biggest online platform that shares stories about entrepreneurship in Indian, joining the Alliance Program. The program includes light-weight cooperation and promotion on both sides: Founder2be can help entrepreneurs find the team for their start-up and allied partners can further support the team to implement and develop their business. Founder2be's goal is to have at least one partner on all continents by the end of this year.
Sofanatics Charging Strong, Targets Being The Largest Sports Related Chat Service
I might sound a bit too judgmental and far fetched when it comes to putting Sofanatics as being one of the most interesting startups from Finland. Primarily because it brings all football fanatics onto one platform that has the potential to be the buzzing stadium within a browser. Do I make sense?
Freespee Continues To Expand, Launches A Revamped Website
Freespee, a Sweden based cloud communication startup with a focus on Pay per Call solutions and call tracking launched a revamped website a short while back. The startup has been around since 2008 and it has been growing ever since. I thought about going over a few statistics and they were quite impressive.
Startupbootcamp Comes To Madrid, Next Stop London And Berlin!
When you succeed at first, you have every reason to expand and take up newer and bigger challenges. That’s exactly what Startupbootcamp is doing after the very successful first edition, which was launched as a quarter long program in Copenhagen between August and November, 2010. It brought 10 teams of 32 selected entrepreneurs from 12 different countries, face to face with 75 top mentors in the industry. All that came with thanks to Startupbootcamp’s co-founder, Alex Farcet who put a good number of months to find the right mentors to guide these entrepreneurs.
Le Web For Les Nordiques
As far as web conferences go, French LeWeb is the biggest happening in Europe so far. With an average ticket price hovering around 1700 EUR, it attracted 3000 participants this year. The guests ranged from Google, Facebook and Twittter executives to latest start-ups from around the world to investors to students and loads of press. Apart from hosting presentations and discussions with dot.com gurus, the conference is known for being a great place to network. How to justify this exquisite but costly experience for a Nordic or Baltic start-up? Depends on what you’re looking for. If it’s publicity you’re after but you’re not part of the Startup Competition, I’d recommend against going to Le Web. The size of the conference is so big that chances of being noticed are quite low. Not impossible but low.
Holy Schmoly! Finnish PM Gets Startups' Anxiety
Helsingin Sanomat ran a story on Mari Kiviniemi, the Finnish Prime Minister, who has expressed her thoughts on European state of affairs regarding digital media. She states that, "it's no co-incidence that the digital superstars, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, are all from the US, where they share a large, functioning domestic market". What she's saying here is that the European non-functioning markets should be better built for both consumers and online companies generating value.
Project Getaway: Adventurous Entrepreneurs Living A Life In Paradise
Soon the Nordic summer will be over, and then the ice cold winter only gets closer day by day. So what is an adventurous entrepreneur to do? Well, how about going to Bali, live in luxury villas, and join 15 young, successful, fun and adventurous entrepreneurs?
This is exactly what Project Getaway is all about, and during September and October this year, we have organized a trip, which is designed to be a "dream come true" for any entrepreneur.
The Unsung Hero
In the stories, the hero fights for the people, faces failure and great uncertainty, and ultimately wins.
In Finland, we think he’s a fool who thinks he’s better than everyone else, disrespects the rules and is probably Finnish-Swedish.
Entrepreneurs are the same. They are opportunists and idealists. In its original French, the word means: somebody who will attempt to create something.
On one hand it’s a risky, lonely and difficult endeavor. But on the other hand, it’s thrilling, challenging and potentially offers great returns (value, jobs). I believe we Europeans, and especially in Finland, spend too much time focusing on the former and not enough on the latter.
7 Ways Nokia Can Win Again
In the eyes of the developers and the startup community, Nokia went from hero to zero in less than 3 years. Despite its still 44% strong market share, the company is losing more and more every day to Apple and Google, both of which had no previous mobile experience.
The company is about to introduce the N8 to a mostly indifferent community. Here is a list of 7 things they can do to win the hearts of app developers and startups again.
Plugg - A Stage For European Startups To Shine
Plugg, one of the better conferences in Europe, is held 11 March in Belgacom Surf House at Brussels. It's a one-day conference with a clear focus on celebrating entrepreneurship and innovation in Europe and raising global awareness for those European start-ups in the Web / Mobile 2.0 field that stand out in the crop.
There's certainly not too much celebration of entrepreneurship and innovation in Europe and we are excited to see Plugg bringing together some of the best thinkers and startups on the continent. Our good friend and established writer at TechCrunch, Robin Wauters is at it again and is going to showcase the best that Europe has to offer. Plugg is a must for anyone who's anybody in the European startup scene.
First Screenshot Of Planeto - Stealth Mode Online Quiz Game
"Planeto takes quiz gaming to new heights. Now you can experience unprecedented quiz fun together with millions of players around the globe."
Swedish startup Planeto is going after the wealth waiting in virtual goods and social gaming, besides from the modest goal of world domination in gaming. Planeto Quiz claims to be the world’s first Massively Multiplayer Online Quiz (MMOQ). The game is first to combine elements of online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online with the accessibility and instant thrill of traditional quiz games.
Planeto's been all hush hush from the beginning, even the names of the private investors of the company are still to be kept secret. But, as of today, we've got a little preview of what's in the making!
ArcticIndex To Make The Community Tick
There are roughly 350 startups and 200 individuals already listed in ArcticIndex. This is becoming an increasingly important destination and a resource for anyone looking for information on any startup that comes from the Northern Europe.
We have heard of cases where an investors have heard about a startup and subsequently contacted them (and sometimes even invested) when they have been able to look up a name from the ArcticIndex. Same goes for the media. We break stories on many new startups that the big media then picks up and writes about. Yes, you guessed it: ArcticIndex is where they go check out the facts on those startups.
If you have a startup and have not listed yours yet, do it now. And if you have yours listed, do update your information! Why? Because this is the information that gets printed and looked at as a fact. So if you have had subsequent financing rounds, new key employees, product releases, do yourself a favor and write it in the ArcticIndex, since this is what the readers, investors and the media will judge your startup by. This is also where we pick up new startups to write about.
More Startup Buzz (And Money) At Mindtrek This Year
Mindtrek is the annual conference for social media, web 2.0 as well as digital media and business in general. In 2008 the conference gathered about 800 people from 32 countries with 150 foreigners attending the conference. ArcticStartup is extremely happy to be participating in this leading conference in its field. We will be helping out with the conference this year, so you'll be able to catch some visibility on our blog as well if you happen to participate. Mindtrek will be organised between September 30th and October 2nd this year.
Why do we like Mindtrek? Simple, the prizes are magnificent and without competition. This year, Mindtrek is hosting its launchpad competition to startups and innovative people with ideas. The main prize is 20 009 € including business sparring, internationalization, growth and financing services provided by Tekes, Finnvera, Technopolis Ventures, Finpro, Diges, Lexia, and Hermia. A lot of help and money to be won through a simple competition. It's not too pricey to participate either - entries are only 150€ per company. You can find more information on the competition on the Mindtrek website and to register, you should follow the instruction over here. The deadline for entries has been extended to August 31st.
ArcticEvening Copenhagen - A Full House Of Excitement
We had another amazing ArcticEvening event yesterday. This time we were at Copenhagen Denmark gathering local startups together to spread their love and tell the community about their products. The event ended up being on the eve of Reboot conference and needless to say we had wonderful time with many people in town for both events. A full house of passionate people either interested in entrepreneurship or entrepreneurs themselves.
We had altogether 16 startups presenting, each having 3 minutes to tell how they're planning on changing the world. And so they did. We filmed all of them and are now busy editing the footage, and will pushed it out to you guys as soon as we have the videos ready. It was a great evening and I had a blast. Thank you Copenhagen!
Before we get the videos out, here are captions that Paula got on film.
ArcticEvening Going Copenhagen - Last Chance To Get A Ticket
To continue our ArcticEvening tour around Northern Europe we will be organising an ArcticEvening in Copenhagen, Denmark on 24th June. The date is set so that it is in the eve of the awesome reboot conference.
We have still some 20 tickets or so left and you can reserve your free ticket here or at below. Go get your now!
We are going with a different format this time (no panel) and want to bring out all the best startups in the region. We have a amazing line up coming.
Here's the list of startups that will be presenting (we also might add a few extra appearances). The presentations start at 18.30 sharp(!), so be there in time.
Dedication And Leadership In Startups
When thinking about investing in a very early stage startup where the technology or the market has not been proven yet, the focus shifts to the team. Naturally there needs to be a big enough theoretical market, the technology needs to work and product needs to make sense even if only to those few individuals, namely the team and the investors (think Twitter). But when the idea is only a very rough proto or just a concept, the team will make all the difference. Team is always important, but in early stage startups it's hugely important.
I talked to a prominent VC over a dinner this week and he told me that despite all the attempts it is very hard to determine what are the key success factors for a startup ie. which startups make it and which won't. But one thing where there was a correlation (not necessarily causation, but correlation) was whether the entrepreneur had previsous successful starups under her belt. So not just startups, but successful ones that he followed through with regardless of whether the idea evolved as they went forward. This might sound obvious, but it is interesting still that this is the only factor that can be shown to correlate with the success of a venture. What this comes to prove is that early stage venture capital is people business. Having said that, it does not mean that you need to be a succesful serial entrepreneur to be pull it off. If the entrepreneur doesn't have a historical track record, and most people don't, there are other indicators to look at.
ArcticIndex redesigned and launched with new features
ArcticIndex, the best resource for finding out information regarding nordic and Baltic startups, has been redesigned and launched with new features. Thanks to our great development partner, Kisko Labs who have done a magnificent job with the rapid and flexible iterative development.
ArcticIndex, for those who are not yet familiar with the service, is a one stop shop for your information needs regarding Nordic and Baltic startups. We have close to 200 companies in the service and over 100 people affiliated with startups. The service is a community effort in building a coherent and wide information resource for everyone of us in the startup community and we're growing strong!
We have now redesigned the website and made it slightly different in branding compared to ArcticStartup. There's no point in confusing people with the two websites. Furthermore, the redesign has come in handy adding some usability fixes to the service.
One of the biggest new features in the release is the addition of our free job board or a recruiting service. This is the first release and we'll be adding features to it as we go on. However, it already works fine and we'll be promoting companies looking for talent in the job board on ArcticStartup on a regular basis. Make sure you enter your recruitment needs there - we'll do some free promotion on it in the near future.
We'll also be adding a smaller development blog to ArcticIndex to enable dialogue with the startup community to create the kind of service the community wants. We'll let you know when the blog is live - shouldn't take too many days though.
As always, we're more than glad to hear your comments on these improvements and don't hesitate to share any ideas you might have with the service. We're developing this to make the startup community in whole function better - so you're part of the team that we want to listen to.
Innovate!Europe To Identify Europe's Most Promising Startups
Now that everybody's talking how the economy is predicted to go into a ever steeper tailspin, we wanted to (yes, again) offer a real opportunity to those statups who believe they can rise up to the challenge.
For this we have partnered with Guidewire Group’s Innovate! Europe, a three-part program designed to identify Europe’s most promising startups and accelerate their drive into the global technology market. During this European “talent search,” entrepreneurs will receive invaluable mentoring and promotion while competing against other aspiring startups.
How to know you qualify:
- You are ready to expand out of your home market, to go global.
- You are in the information technology, Internet, mobile and digital media sectors.
Hundreds of companies will apply. Only one will be named the top startup in all of Europe.
The first step is to apply online for an invitation to participate one of Innovate!Europe’s complimentary Going Global Workshops. The most promising companies are invited to local Going Global Workshops, where Guidewire Group’s expert analyst team will give you feedback on your company’s competitive value proposition and market opportunity, and help you hone your pitch and the skills you need to best compete in fast-paced markets like Silicon Valley.
Upcoming Going Global workshops:
30 March: Bern, Switzerland
3 April: Berlin, Germany
6 April: Paris, France
Application and attendance at the Going Global workshops are free, so apply now for the competition and to participant in a Going Global Workshop.
The most promising companies who participate in Going Global Workshops will receive free online promotion and exclusive invitations to the next phase of the program: Innovate! Europe's Master Class, where you will prepare to go global. During the intensive course, taking place May 4-6 in Zaragoza, Spain, you will learn the governance, marketing, fundraising, partnering and business development skills critical to thriving in Silicon Valley. Taught by serial entrepreneurs, financiers and experts from Europe and the United States, the Master Class curriculum will highlight proven strategies and best practices that are integral to becoming a successful global entrepreneur.
The top graduates of Innovate!Europe’s Master Class will have an opportunity to put their newfound knowledge to use and accelerate their business in Silicon Valley as participants of the Innovate! Europe Trade Mission the week of June 9th.
Innovate!Europe will culminate with the selection of one European startup that shows the greatest potential to shine on the global stage. That company, which will be selected by the Innovate!Europe’s Master Class faculty, will win an exclusive spot at Guidewire STUDIO, an in-residence business accelerator in the heart of Silicon Valley. Executives from the winning startup will have the opportunity to benefit from knowledgeable mentors, to reach new investors and to form strategic partnerships to help grow their business.
This 90-day STUDIO engagement typically costs $30,000, plus equity. To the winner of the Innovate!Europe search for the top European startup, the STUDIO is absolutely free. Learn more at http://www.innovate-events.com.
Disruptive.nu - Promoting Swedish Entrepreneurship
I had a chat on Skype today with Christian and Peter from Disruptive.nu about differences and similarities in the startup industry between Finland and Sweden. After a long chat, which I will post online later, we had to conclude that there aren't that many differences in the end - although Finland is admittedly slightly behind by a year or two.
I argued that there are two major weaknesses with the Finnish startup industry; the lack of second (and third) generation entrepreneurs with experience as well as a bridge to fill the gap between the public finance vehicles and venture money. The first part I find to be grown through successful attributes in society in general for startups. The entrepreneurs must have a reason to build a successful company in Finland again and not flee overseas with their exit money (something that you can't really argue against considering the current state of affairs). The second point is slightly more difficult, however even more important I believe. We need to limit the availability of public finance to a certain amount, something I don't know yet, to stop supporting unhealthy companies that fail to create their business on market demand.
Christian and Peter stated that the biggest problem in Sweden at the moment is finding talent and money to build succesful startups. I'd believe, though not undermining the shortcomings, these are somewhat universal problems in the startup industry. Talent is something that can be usually found more of in terms of poor macro economic perfomance as companies lay off talented people in hopes of saving a penny here and there. Yet another reason why starting a company in times recession is a good idea. Which brings me to another important point raised in the discussion - we all agreed that times of recession have less of an effect on startups as they're short on resources no matter what the economic climate is.
I'll be doing some editing on the video interview and releasing it in the near future. If you'd like to do a video interview with us, don't hesitate to contact me at antti (at) arcticstartup.com and we'll see what we can do.
Photo by flo_p
