Stories From The Travelling Salesman Tour (Video)
We've covered Kristoffer Lawson's Travelling Salesman tour here on ArcticStartup towards the end of last year, as he drove more than 13500 kilometres around the Nordics to find startups and network with them. He started off in Helsinki in October, drove through to Norway, visited Denmark, took the boat to Iceland and on his way back came through Sweden back to Finland again in December. I sat down with him and shot a video about some of the stories and incidents he came across. Also, it's worth while to note that the Nordics still are a very fragmented area in terms of growth companies.
They Were Wrong About Karlskrona
Editorial note: This is a guest post by Kristoffer Lawson, the Travelling Salesman. He's on a 10 000 kilometre drive to meet Nordic startups. ArcticStartup is supporting the project, by covering his travels and findings. This post was originally posted in the Travelling Salesman blog.
When pondering my travel plan I was told by a number of people, even Swedes, that there would be very little in places like Karlskrona. That I should stick to the big centers: Stockholm, Lund, Göteborg, etc. They were wrong, but proving that was to be a challenge.
Iceland Is No Mere Rock
Editorial note: This is a guest post by Kristoffer Lawson, the Travelling Salesman. He's on a 10 000 kilometre drive to meet Nordic startups. ArcticStartup is supporting the project, by covering his travels and findings.
There are very few countries I would consider living in permanently. Places that I feel I could end up calling a home. Iceland is now one of them. The arrival by Smyril Line ferry was immediately majestic with those eery misty cliffs rising gently above the sea as I approached bohemian Seyðisfjörður along that 20km fjord to eastern Iceland. It set the mood perfectly. This was to be followed by travel through boiling earth and volcanos to the heart of the Icelandic startup scene, Reykjavik, where my fiancée also had flown for an all-too-short visit to experience this mystical location.
From The Travelling Salesman
Editorial note: This is a guest post by Kristoffer Lawson, the Travelling Salesman. He's on a 10 000 kilometre drive to meet Nordic startups. ArcticStartup is supporting the project, by covering his travels and findings.
Well, the previous week started off even more interesting than the last for the Travelling Salesman tour.
After my capers with the Russian embassy I had quite a pleasant day in Oslo, meeting several people with a Trolltech background. Trolltech was the developer behind the now famous Qt GUI library and toolkit, which Nokia bought and which is currently being made into the next thing for Nokia phone development (whether it is on Symbian or Meego). As someone who has spent a while inside Nokia, it was interesting to see the level of independency that the Qt office in Oslo has. For instance, several of the people there were running Macs. I actually think this is extremely important to keep the identity of the teams intact, and motivated to continue with innovation.
Lessons From Norway
Editorial note: This is a guest post by Kristoffer Lawson, the Travelling Salesman. He's on a 10 000 kilometre drive to meet Nordic startups. ArcticStartup is supporting the project, by covering his travels and findings.
With another week on the road, I have to say that the exhaustion is slightly getting the better of me. While it has been a joy to visit this beautiful country, so many things have also gone wrong, from missed meetups to losing a fuel cap, that the stress is beginning to show. Oslo thankfully gave me a chance to recuperate a bit, for a couple of nights, but it also added stress of its own, as I will mention a bit later.
Tales Of A Travelling Salesman
Editorial note: This is a guest post by Kristoffer Lawson, the Travelling Salesman. He's on a 10 000 kilometre drive to meet Nordic startups. ArcticStartup is supporting the project, by covering his travels and findings.
I've now been one week on the road in my expedition to find the world's most arctic startups. I'll be honest: it feels like much longer. I am now on my way to Trondheim from Tromsø and have added over 2500 kilometres to the trip meter of the trusty Land Rover. It has given me a unique perspective into the lives of the real travelling salesmen. Each night I have slept in a different location. Each day I've driven for hours on end, with my life travelling with me. Weather conditions have varied from sunny and green, to icy, dark and snowy. I've crossed the Arctic Circle twice and even entered Sweden by mistake.
10 000km in T-Minus-Two Days
The Travelling salesman -project will start in only two days. We wrote about this ridiculously cool and ambitious project a while back in September. The kickstart of the journey will be held in the evening of the second day of Slush (21st of October from 4pm onwards), a web/startup oriented conference taking place in Helsinki. You can sign-up to the event in Facebook (disclosure: I will be on the panel).
Travelling Salesman Project - One Hell Of A Journey
Kristoffer Lawson, co-founder of Scred, came to talk to ArcticStartup sometime in the spring time about a project he had been thinking of pulling through. After the meeting I couldn't quite grasp the breadth of the journey and project he had been talking to us about. Now that it's public and he's about to set on his journey - I'm thrilled to say that ArcticStartup has partnered with Travelling Salesman, aka. Kristoffer Lawson, to promote his trip in our media. The project has a website, but he'll also be blogging with us and giving us updates on how things go.
