New Norwegian startup report
Author Florian Kandler hopes to give Norway’s national ecosystem a “motivation boost”
Photo courtesy of InnoMag
Florian Kandler hopes that his books will shine a light on the innovators who have made it in Norway and encourage others to found companies of their own.
Julie Vissgren
InnoMag
In the Norwegian startup report, the Austrian three-time founder Florian Kandler wants to celebrate the national successes and show people that it is in fact possible to “make it” at home.
“I had the suspicion that there are more startups in this country than the ones you read or hear about. I thus wanted to give myself and everyone in the ecosystem a boost of motivation by seeing just how many startups managed to receive funding the past year,” says Kandler.
Kandler has therefore created a series of national startup reports, which shine a light on the startups and their founders—thereby making their successes visible to the local community and across Europe.
“This will hopefully be an inspiration to aspiring founders, who can discover role models and learn from the insights the founders share in the report. By making this report, I’m showing them that there are in fact a lot of companies in their country that they never even heard about that are able to raise money, which hopefully makes them believe that it is possible for them as well.
Until now Kandler has made national reports on the startup ecosystem in his home country of Austria, Portugal, the Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, and Ireland. He then worked on the Norwegian Startup Report, which was released at the end of January. The common denominator between the selected countries is the relatively small startup ecosystems.
“The most interesting part of the reports is to look at the startups that most people haven’t heard about yet and wouldn’t be able to find through a simple Google search,” he said.
For the Norwegian report, Kandler has included around 30 startups that all have raised more than NOK 2 million. Around 25 to 30 percent of these include the so-called hidden gems. Among the 30 startups, 10 to 15 of them share their experiences and insights in the Q&A section of the report.
Florian lived in Silicon Valley for six months and believes that he learned more in six months there than in the six years prior to his stay. He later imported the “paying it forward” mindset from Silicon Valley, where bigger companies share their experience and knowledge with the next generation of aspiring founders.
“You always hear founders say that they wish their country could be more like Silicon Valley. One of the things you can do to get a startup culture similar to the one in Silicon Valley is to ‘pay it forward’ by doing something that helps others. This report is my contribution. By creating this report that celebrates these national success stories, I’m showing everyone that it is in fact possible to ‘make it’ at home!”
Learn more about the report and download it at www.startupreport.eu/norway.
This article was originally published on InnoMag at www.innomag.no/new-norwegian-startup-report-idea-give-national-ecosystem-motivation-boost.
This article originally appeared in the March 10, 2017, issue of The Norwegian American. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.
