What are startups?
At the beginning, I would like to define the trendy word ‘startup’ which we seem to be heard all around (Valid especially for people who spend more than 4 hours a day browsing internet news online):
I borrow a very nice definition by Jiří Knesl http:link
1. Startup as a company. Start up company is a firm, which tries to do something really innovative. And its intention is to grow. The thing, each startup has to expect , is a high level of insecurity. Nearly 80 % of startups are supposed to fail.
Basic differences between startups and small businesses [1]:
2. Startup as a business model. One good compiled infographic says more than 1000 describing words[2]:
Top startup areas
As we live in global economy, we (= Western world) have realized that we cannot compete with Asian goods in terms of price. That´s why investments into science and innovation are usually considered to be of the paramount importance for the development of economies.
The global capital of startups is Silicon Valley. That is the place where the most important companies, money resources, brains and state-of-art technology are concentrated. It´s home of Facebook, Google, Apple, AirBnb, Twitter just to name a few.
But the world is not only the USA. Did you know that:
- ICQ originated in Israel ?
- Skype was founded in Estonia?
- Angry birds were created in Finland?
- Spotify has its roots in Sweden?
- Soundcloud originated in Germany?
- Prezi was constituted in Hungary ?
- Avast and AVG were developed in Czech Republic?
In the following graph you can see the list of the top 20 Startup ecosystems operating worldwide in 2012. 9 out of them are based in the North America and 4 of them in Europe. [3]
Explanation of the columns:
Startup output index- total activity of entrepreneurship in the region
Funding index- measures the use of risk capital
Company performance index- measures the growth of companies
Mindset index- how much great entrepreneur talent startup founders have
Trendsetter index - how quickly startups are able to adopt cutting-edge technology and new trends. There is a chance that this index is a key factor to the future success of the ecosystem. We might see that in some years.
Support index - indicates how easy it is to find mentors, additional capital and service providers
Differentiation index - As Silicon Valley is the best, the following index measures how much ecosystems differ from it in demographically and also regarding the type of companies. The less same, the better.
Chosen countries in detail
I would like to introduce some of the ecosystems in some more details:
Case 1 Israel
Israel is called a Startup nation. A few days back we could read about Israeli company Waze (social traffic and navigation) in connection with a possible acquisition from the giant Facebook. The amount of money that Facebook is supposed to pay would be even bigger than the amount they paid to Instagram previously on. The story of Israel is very interesting. Its population is only 7,1 millions, Israel has hardly any natural resources of raw materials and it has never (since its establishment) experienced piece. Nowadays this country is one of the world leaders in innovations and big global IT companies move their headquarters there. Maybe the sense of business is still present in blood of Israelis as it was before the WWII. Another possible reason of development of the startup culture is military basis, surprisingly. There is a compulsory military service for all Israelis including females. They are given the opportunity to develop their leadership potential and to taste and draw on trust and accountability. Young people have a chance to be responsible for projects of more than a million € value. The third thing worth mentioning is the high willingness to risk. And the last but not at all the least is a cultural plurality bringing out various types of thinking.
Top 5 ecosystems (taking data from the chart above)
Silicon Valley
Tel Aviv
Los Angeles
Seattle
New York City
All of them are multicultural places. Americans are unlike other people - they took the huge risk of leaving their home country and starting a life at a new place or to be more precise they are heirs of those people. And Israelis were in similar situation, they also came to the country from various cultural backgrounds.
Case 2 Finland
Finland is not to be found among the top startup ecosystems but it has recently shown tremendous potential. At the beginning of this century, there was no need for any start ups. Finland was known as Nokialand because Nokia created 4 % of Finnish GDP. After the downfall of Nokia, the government realized that the economy should not depend on just one company anymore and started to support innovation and startups. Nearly 300 companies has been founded by former Nokia employees. Some even say that the fall of Nokia was the best what could happen to Finland.
Finish accelerator is characteristically called Startup Sauna and provides working place, mentor support, co-finance study trips to Silicon Valley and organizes various networking events, which take place beside other facilities in numerous saunas.
Examples of innovative Finnish companies:
Valkee - makes a device which shines bright light into light sensitive parts of ears and thus prevents from mood swings and depression caused by the lack of daylight in that part of the world. link
Limas Matkasse - this company implies IKEA model into the preparation of family dinners. You can order packages of ingredients needed for cooking the meal, sliced - just ready to be cooked. it´s supposed to be an alternative for people who do not have much time but still do not want to eat junk food.
Rovio Entertainment - produces famous games for example Angry Birds. Finnish people have cultural disposition to do good quality games :
1) bloodthirsty stories (Nordic Sagas)
2) courageous design
3) first class programmers
4) introvert character of Finnish people
I would also like to remark that Nordic countries as well as many other European countries have difficulties to keep their top companies in the country for they let themselves be bought by multinational corporations.
And the money which they invest into the company often do not come back. For instance, the founder of Ikea Ingvar Kamprad lives in Switzerland, the founder of Tetra Pak resides in England as do many of other bright Nordic businessmen.
(Source: Magazine Respekt 18-19/2013)
Case 3 Hungary
Hungary hasn´t left a significant mark on the global market so far.Nevertheless, it is said it may become the pivot startup hub of the central Europe region. I think it´s certainly worth of mentioning because we (= Czechs) are dealing with pretty similar conditions. We both are Central Europeans, we both have population around 10 Million people, we both experienced soviet reign and transformation of the economy. I found two quotes made by Hungarian entrepreneurs, which describe the situation in business in Hungary.
“Tax evasion is still a popular sport, which makes it impossible to compete if you’re playing honest.”
“My mother likes to keep from presenting me as an entrepreneur” Entrepreneurs don´t have a positive image in Hungarian society.link
Below you can find a few examples of the companies that originated in Hungary:
Prezi - a tool for interactive presentations
LogMeIn - company providing connectivity, collaboration and remote access to multiply devices
Pocket guide - mobile application with city tours
Of course there is also much to write about what´s happening in CZ. Maybe next time.
[1]http://startupq8.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/scalable-vs-small.png
[2]http://steveblank.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/scalable-startup.jpg
[3]http://blog.digital.telefonica.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Startup-Eco_14012013.pdf
Žádné komentáře :
Okomentovat