Three Qualities Nordic Founders Lack(hajak.se) |
Three Qualities Nordic Founders Lack(hajak.se) |
① https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/05/12/strategy-letter-i-...
BUT - at the same time all cultures have their issues. I think the Nordics are "punching above their weight" statistically. But at the same time, we are held back by honestly a fear of "beeing seen."
I have no problem with founders aiming for building stable good lifestyle companies or even consultancy shops. But then they should say that. If they are raising money, then by god they have to play the investor game.
On the other hand, now that I'm back in the US I get tired of the continual rat race and wish I had as much vacation as everybody else got in Sweden. The US doesn't give decompression time, but Sweden didn't allow for as much deep focus time.
Mind you, I also had communication problems. I expected people to clearly say yes or no and then stick to that. The Swedish politeness took awhile to interpret.
It's a consensus culture. Finland is even worse. Disagreeing with the group is a huge taboo, something that will make a meeting room go very uncomfortably quiet very quickly.
Of course it has its advantages, like everything it is a trade-off, but in terms of being entrepreneurial I think it is a big reason why entrepreneurship is held back in the Nordics. You can't just fight it out with ideas and then shrug it off like I see in other places - for better or worse people are more sensitive and 'correct' in intrapersonal dealings.
Don't know why it's like that, I hear Canada is the same. Perhaps the cold climate means people mingle less, and so social occasions are meant to reaffirm social cohesion, to the exclusion of airing differences.
Oh yeah, it's also 'socially correct' to outwardly acknowledge and reject the Law of Jante-effect - which just leads to criticism being even less tolerated; you're just jealous, narrow-minded, etc. if you are critical of anyone.
Stat from here, which has a decent overview: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnol...
But I think all cultures have their reasons to not create more amazing things. The Nordics have a lot of investors preferring safe returns, and therefore perhaps the same within the entrepreneur communinuty.
Trust me - you get French A-holes and you get Swedish A-holes.
What I have noticed though is that Nordic founders are really difficult to contact. I'm in a privileged position in that they don't have much of a choice - they're required to respond to me. Yet sometimes its difficult...Spanish and Nordic in particular.
Long list of issues. My personal favourite being "this line does not accept incoming calls". Mails being ignored. Or they pass it off to some random other person. Or they just tell you they don't have time.
I mean sure, it's advise but honestly:
> So, please Nordic founders with your fantastic design and culture skills, please have greater ambition, stronger conviction, and ship more often.
Nothing in that whole article helps you, as a (Nordic) founder, to achieve any of it. Considering this is coming from a VC, maybe a bit more "how to go about this" would be helpful instead of the blanket "you just kinda suck at this" statement.
He's a successful Swedish entrepreneur, his insights are built from his experience and observations.
I didn't want to write a research post. It was actually a rant turned into a post. I was really tired of asking "so, why are you actually doing this company?".
That offers a noble lesson about planning, setting goals, etc., and it has probably influenced the local entrepreneurial culture.
Given this - I would say that Scandinavian founders probably, on the whole, 'swing above their weight'.
The lack of 'AirBnB' and 'Uber' style successes has far more to do with market size, fluidity, and the 'mega centre' of the Silicon Valley than anything.
[1] http://www.rmci.ase.ro/no11vol1/Vol11_No1_Article13.pdf
[2] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/07/linus...
It's almost as if free education, universal healthcare and time to sit down and think would be pretty good for innovation.
[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnol...
I know this article and comment is about the Nordic countries. But I'm not sure this reasoning is generalizable across countries/cultures. In my experience, climate doesn't seem to be the driver in the US. I'm not sure whether or not New Englanders are more sensitive, but folks from other parts of the country seem to find us more gruff than e.g. down south or in the southwest. ;)
My pet hypothesis is pretty much the opposite: until a century ago or so, these countries were quite poor, most people lived on farms, often far from neighbors, and for at least six months every year, anyone "nasty" enough to be expelled from the group was likely to be dead within days if not hours. So the "dissent gene" was weeded out.
USA had a first-mover advantage on internet access, but 20 years later many wealthy nations now have the necessary infrastructure ... a payment gateway, appstores, marketplaces, web hosting ... to flourish online.
I'm not sure what we are arguing about. I think its clear that its difficult to build a world beating company in a smaller country. Yes they make great divisions and smaller branches, but I'm still not convinced its a good place to base an HQ.