We’ve Come a Long Way, Finland.

Four years ago, as I was starting to work on MySites 1.0, I was living in Tampere. It was a pretty lonely thing. I knew of no other startups in the city. I was involved in IGDA (the International Game Developer Association), because the gaming industry was so much more organized (they had monthly meetup in Helsinki with ~20 people) and it was the closest thing to my interests.

I would take the train to Helsinki every 2 weeks, because there was this young guy Ville who was doing Open Coffee. We’d be something around 6-10 people, chit chatting about cool startup stuff we saw on Techcrunch, Mashable etc. Cool startups of the day were Jaiku, Sulake, Irc-Galleria, and soon Scred and Zipipop.

ArcticStartup didn’t exist. In fact, practically one blogged about the Finnish startups. TV or press coverage was beyond our wildest dreams (heh, it still is </sarcasm>). I’d ask feedback from my schoolmates in TAMK, some of which worked at Nokia and were interested in that stuff. I’d talk to my teachers, ask them for contacts. Some people would tell me I was completely insane and I should aim at being the biggest startup in Tampere. There were no entrepreneurship societies.

Our role model was Nokia. They were clearly the world leaders in mobile and were opening to 3rd party developers with Symbian. Finland was one of the leaders in Symbian, actually. Irc-Galleria and MySQL hadn’t exited yet.

Now.

Last month, a bunch of students from Aalto University organized Bootcamp, the largest startup training program ever made in the country.

Today, we gathered with a group of 100 people in what used to be 6 months ago an empty hangar in the forest, to talk with Tom Keller from TechStars and Alan Moore, co-author of Communities Dominate Brands, in spite of the rain and the opening of the World Cup.

In two weeks, we’ll be running our very own version of Y-Combinator, called Summer of Startups; I’m honored to be one of the coaches there and I’m looking forward to helping the newcomers.

We’ve come a long way.

PS: Don't just stand there, please comment!

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Published:: 6.12.10 / 2am

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will cardwell 6.12.10 / 3am

Could not agree with you more on this Ramine! it is extremely important for us to realize that some things are massively better today than 5 years ago.

Also to realize that the vast majority of countries out there would be thrilled to be where Finland is today. Are there challenges? Yes, definitely. But the direction is positive, and the level is strong.

It is also critical to realize that any one of us, no matter how active we are, only observes some fraction of the activity in the ecosystem, and it is dangerous to draw deep conclusions about the ecosystem as whole without understanding that fact. It can lead to some crazy policy mistakes. Just got back from 7th trip to Israel (dating back to 1997) where I was again reminded of this by some real pro's. Will post something on this when I get a chance (and some sleep .

Thanks again for this post!
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Riitta Raesmaa 6.12.10 / 11am

Ramine, thank you for the important reminder of the progress of the Finnish startup ecosystem during the last few years! Having my background in the 'established' software business in Finland (and in the Nordics), and now the last year and a half that I’ve been part of the Finnish startup scene – I must say that I’ve experienced the spirit of the latter overwhelmingly positive, full of enthusiasm, and innovation. This has been a very interesting step from one environment to another, very happy that I’ve taken it.

The Finnish startup ecosystem – with figures like you, Ramine, and Antti Vilpponen, Ville Vesterinen, Antti Akonniemi, Taneli Tikka, to name a few that I have personally met during my first steps here – has a welcoming, open attitude that strengthens and speeds up this positive progress .

Keep up the great work! Curiosity always kills the ‘can’t’!
Pekka Front 6.12.10 / 11pm

And were still just seeing the tip of the iceberg... I've been involved for 4 years now in spreading the spirit of enterprise among my peers (students) and am now looking at the next generation of kids comming in to school.

I've got to tell you, if you keep pounding that drum the whole jungle will come. That drum that we hear in the distance is now on our doorstep loud and clear. While we are looking back at this, the next generation is emerged into it which will undoutable be something even better.

So as we've all discovered it doesn't need millions to make the greatest encyclopedia in the world, the world of communications can altered by devices from a former rubber boot factory and enthusiastic positive people can make a change in the future of Finland and entrepreneurship - and they have all ready.

So thank you's go out to all the people involved in the efforts mentioned and the ones made by everyone in the "community" for their sweat equity - the magic potion of all entrepreneurially minded.
ramine 6.13.10 / 4pm

Thanks, looking forward to more comments in the future too
ramine 6.13.10 / 4pm

Yeah, we need to keep supporting each other more and more. It's great that the newcomers are so active, it's giving the country a lot of momentum.
ramine 6.13.10 / 5pm

That's a very good point. You say you have students btw? Where?

Ramine Darabiha

We’ve Come a Long Way, Finland.

Now.

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