1. How to make it big outside your
home market.
The case of ESTONIA
Andrus Viirg
Enterprise Estonia Silicon Valley
andrus.viirg@eas.ee
26-27 October 2011
Sofia, Bulgaria
2. ENTERPRISE ESTONIA
State foundation for Business Development:
Investment, Trade, Innovation/Technology and Tourism
promotion + the Space Office of Estonia
implementing agency of the EU structural funds in Estonia
budget of 1.3 billion USD (2007-2013)
about 300 employees
providing financing/grant products, advice, partnership opportunities and
training
Investment, Trade & Innovation Promotion
– assisting international companies to estonianize
– assisting Estonian companies to internationalize
– Foreign (promotional) Offices in
Stockholm, Helsinki Hamburg, London,
Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev,
Shanghai, Tokyo and
Silicon Valley
3. How to make it Big
Estonia – churning out startups
• Small is Beautiful
• behind the scenes
• lessons learned
4. Estonia produces a disproportionate
slide shared by Robin Wauters
number of startups per capita during Seedcamp Week in
London (sept.2011), where out
of 20 companies 4 Estonian
startups presented and two 2
became finalists.
GrabCAD, is a mechanical
engineering community and a
marketplace
Sportlyzer is an online
training advisor.
5. Wired European Startups
The Wired Magazine
By Tom Cheshire
16 August 2011
Tallinn has some heavyweight tech credentials, but new companies
are emerging. Garage48, a monthly two-day hackathon, has spawned
several startups
6. Estonia – behind the scenes
integrating into Scandinavia
birthplace of Kazaa & Skype
NATO Cyber Defence Centre
EU IT Agency
e-Estonia
7. Behind the scenes
Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol
www.tehnopol.ee/en
Estonia Startup Leaders Club
www.startupleadersclub.com
Brainhunt (prize fund of 95000 EUR)
www.ajujaht.ee/english/
FinEst Start up Program
http://www.fineststartups.eu/
Estonia Start Up Program
8. Garage48
Garage48 events started in Estonia in April 2010 and have
expanded to other countries in Northern Europe and Africa
since then.
Riga, Latvia in November 18-20
Kiev, Ukraine in November 25-27 ?
Johannesburg, South Africa, Dec 2-4
Helsinki, Finland in 2012
Mexico City, Mexico in 2012
St. Petersburg, Russia in 2012
Stockholm, Sweden in 2012
9. Where is the Money
• Ambient Sound Investments (ASI)
http://asi.ee/
• Martinson Trigon Venture Partners (MTVP)
http://www.martinsontrigon.com/
• investment banking
– LHV, BaltCap, Trigon, Cresco
• angels
• Estonian Development Fund
11. Enterprise Estonia
Silicon Valley
ICT Bio/Nanotech Cleantech
NETWORKING & Awareness building:
establishing and maintaining a network in US and Estonia among
technology companies, R&D Institutions and Universities to facilitate
direct contacts among potential partners.
US Market Access (Export promotion):
1) identifying potential partners and service providers
2) technical assistance: office & meeting space, networking events,
setting up office (virtual and/or incorporating in US)
Raising venture capital for expansion in US and FDI promotion:
1) promoting Estonia as a location for doing business
2) approaching VCs
13. How to make it big?
lessons learned
• right time right place
– you have to visit the hotbeds
– There is life beyond Silicon Valley (India, Africa...)
• networking
• get the company structure right
– born global
– involve advisors
• don`t give up, be a serial enterpreneur. It takes only
one great idea to get you on the map
– Skype
– Rovio (Angry Birds) .
14. Innovative start-ups from
Estonia going global
Six Estonian companies on the
And just to list some more Estonian
100 global list of Innovate2010 start-ups in US
Guidewire Group
www.erply.com
www.nowinnovations.com www.zerply.com
www.fits.me www.crabcad.com
www.grabcad.com www.utopic.me
www.taxipal.com www.mobilenow.com
www.edicy.com
www.nutiteq.com
On the 100 list of Red Herring Asia
www.guardtime.com
The Baltic nation, despite being one of the least populous places in the European Union, is churning out more startups per capita than any other country in the region, according to The Wall Street Journal. Skype Ltd. , the software company that made Internet phone calls popular and now is being acquired by Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), laid the groundwork for this trend and tapped into a large pool of software and hardware engineering talent.
GOALS OF GARAGE48Organize practical, international and fun startup events with a really lean budgetShow that teams can turn an idea into a working service or prototype within just one weekendProve that new web and mobile projects can be started with a good team and really lean budgetPromote entrepreneurship and startup culture in Estonia, Northern Europe and AfricaTeach people to work under a tough deadline - you need to focus on the core items of the projectGet to know new people from other industries, roles and countriesLess talk, more action and fun!All Garage48 events are held in English and have about 100 participants from different countries. Participants have different skills, ranging from software development to design, marketing and management.