Stockholm prospers as tech hub as perceptions of entrepreneurs changes

Graduates of the unicorn generation

A roadmap has been laid out across Stockholm and the simplistic family tree of unicorns, down to current multinationals and through to new startups, has blossomed into a cyclic network whereby workers from the tier above become C-level protagonists at the startup level below.

“This critical mass of global success stories and role models has undoubtedly resulted in a new generation of startups largely built by ‘graduates’ of these companies,” said Henrik Grim, an Associate at Northzone, one of Europe’s longest serving venture capitalist funds and the first investor in Spotify back in 2008.

“If you look at how Silicon Valley evolved, Stockholm is going through that now,” added Lisa Kennelly, chief marketing officer at Fishbrain. “There was the so-called ‘PayPal mafia’ out there who left that company to initiate their own startups, and we have the same here from the unicorn generation.”

Fishbrain CEO Johan Attby has seen first-hand how startup communities can progress in this way, having served the majority of his apprenticeship in San Francisco.

“Success breeds success, and trailblazers like Niklas Zennström [Skype] are vital to the ecosystem here, even now,” he says. “I would say that many startups that have succeeded over the past six or seven years have emanated from one of the big guys or from Stardoll, which gave the ecosystem the likes of Daniel Ek [Spotify], Henrik Torstensson [Lifesum], and Johannes Schildt [Kry].

“There are more success stories in Stockholm than anywhere else in the Nordics, meaning more money and more people are attracted here than to anywhere else. It’s no coincidence that the city is therefore further along.”

Championing diversity

But just like the fate of many small companies who lose their flexibility as their size increases, there has been a similar concern surrounding Stockholm’s ecosystem becoming too big to retain its renowned nimbleness.

However, this is where diversity is seemingly saving the day. Diversity of industry sectors, diversity of business models, and – most importantly – diversity of personnel.

“At Fishbrain, we currently have 20 nationalities working here and it really is representative of the diversity that exists in the city. If your target markets are international, it makes sense to have an international internal structure too,” said Kennelly, herself an American.

More than being a quota adherence or ethical statement, ensuring varied representation of genders, outlooks and ethnicities is pivotal to business success.

Mentimeter’s Warström recalled: “It had to become one of our core strategies. As four founding white guys in their 30s from the same university, we had an uphill battle on this front, but from day one, we looked to form a gender balance and a culture balance.”

Surprisingly, many conglomerates, consultancies and banks still only operate in Swedish, something which Warström and his startup comrades have stringently veered away from, so as to tap into the wealth of international talent that exists within the capital.

From his incubator vantage point, Hedberg said: “The gender balance in the Nordics is often lauded, and ethnic balance has been the next step. A lot of people move here from all over the world and it makes sense to champion and normalise that diversity within tech startups.

“As a result, and as Stockholm’s tech industry has grown, unicorns, startups, big corporations and large consultancy firms are all now fighting for the best talent, and it means that more and more skills keep getting lured to these opportunities from other countries.”

Incubating startup stability

Over the coming years, key spokes in the startup cycle would like to see Stockholm match the likes of London, Berlin and Barcelona in regard to expos and events to further showcase these global capabilities; being careful not to veer off-course from the tightknit and feelgood startup roadmap that has been built.

This is where the role of incubators and venture capitalist funds like Sting and Northzone come into their own, and perhaps are the biggest indicators of how far ahead Stockholm is compared to its Nordic counterparts.

Not only are there role models, but there is guidance and a team of professionals on hand who have seen the ecosystem develop since day one.

“The encouragement here in Sweden is so helpful, even when our target markets aren’t domestic, which they often aren’t,” Roupé said.

Bonzun bypassed Sweden entirely in favour of launching in China first, with the full backing of the Swedish government and embassy contacts overseas. “The investment community here is so active and has helped me raise more than €2m just through networking essentially,” said Roupé.

“Now, it’s also time for me to give back to the next generation of startups, and I make time to meet with at least one budding entrepreneur or startup leader every week,” she added.

A decade ago, back when entrepreneurs were “shady”, everyone was competing for the same small pot of money. Now though, the amount of venture capital available equates to the amount of talent and support that exists in Stockholm, to ensure startup cycle stability for many more years to come.

From unicorn, to scaleups, to a never-ending wave of new startups, the chain of inspiration continues.