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Nokia as “He Who Must Not Be Named” and the Helsinki Spring

Steve Blank

I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. Unique to Finland with its strong cultural emphasis on equality and the redistribution of wealth is a business press that doesn’t understand startups and is overtly hostile to their success. Lessons Learned.

Finland 332
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The Helsinki Spring

Steve Blank

I spent the month of September lecturing, and interacting with (literally) thousands of entrepreneurs in two emerging startup markets, Finland and Russia. This is the first of two posts about Finland and entrepreneurship. Part 2 with more observations about Finland and the Lessons Learned will follow shortly.

Finland 329
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The Helsinki Spring

ReadWriteStart

I spent the month of September lecturing, and interacting with (literally) thousands of entrepreneurs in two emerging startup markets, Finland and Russia. This is the first of two posts about Finland and entrepreneurship. steve blank in finland sept 2011 View more documents from steve blank. 9-to-5 Venture Capital. Discuss.

Finland 158
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A Seriously Great Story and Why We Funded Them

Both Sides of the Table

We funded about $2 million, which allowed a full team in Finland to be recruited for building the app and an international management team led from Los Angeles. The results? Massive success after just one week of launching that has continued into the third week (this week) with their first property.

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Whose Life are You Going to Change?

Both Sides of the Table

And sitting next to Errki from Finland who taught me one of my all time favorite swear words, “ perkele.&#. That worked out well for both of us. I enjoyed our dinners and strolls in the streets of Rome. And fighting with the local Italian partners. I won’t let you down. Where I can “pay it forward&# I do.

Europe 352
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Creating the Next Silicon Valley – The Chilean Experiment

Steve Blank

They’ve been thinking hard and smart about the lessons to be learned not only from Silicon Valley, but with only 16 million people, they are also looking for lessons from other small innovation clusters such as Israel, Singapore and Finland.

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A Visit With the European Startup Community

Gust

My wife, Ann, and I took a trip this past spring to visit Estonia, Finland, Ireland and Russia. Tallinn is the capital of Estonia, located just across the Bay of Finland from Helsinki. A two hour ferry ride across the Bay of Finland carried us from Tallinn to Helsinki.

Community 121