Spotlight on Startup Culture and Industrial IoT (Report from Slush 2016, Part 2)

Slush 16, the largest European startup event, with global visibility and a broad international group of participants, provided an exciting perspective on today’s startup and technology world. In the first part of our Slush 16 report, we featured impressions on how upcoming technology will impact our lives and our businesses.

This second part takes a look on the Nordic startup scene and discusses the state of industrial IoT (Internet of Things).

Nordic startup culture is iconic

It has been thrilling to experience at Slush the impressive startup culture that has developed in the Nordics. Propelled by a series of successful startups, the region has grown a community of well-versed founders and, too, accumulated significant capital from exits and IPOs.

For instance, in the first half of 2016, Nasdaq Nordics has been the dominant market in Europe with most IPOs in volume and value, mainly driven by technology companies. (Sources: Article at The Nordic Web based on data from PwC’s IPO Watch Europe Q3 2016)

The founders do not only re-invest their capital in the region. Most importantly, they share their experience with the community. And also their staff spread startup culture and competences when they move into other jobs or become founders themselves.

Although many of the early nordic startup successes come from the fields of social media and entertainment (e.g., Skype in Estonia, Spotify in Sweden, Supercell in Finland), also industrial startups benefit substantially from the available experience and advice.

For an impression of the accumulated experience and the culture of sharing it, look up a video clip of the Slush 16 discussion “How we failed our way to success”. Slush itself is both an offspring and a key catalyst of this effective startup culture.

My colleague Barbara Hoisl had already earlier compared her 2015 impressions from Slush with the startup community in Germany (see her blog article for Startup Stuttgart, in German). There are many areas of entrepreneurship where other regions can learn and benefit from the Nordics and their iconic startup culture. Intense cooperation between entrepreneurs, decisive growth strategies, fast failure attitude, and clear customer/market focus are only few examples.

It will definitely be relevant to keep an eye on the North: What are their approaches to entrepreneurship? What concrete companies and new technologies will emerge from there?—Going Slush in 2017 will be one of the easiest and most fun ways to do so.

Industrial IoT still at its infancy, will progress very fast

Several sessions at Slush 16 were devoted to the industrial Internet of Things (IoT). The majority of talks and discussions addressed other domains like social media and retail. However, the event provided an interesting perspective on the current state of entrepreneurship in industry.

Industry has clearly started to pay attention to the startup and new technology scene. But my impression is that industrial startup endeavors and industrial IoT in particular are still at their infancy. I back up this impression by the still low number of industrial sessions and startup presentations at Slush.

It also became apparent that industrial corporate culture and entrepreneurial startup culture are quite different. Often, they are not really compatible with each other: Venture capitalists from industry demanded that startups shall become more familiar with the industrial world and set the right expectations. For instance, startups are often not prepared well for the long purchasing cycles in industry.

On the other hand, corporate culture of most traditional enterprises is not prepared for the speed of modern software-based startups. This exposes industry to the risk of disruption. At least, it limits industry’s ability to benefit from cooperation with startups and new technology ventures.

If you want to explore the evidence for these impressions, you might check out the Slush 16 discussion on “The Davids and Goliaths of Industrial IoT” among industry representatives. Then contrast it with the “Moonshot Thinking” discussion. It includes tech venture capitalist Steve Jurvenson saying “These moonshots are not led by big companies doing big company thinking. They are led by new entrants changing the rules of the game.”

As Jurvetson has already argued in his keynote (see Part 1), change in technology is progressing at very high speed. This definitely forms a challenge for most established industrial corporations. They have been optimized for a different game with quite different rules.

In order to master this challenge, established businesses must closely monitor their competitive landscape, rapidly understand the new rules, and learn very fast how to master this totally new game.

 

Overall, Slush 16 has been a very impressive and inspiring event. It definitely sets a benchmark for assessing current state and future developments of the startup and technology world. You might want to check out Slush’s YouTube channel for an abundance of interesting talks and discussions. For live experience plan for Slush 17 in Helsinki on November 30 and December 1.

We at pd7.group will continue tracking startup and technology developments relevant to software products and software-enabled business models. If you want to learn more or share your thoughts with us, don’t hesitate to contact us.