Events

Many entrepreneurs believe that failure is the key to success.  Some Silicon Valley based investors will not even invest in startup founders who had not had a failed startup.  It is, indeed, an important skill to learn in the startup world to let go of something that is a dead end. However, as every founder knows, how far down the …

From protein bars made of insects to exercise bikes that combine exercise with gaming and VR, to products that contribute to global biodiversity, to AI-powered products that find sustainable restaurants. These are just a few of the 30 Nordic startups that are going to participate in a #Nordicmade tour at the LAUNCH Festival in San Francisco. The delegation consists of …

Three weeks have passed since the Girls in Tech Skills Bootcamp in Helsinki — it’s time to look back and reflect on what unfolded at the very first event of this kind in the Nordics. When I helped launch the Helsinki chapter of Girls in Tech in spring 2015, we wanted to create a community that would inspire, educate and equip more …

Helsinki-based Trip Republic have been nominated for the Travel Technology Disrupt Award, the at the Travel Technology Europe conference in London on February 24-25th.  They are the sole Nordic company nominated this year. Trip Republic has developed a seamless travel planning and booking solution and is currently in beta mode, with plans to launch a full website and iOS application next …

Iris.AI founder Anita Schjøll Brede has brought Singularity University’s Global Impact Competition to Norway in 2016, guaranteeing the winner a spot at Singularity University’s Global Solutions Program at NASA Ames Research Park. The competition aims to promote ideas that will positively impact the lives a billion people, and help Norway move from oil into innovation and technology. Singularity University was founded …

The learning curve is steep, but exciting, for 6 Danish founders participating in a US Entry Bootcamp, at Lemonsqueeze in Brooklyn, aimed at ”preparing for a successful launch in the US.” Where Silicon Valley is focused on trends like drones, blockchain and deeplinks, the New York startup scene is broader; tech is just one of several big industries, including finance, …

While exclusivity has always been a part of the allure at Stockholm’s elite Fashion Week, this year one designer gave unprecedented access to her collection— through virtual reality. Swedish fashion designer Ida Klamborn, in cooperation with the communications company Tele2 have started a project dubbed the Democratic Front Row. Klamborn and others say that young people are the source of inspiration designers, so …

Sustainable Brands is a global business community dedicated to helping shift the world to a sustainable economy.  In anticipation of their Copenhagen conference in 2016, founder KoAnn Skrzyniarz outlines 7 sustainable, global business trends. KoAnn Skrzyniarz  travels around the world working with large brands to promote sustainability while still maintaining a competitive business. “There will be new sustainable ideas and …

Denmark has just been named the best place to start a business Europe. However, funnily enough the startup environment here is quite disconnected from the rest of Europe. Danish companies tend to expand either to other Nordic countries or go big and enter the US market. Why not enter other European countries? Even though Danish startup scene seems international, majority …

Crowdfunding is fun and exciting, but it also requires hard work and a bold attitude to go the extra mile. It cannot be overemphasized how important it is always to try new things, fail quickly, and learn from the mistakes so we can turn them into opportunities. Cautious optimism is an indispensable attitude when launching an equity crowdfunding campaign. Below …

This past weekend Brussels hosted the first ever Hackathon dedicated to Virtual Reality (VR) in Europe, where close to 100 participants took over the co-working space Co.station to hack the next generation of VR technologies. The event was hosted by a collaboration of MIC.Brussels and impulse.brussels, who supports the development of companies using VR.  20% of the participants came from …

If you’re following the Nordic startup ecosystem, then you’ll have heard of Startup Sauna, one of the regions top accelerators for promising early startups. But if you want to be one of the lucky chosen startups, here are 6 things you definitely need to avoid. Accelerators and incubators are often key players in helping startups prepare for their next steps …

STARTnordic, is organizing a cross-country collaboration for the greater good. The project aims to create a framework that will better enable potential high growth companies to reach unicorn levels of success, and consolidating the small Nordic countries into a single regional powerhouse. As part of this initiative, STARTnordic is providing free flights and accommodation to San Francisco for the LAUNCH …

The VR Hackathon in Brussels kicked off last night, bringing with it the promise of a new world of VR in 2016 and a healthy dose of viking tech-savvy – 20% of the participants came from the surprising VR stronghold of Denmark. Perhaps a sign of things to come,  a surprising number of pitches came from outside the VR stronghold …

The VR Hackathon is coming to Europe from San Francisco this weekend.  With a slew of product releases and project sales of 14 million units, it is not without reason that 2016 is being called  “The Year of VR”. The VR Hackathon in Brussels, hosted by the Danish Sound Innovation Network and EUVR.org from January 15-17th,  marks the start of …

In May 2015, Adrien Vetterli came up with an idea sparked by a recently viral story from the Netherlands where a man decided to clean trash along a polluted waterway bit by bit, every day on his way to work. Collecting garbage from natural areas wasn’t anything new to him as he had participated in environmental reporting efforts in his …

Serial entrepreneur Paavo Beckman started his first company at 23, and has since come a long way.  15 years and 6 entertainment and tech companies later, Paavo has evolved into something of a specialist in his field. In mid December,Paavo gave advice for boostrapped marketing and other marketing and business hacks at an event held by Business Angels Copenhagen  and …

Atomico and Slush released a study,“The State of European Tech”, at Slush 2015. The study is the most comprehensive review to date carried out on the European tech community, its tech talent, capital flow, entrepreneurial mindset, and success stories. Niklas Zennström, CEO and co-founder of the investment firm Atomico, co-writers of the report,  spoke at Slush about the big changes …

Organized by Shareplay, Interactive Denmark, and us, NordicGameBits, Games Business 2015 was Denmark’s largest games industry conference for all Nordic game developers. Today, we look back at the conference, and share some of the best insights. On Monday December 7th at 12:30, industry professionals from Denmark and the rest of the Nordics gathered in “The House of Music” in Aalborg, …

Aalborg is a lot of things:  it is a student city, a trade city, and the fourth largest city in Denmark- but the most interesting thing about Aalborg is that there are approximately 1,000 new businesses every year, many of which are tech startups. BusinessAalborg, Aalborg Kommune’s business department, offers free, one-on-one advice and the possibility of financial assistance for …