Iceland has a growing startup ecosystem
And the person at the forefront of it is.....well an Indian
The latest episode of The Svagat Show features Bala Kamallakharan who is the founder of Startup Iceland, Iceland Venture Studio, and the Icelandic Cricket Association. I got introduced to Bala via another Bala (Prof. at INSEAD) - we all share the same alma mater in India.
Iceland typically gets clubbed with the Nordics when it comes to the technology ecosystem, but has a very interesting growing ecosystem of its own - most of which has come up in the last 15 years. What’s even more remarkable is that the person who has been leading the mantle is an Indian.
And while small - packs a punch - for example - Iceland has one of the highest funding per capita when it comes to startups.
This was such a fun chat - and I learnt a bunch of things:
🐶 Everyone loves an underdog:
Bala used to work at the most popular bank in Iceland. GFC happened and the vortex as Bala called it - was Iceland. His bank had a 3B Euro credit line from Lehmann. That didn’t end up. And he couldn’t get a job because he was the only brown person around. And so Bala turned to startups. Now, instead of copying Silicon Valley - Bala came up with a vision of Startup Iceland - and got people like Brad Feld, Brad Burnham, Om Malik, Bre Pettis and the then Iceland PM involved - and many of these remain lifelong champions and mentors to Bala and the Iceland startup ecosystem. Since Bala started Startup Iceland - venture investments in Icelandic startups have gone from $30M to $300M+
After running for a decade, Startup Iceland became a closed event (just for the portfolio companies of Bala’s Venture Studio). And in the meantime, there’s been a bunch of new venture funds, and newer event platforms that have come up.
💪 Play to your strengths:
Icelanders believe in zero waste - and we see that reflected in a lot of unique companies - most notable of which is Keracis - that was Iceland's first unicorn exit - and that uses fish skin for tissue regeneration. Themes like circular economy aren’t just a buzzword in this part of the world, but something that is very deeply linked to the Icelandic ethos. They believe that everything should be used - and one sees that reflected in a bunch of startups like Marea (bio degradable plastic from seaweed).
💸 Success begets success:
Bala invested in a couple of startups as an hands on angel - it reminds me very much of what Mark Markkula did with Apple. His first 2 investments Clara (NLP startup on sentiment analysis for web forums) and Greenqloud (cloud computing startup) were acquired by Jive Software and NetApp - which has helped create a NetApp office in Iceland that employs 60 people as well as inspired many others to startup!
🐥 Icelandic Cricket Association's GTM strategy:
Bala applied his learning from the startup world to cricket as he became the Chairman of the Icelandic Cricket Association. Even though Iceland isn't an associate cricket nation, they started building up an audience through an incredible twitter handle - which today has 130,000 followers! And a very smart strategy - it’s a leaf out of the consumer tech play book - build an audience and supporter base even before your product is out :)
So when Iceland plays their first cricket match say in the olympics - they already have a captive supporter base of a few million greater than their population
🏏 Playing with Sachin Tendulkar in his early years:
Bala actually bowled to Sachin when both of them were playing at the state level - needless to say Sachin proved to him that his talents lied elsewhere.
See the full episode below
