Estonia - European Silicon Valley ?

Did you know that the social platform Skype was made in Estonia? 

Estonia is a small country right below Finland and besides Russia. It´s the home of many start up companies. The conditions are better than you might think that´s why entrepreneurs from Russia go over to Tallinn which is a city on the north coast of Estonia just to build their companies in this "special" country. Estonia is full of idea competitions. Almost every second weekend designer, IT-experts and developer come from all over the world to share their thoughts and concepts at hackathons. Most of the participants come from Estonia, Riga, Kiev or Wilna. Those hackathons take normally up to 48 hours and if you want to be a part of these start ups, you shouldn´t miss the weekend hackathons in Estonia. 

The developer, worker and founder of WiseGuys are organizing these events, doing workshops and creating connections between start ups and investors which is pretty cool in my opinion. Meanwhile they managed to support over 50 companies with this project. 

But WHY is Estonia perfect for companies and got the name European Silicon Valley?

The country has great requirements for young start ups which is for example the digital infrastructure. The Internet connection is a basic right and there are additional widescreen WLAN accesses. If you want to establish a start up company, you can easily start with a mouse click because Estonia has an "E-Residency" which means you can easily manage almost everything online. 

It is easy to get the electronic identity doesn´t matter if you are an EU-citizen or not. More than 95% of the Estonians are using this online service as well. 

Here is a great video and well explained by VisualPolitik EU

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But this isn´t enough. Estonia could be the first country to introduce a state crypto currency. Interested parties will be able to invest through a new investment method called ICO into the state Estonia. 

The cryptocurrency, called "estcoin," could be launched via the digital coin community's version of crowdfunding – an initial coin offering (ICO). "A government-supported ICO would give more people a bigger stake in the future of our country and provide not just investment, but also more expertise and ideas to help us grow exponentially," Korjus said in a blog post on Monday.- CNBC

These are exiting news because I still hear people talking about that Bitcoin or Crypto Currency in general should be something similar like a "trend" or it´s too dangerous because it´s most used for the black market, drugs etc. Obviously these are wrong informations but seeing Estonia thinking about using Crypto as a state currency makes me excited as freak. 

What are your thoughts about Estonia establishing Crypto Currency ? 

Have you ever heard about Estonia being the European Silicon Valley ? Do you agree or do you think Estonia is still way too small, too slow and not evolved enough to be called the European Silicon Valley ?

I believe there are still some differences Just thinking about the population. Estonia has about 1.5 million citizen which means you are able to reach business partners in a short amount of time. I have read that things are a little bit different in the USA. 

Startup WiseGuys once published -

It is not that simple in Silicon Valley though. As I understood, you have to have a reference from a friend before you can reach people you need to contact. And even then, it is usually their secretary that will answer.

So there are some differences like people, ideas and resources of course. But Estonia is definitely open-minded when it comes to technology. The E-Residency is for sure an amazing idea and I hope to hear more about this country soon. Maybe we´ll get the chance to invest into their ICO?

“Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you.”  –Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO

Thanks for reading

Stay focused

Love, Soldier

*Image source - 1 | 2