A new initiative to help more startups reach international success has been announced. The program, initiated by the Danish government, has support by some of the most successful recent startups. Called Geist, the entrepreneurs have given the Danish authorities 10 recommendations which should enable them to better help startups. The aim is that more startups expand internationally.
The entrepreneurs participating in Geist consist of nine respected and successful startups:
- Kasper Hulthin, Podio
- Mette Lykke, Endomondo
- Michael A. Hansen, Komfo
- Martin Falslev, Trendsales
- Ken Villum Klausen, Wallmob
- Søren Halskov Nissen, drivr
- Peter Michael Oxholm Zigler, AutoButler
- Mogens Storgaard Jakobsen, Userreport
- Christian Steffensen, Kirkeweb
Together they come up with 10 recommendations to the government officials to enable a growing success of the Danish National IT and tech startups, and the result is also indirectly an evaluation of public actions aimed at entrepreneurs.
The 10 recommendations are both harsh as well as open-minded. It contains some solid tips such as #1 “remove the brand”, which emphasises that public run initiatives are looked down upon in the community, and it might be better to ‘hide’ that they are government run, and put entrepreneurs in the front. Other advices are such as #5 “Join us!”, that the public officials need to be present at meet ups and co-working spaces, and should not expect entrepreneurs to come to them if they want help. They need to build a relationship with them.
It also contains some more controversial, such as #3 “spoil the elite”, which argues that by helping the ones with the largest ambitions thru special services will enable better business development, instead of treating a freelancer in the same way as a ‘born global’ startup.
You can find all 10 advices here.
Update: Due to popular demand we have translated the rules to English. They can be found here.
“Geist is public run, and there a lot of public projects launched, and Geist is a kind of evaluation of them. It is a good idea, it is thought-thru. Instead of putting officials in an office this gets a dialogue with entrepreneurs.” says Christian Steffensen from Kirkeweb to Trendsonline.
Trendsonline has a longer article with both Christian Steffensen and Søren Halskov Nissen and their thoughts.
