
The Surprising Startup Hub That's Second Only to Silicon Valley - henrik_w
http://www.inc.com/paul-grossinger/the-surprising-startup-hub-thats-second-only-to-silicon-valley.html
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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10693764](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10693764)

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strictnein
> "The Nordic countries, particularly Sweden, have the highest percentage of
> unicorns per capita in the world"

And yet no mention of Mojang. A unicorn among unicorns. No funding. $2.5
billion exit.

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tyre
This speaks to our assumption of how great companies are built: large venture
capital investment.

From my experience, most people think they can build the next Uber for X, if
only someone would give them that level of capital. Few think they could be
the next Mojang, building a real business the hard way.

Mojang did what every startup should be doing:

1) Build a phenomenal product 2) Once the business starts taking off, keep
building a phenomenal product 3) As your user-base grows and diversifies,
focus on building a phenomenal product

Venture capital can be wonderful if you're already entrenched in that ethos.
Otherwise, it will only paper over your mistakes.

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nabla9
In US many high-tech companies provide perks for their workers: free daycare,
paid maternity leave, free tuition for employees' kids, good health care, etc.

Nordic countries provide similar perks for all their citizens. High taxes pay
for safety, infrastructure and welfare.

Ramen-eating startups work for young single people. Getting older and having
children reduces the risk taking ability dramatically without good welfare.

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bulb
Lies! Look at the actual source data of this supposed study. "Silicon Valley"
has far more billion+ companies per capita than the nordic countries:

(75 / 3.75 million) vs (9 / 26.6 million) = 20 vs 0.34 billion dollar
companies per million people = Silicon Valley has 5882% more.

Likewise when just looking at Sweden:

(75 / 3.75 million) vs (5 / 9.6 million) = 20 vs 0.52 billion dollar companies
per million people = Silicon Valley has 3846% more.

[http://www.atomico.com/explore-d3](http://www.atomico.com/explore-d3)

I don't know why the author chose to compare Silicon Valley to the country of
Sweden, but those are the actual numbers.

