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| Photo Credit: pininterest.com |
Picture the
scene: Dusk begins to settle on Stockholm, magnifying the glow from the
candle-lit windows that warm the city. Frost invades the Swedish capital
as quickly as the sun fades, the vicious bite of the ice ushering
people indoors. It’s dark, it’s cold and (this is the best part) it’s
only 3pm! Welcome to winter in Stockholm. As soon as those telltale signs of autumn start to appear, tingeing
the city a crisp, golden shade of brown, preparations for winter truly
commence. Boats are lifted from the harbours, thermals are dug out of
the basements, and winter tyres are readied for the vehicles. But no matter how harsh or relentless the winter here may be, Swedes
don’t go into hibernation, and Stockholm does not do long winter naps. On the contrary: it’s during these long, dark winters, that Stockholm
arguably makes its name as the Creative Capital of the World. Sure, summer in Stockholm is beautiful, but it’s when the sun
disappears for half a year that the Swedes stop dawdling around the
archipelago and spend more time, attention, and energy on other
activities...like launching startups. The impressive startup scene in Stockholm turns heads around the
world, and for good reason too. The Swedish capital is home to five of
the biggest unicorns around the globe, including tech giants Spotify, Skype, Klarna, Mojang and King (the Candy Crush folk). So what’s the secret behind Stockholm’s startup success? “Creative people tend to be night owls, and in Sweden we get two
nights per day for half of the year,” claims Kaj Drobin, co-founder of
the e-commerce Stockholm startup Tictail. Kaj
co-founded the company in 2012 alongside Siavash Ghorbani, Birk Nilsson
and Carl Waldekranz. Now, according to Kaj, “Tictail is the go-to
destination for emerging designers, with a sprawling marketplace of
100,000 independent brands from 140 countries around the world.” A key ingredient to Tictail’s recipe for success, however, is the cold and dark climate of their Stockholm roots. “Since the dark and cloudy climate mostly keeps us indoors, we put
focus and energy into finding unique solutions to complex projects to
keep the days from being mundane,” Kaj explains. “Our minds are
constantly moving. We never get stuck, even if we're stuck inside all
day.” And Tictail aren’t alone in this theory. Victoria Bastide, CTO of Stockholm-based startup Lifesum, also believes the bitter Swedish climate can aid the creative process, and subsequent success of startups in Stockholm. “As so much time is spent indoors because of the cold, it leaves a
lot of time to come up with creative and exciting ideas,” she says. “We spend a lot of time with our family and friends in the winter,
which means that any ideas that we do come up with can be discussed in
plenty of detail, with constructive input from others. This usually
means that the idea is not only good, but a lot of thought has gone into
its execution, increasing its chances of success.” Speaking of spending time with family and friends, there are few
better ways to evade the frosty outdoors than with a
fika in a warm and
welcoming café with good company. This winter, startups will come
together for an invigorating coffee at Sup46’s brand new Startup Café. Sup46
– a startup hub launched to bring startups together (genius!) – is at
the very heart of Stockholm’s thriving startup community. Jessica Stark, CEO and co-founder of Sup46, agrees that the harsh Stockholm climate makes for an excellent startup environment. “What more is there to do between October and May than letting your brain work in mysterious ways?” she asks. “The climate encourages you to be creative with your time… Also, too
much cold and darkness is bad for the brain – best to stay in front of
the luminous screen of your laptop making time pass by building
something extraordinary!” But it’s not just about what the Swedish climate makes us do, it’s also about how we do it. Over at podcasting platform Acast,
Karl Rosander, co-founder and President, and Måns Ulvestam, CEO and
co-founder, consider the cold and dark Swedish climate to be beneficial
for the character of budding entrepreneurs. “It [the cold and dark climate] makes us tenacious,” they say, “Which
we think is the most important skill or talent for entrepreneurs.” So embrace the ice this winter in Stockholm, appreciate the absent
natural light, and applaud the subzero Baltic breeze. Because somewhere
in the city, someone – a young, tenacious entrepreneur – is sheltering
from the cold, directing all their time, energy and focus towards the
next startup from Stockholm.
Invest Stockholm and The Local-Sweden Photo
