startup lessons from estonia

Marketing 101 for startupsSiim Teller

@teller

These are slides from a lecture to Plan 9 + IT University students in Lahore, 26.11.2014

Lessons from Estonia (and other places too)

Who’s this dude?

• Skype, GrabCAD, On Device Research

• B2C > B2B

• Content > product management > marketing

• Communications, social network, marketplace, market research

EstoniaPop: 1.3 million GDP: $18,500

PakistanPop: 190 million GDP: $1300

Estonia… never heard of it• Population: 1.3 million

• Territory: 45,000 sq km (Pakistan almost 800,000 sq km)

• Regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 - had to build up all the infrastructure

• Home to NATO Cyber Security Centre

• Punches way above its weight when it comes to startups - number per capita, press coverage, funds raised

Unfortunately no magic solution• Right steps by the government

• Handful of outside amplifiers

• Open and collaborative startup scene

• “Let’s just do it” attitude

• Raise of startup culture and acceptance in Estonia, Nordics, Europe

…didn’t happen in vacuum

Bluemoon > Everyday.com > Joltid > Skype

Seeds for the 2nd waveOriginal Skype team in Estonia got a nice payday which they started investing back

into the ecosystem. With lots of failures :)

Skype employees have also gone on to kick off a handful of new startups (with other Skypers as angels)

But it wasn’t just SkypeDevelopment houses: went from outsourced engineering to design, UX, project management, own products, spin offs

People working for these companies built up the skills, experience and balls to go on to launch their own things.

A handful of software houses have been very successful companies in their own right, with owners making enough money to become angel investors.

More than one ways to success

e-Estonia

Good for PR• Tiger leap

• ID card + mobile ID

• Simple taxes - flat tax, takes me 5 minutes to file taxes online

• eGovernment

• X road citizen portal - government should ask you for info only once

• 15 minutes to set up company online

• eCitizenship

Try different approaches to marketing

Lets just see what happens!

Stop listening to experts (like me)

Listen to your customers instead

bit.ly/shut-up-experts by @ramlijohn

Find your amplifiersCyrus Farivar - journalist

Steve Jürvetson - investor Toomas Henrik Ilves - president

Tigerprises - local startup coverage

• Start with marketing now

• Don’t be the “Estonian developer”

• Experiment and test

• Learn from each other

• Be patient

Ask me anything@teller

siimteller@mac.com