Startup Reykjavik is one of the pieces in the puzzle to transform the Icelandic economy. I was very pleased to see how quickly we were able to get this program going, I am one of the mentors in the program. I started writing about my vision for Iceland and Strategy and Execution of the strategy is happening as we speak. This is the Iceland that I know. People just do things rather than get into an analysis paralysis. There are many pieces to this puzzle. The Startup Reykjavik Website has got a face life so go and check it out. I have had a chance to meet with most of the teams and I see a lot of potential. Given that the program is being run in Iceland for the first time, I believe we will need to talk about what is happening. The Startup list is here, I think this initiative is extremely important piece to help entrepreneurs get started the right way. The Startup Reykjavik organizing team has assembled an impressive mentor list and 2 weeks into the program I hear that all the mentors have been spending time with the teams and guiding them. This is a BIG win for the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Iceland. The community participating in building the next generation of teams and companies is the most sustainable path to transforming a region. The next big challenge that we have is to get new investors to bet on the teams that are being mentored out of Startup Reykjavik and other programs like this that are bound to start in other places in Iceland. I have another blog post related to this and Angel Investing, I had an interesting short discussion with the team member who has come all the way from India to participate in Startup Reykjavik. The stigma of Angel investors, I have a very strong opinion that Angel investors should have Intrinsic Motivation to do what they do. Unfortunately, most of the wanna-be angel investors are extrensically motivated. The other interesting point of discussion was the role of Government and Government run programs, I personally don’t think Governments can run programs like this because you really need to take a long term view of the region and the world and you need a long term commitment, unfortunately, most Governments are very short term focused, but Governments are important stake holders in these kinds of initiatives, they can implement policies and develop infrastructure that supports Entrepreneurship and Startups.

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