QuizUpIcelandic Startup Plain Vanilla Games launched their new game Quiz Up and it has been getting a lot of attention and has been in the top 3 in the Apple App Store. I played the game and it was a lot of fun. I wrote about Plain Vanilla Games here and Thorsteinn their Co-founder and CEO has been a speaker in Startup Iceland Conference. I promise there is a point to my writing about this and not just a plug for Plain Vanilla Games or QuizUp. I remember Thorsteinn pitching in a Seed Forum Event 2 years back and I remember him talking about how he got a Venture Investor in the US to invest in the company and the rest is history. I find that very strange and interesting, how come the minute a VC investor putting money in a company an Entrepreneur turns out a big hit? Is there some magic that these US VCs seem to carry with them and their investments? Well, as much as I want to say there is a secret sauce and magic, there is none. It is all hard work to develop a product or service and a lot of partnering, hustling, marketing and selling. It takes time and effort to bring a product to market. I am really please to see Icelandic companies break the mould and are starting to venture out and be global. I hope with the success and role models created by these entrepreneurs we will have more investors wanting to participate in this journey in Iceland. Angel and Venture investing is a lot of hard work and value creation tied with investing unlike buying a stock or bond in the market where the part of the returns are driven by speculation and market dynamics. I have created an Angel Syndicate to motivate more people to co-invest with me in building the startup ecosystem in Iceland. I always put my money where my mouth is. I know there is value in Iceland. I can go all day about why I believe we can create global companies out of here, there needs to be a conscious vision, strategy and execution to make that a reality. Doing that right is the key, and investing in creating an environment that is conducive to that is a must have. We cannot guarantee success but we can reduce the odds of failure. I think with each success like Clara, Plain Vanilla Games, Betware (Betware was acquired by Novomatic, that news item is for another blog post) etc we are reducing the odds of failure in Iceland. With the syndicate that I have created, we will be doing $1m worth of early stage investing every year, in my humble opinion if we are able to get this going it will transform the Icelandic startup ecosystem.

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