prime-air_high-resolution02It is painful to watch the obvious play out in the US. I don’t know if you have been seeing what is happening with legislation and regulations around all the innovations that Entrepreneurs and Startups have been doing and how the incumbents have been coming up with resistance through lobbying and permission raj. The latest is the FAA ban on drone technology to deliver packages. No-one knows if this thing is going to work but before that we need to go and get permission to experiment? Makes no sense to me… There a numerous accounts of this happening in the Hospitality sector vs Airbnb, Taxi services vs Uber, Privacy concerns, Net Neutrality and so on and so forth. I think as these debates play themselves out what is an entrepreneur to do? wait for the legislation to give them permission to innovate? I really do believe the machines have taken over, we just need to figure out a way to make this as easy as possible. I believe tremendous value can be created if one can innovate in a place where there is no need to get permission to innovate, say a place like Iceland, of course we have a legal system and regulatory bodies but I think value creating legal things can be built here and tested without causing any challenges to the livelihood of people or displacing a large population as it could do in some of the larger industries in the larger markets. Actually, innovation is needed in a small place like Iceland because there are not a lot of people here. Icelanders have innovated on many fronts, namely Energy, Education, Fishing and Home heating and Broadband (did I mention I get lightning fast broadband in my home through Fiber Optic Cables, and that is standard).

The biggest value is going to be in the field of Software that creates value on top of Networks. I think that makes a lot of sense in Iceland and I have enough case studies to prove that this works. I am not stopping with my arguments, I am putting my money where my mouth is. I am investing in all of these things in Iceland. So if you are scared about the legal ramifications of starting a business in Iceland with innovation as your core, just talk to me. We need to embrace change as change is coming… there is nothing we can do about it other than get ready and prepare and be well equipped to manage ourselves in the change.