Innovation will happen in local clusters all around the world not only in Silicon Valley
In the past years we have organized startup events in more than 50 countries across Europe, Central Asia & MENA. We have spoken with many of the local changemakers and main networkers (many of which support us as pirate ambassadors) and have met and seen an incredible amount of early stage startups. We have learned that our mission to celebrate entrepreneurship and connecting the startup ecosystems resonates well beyond our current geographical reach.
But one of the main takeaways of our tours is: There is entrepreneurial talent everywhere. Even more than we expected.
Let’s check our numbers: In 2015 1.200+ startups from 80+ countries applied to pitch at Pirate Summit events and 300+ were selected to pitch. The best 80 moved on to the semifinals at the Pirate Summit in Cologne and finally 10 startups made it to the finals of the Walk The Plank pitch competition. These startups were from Latvia, Germany, Egypt, Denmark, Estonia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Netherlands and UK. Eventually Loanbase a startup from Bulgaria and Sorry As A Service from Estonia won.
The second takeaway is the power of “local”. Innovation happens in clusters. But these clusters are in regional hubs. We met an incredible amount of entrepreneurial talent, working on creating value and impact through (technological) innovation. For many good reasons a lot of these entrepreneurs are very attached to their local communities. Their persistence, dedication and impact is admirable. They deserve to be celebrated as true pirates.
Silicon Valley might currently be the place where the hip tech startups flock and big capital accumulates. However, as access to knowledge, talent and capital democratizes, the advantages to go there decrease substantially.
Robert Scoble already sees this trend materializing today as he has written in this article about “How small-town America is primed to beat Silicon Valley in innovation”. He believes the main reasons are:
- Housing costs
- Way of life (family friendliness, nightlife etc.)
- High speed internet
We have seen first hand that ambitious and exceptional entrepreneurs can be found in many places. And on their quest for global scale promising startups are created in local clusters all over the world. And we see this trend increasing.
This trend has a tremendous impact on our mission to connect startup ecosystems. Therefore, we have decided that it’s time for the Pirate Summit to take the next step.
We don’t want to wait for entrepreneurs to come to us. Instead we will be going out to where they are. Even more than we have already done.
We are very happy that Uldis Leiterts (co-founder of infogr.am, the worlds biggest infographic community) will join our team and will be responsible for our global expansion. Uldis has been a true pirate even before the Pirate Summit existed. He’s attended all Pirate Summit events in Cologne since the very first one in 2011 and has joined us during our Pirate events in Europe and MENA. Moreover, he is dedicated to celebrating entrepreneurship just like we are and shares the mission of connecting startup ecosystems:
“Our ambition is simple. We want to go to places where entrepreneurship flourishes, meet ambitious and exceptional people and startups around the world, link tech ecosystems, discover and bring some of most amazing influencers to our major gathering of pirates in Cologne in September”
For the time being Uldis will work from the Pirate Summit office Latvia. Soon he will hit the road for our Pirate Summit Global tour. You can meet him there this spring and summer and at the main event in September. You can just get in touch with him on Twitter (@Uldis) and you can follow him on Medium (@uldis).
