Be Helpful And Co-grow
Unlike the cold winter that’s good for being focused, the Estonian summer has been distracting. One reason is the awesome sunshine; another one goes to the number of interesting events around.
I went to two of the events at Lift99 last week. Ragnar shared his stories in both events. He talked about Pipedrive, Lift99, and a new skill-sharing platform to launch soon. It aims to facilitate knowledge exchange among passionate people. The vision resonated with me a lot.
“Great knowledge comes from where great minds meet” is my belief. I enjoy discovering new experiences, new perspectives, and new skills from different people. However, I didn’t realize how important it could be thriving in a great ecosystem until I reached Bay Area.
The enlightenment came in 2014 in San Francisco. I had a coffee with Mary and asked for her tips as we were new to the game industry. Mary was very helpful, and I felt I should offer something back as it is the way I was educated. Her reply was one of the most memorable moments:
“We got a lot of help when we were new here. We are just doing the same now. You are hard-working. It would be great if we could help you become successful and you could help more people as well.”
It became one of my core values. I would try my best, and offer help whenever possible. Thanks, Mary and Kevin, for being generous to me.
Then I came to Estonia, a small country with a population of just 1.3 million. The scale of the Estonian tech community is not comparable to Silicon Valley, or any major tech hubs in the world. But it is unique in a way I felt the helpful ecosystem again from more than the tech community only.
As a young country, Estonia didn’t have many legacy industries. Adding more humans to the country is practically impossible; embracing technology and corporation is the only way to grow. Tech is a common language among almost all industries. Not only are startups and SMBs connected with each other in some ways, but the government is also involved by making impossible moves like Startup Visa, a joint-program operated by the Estonian government and startup veterans, become possible in a short period. I was also fascinated by how tech-savvy some so-called traditional companies are when meeting them.
That makes Estonia a unique ecosystem with more than just the tech community. The government and most businesses are involved in collaborations as well. The whole country is operating like a startup itself — people know (almost) each other and somehow help each other.
Besides the valuable insights I received from the tech community, I also received help from the folks at Startup Estonia, to get in touch with relevant government officials regarding my question, which I had no idea where to find the information. The Estonian government responded in light-speed (government standard) as well. It is slow compared to the private sector’s standard, but no complaints as long as there’s progress shown.
With thriving good news from different teams recently, I am looking forward to seeing how the launch of the skill-sharing platform could accelerate knowledge exchange in this unique community, and offer my help simultaneously to co-grow with the community.
By the way, Avery (one of the passionate folks I met in Estonia) and I are also working on a side project Growth Story to help teams share and learn practical growth tips with each other. More awesome stories are coming. Talk to us if you believe in co-growing and have interesting growth stories to share.
