City As A Service
How a Local Government Built A Thriving Startup Ecosystem
How StartupAmsterdam Has Built A Thriving Startup Community
Last week I had the honor of being one of five international journalists (the term journalist is used loosely for this aspiring blogger) invited by the city of Amsterdam to observe what is occurring in the startup community. Two years ago when Deputy Mayor Kajsa Ollongren was elected into office, she proposed that Amsterdam utilized its natural characteristics to become an emerging startup hub.
When I was initially invited to the press tour I was intrigued in how Amsterdam was able to attract large tech conferences like Startup Fest Europe and The New Web — each featuring giants in the global tech community. But I must say that after leaving and now reflecting on my trip, The local government of Amsterdam has helped uniquely cultivate a startup community that reflects the qualities and ethos of their city’s culture and ecosystem. Through a very systematic approach implemented by StartupAmsterdam (the government initiative that brings together stakeholders from the public, private and corporate sectors), the city has early signs of developing a model for cities across the world that desire to create a genuine startup space. Below are 4 observations that I found that have helped Amsterdam become a top 3 ranked European startup ecosystem. It’s my belief that cities across the world, especially in the US should employ these approaches to prevent developing another short-sighted ecosystem that is striving to be the next “Silicon Valley of the X” — instead build what StartupAmsterdam calls a city as a service. The following four objectives have helped Amsterdam build a thriving startup community:
Know Your City’s Unfair Advantages
Know Your City’s Gaps and Create Solutions from Community’s Resources
Create Content & Events that lead to Engagement
Create Sustainable Stakeholder Partnerships that can last past changes in Government officials
“One of the biggest advantages Amsterdam has in the tech world is that it’s a place where people want to live — and can actually afford to, even on a startup budget” — TechCrunch
Know Your City’s Unfair Advantages
Amsterdam has unique location and population characteristics that make it well positioned to cultivate a strong startup environment. Amsterdam is located centrally to all major hubs in Europe such as London, Paris and Berlin. During various meetings with entrepreneurs or government officials, I heard Amsterdam advocates speak about the location being a huge advantage for expanding into Europe because you are only a short flight away from every other hub. Not only is the location a positive but the talent pool provides intriguing advantages to startups looking to establish a footprint in Europe — since 90% of the national population is bilingual and can speak English. These two advantages are reasons why StartupAmsterdam has marketed the city as the best option for you to launch your startup idea or test the European market. In conjunction with these advantages, StartupAmsterdam has also commenced many initiatives to make the messaging reality.
Know Your City’s Gaps and Create Solutions from Community’s Resources
The government knew they had a unique offering to domestic and international entrepreneurs but had to also identify what barriers may prevent the Amsterdam startup scene from reaching its full potential. After early customer discovery conversations with entrepreneurs, StartupAmsterdam felt one gap area that they could assist with is talent initiatives. One barrier identified was that it is difficult for foreign entrepreneurs to establish their startup in the Netherlands. To address this problem, the Netherlands created the “startup visa.” The visa enables entrepreneurs to work on a startup for up to 3 years without the typical regulations if the startup meet certain requirements (company has no more than 10 employees and has not surpassed the capital raise threshold). The city also has a partnership with the city of New York which allows US startups the opportunity to visit Amsterdam for a week-long boot camp to see the advantages of establishing a presence in the Netherlands.
But with the growing number of startups and projected tech talent gap, StartupAmsterdam felt that it was also important to promote training the current and future talent pools with computer programming schools. The programming to promote coding and entrepreneurship are still in the works but since the launch of StartupAmsterdam the city has grown to offering 8 startup academies teaching hundreds of people coding, design and growth hacking skills. Lastly, the StartupAmsterdam team felt that despite growth in startups and the promotion of entrepreneurship, some talent would need opportunities within larger tech players. This thinking led to the TechConnect Amsterdam program — with the help of large tech companies — which redirects the overflow of tech talent to other companies in the ecosystem.
Create Content & Events that lead to Engagement
I learned during this recent trip to Amsterdam that the Dutch are very humble especially in comparison to Americans (that’s not saying much). So since they won’t brag on the excitement they have brought to their startup community…I will! My press tour highlights displayed how StartupAmsterdam has successfully mobilized stakeholders and facilitated events to ensure a healthy ecosystem. Hosting the grand opening of Startup Fest Europe* and The Next Web** in Amsterdam is a great achievement but it wouldn’t have occurred if the small and mid-sized events such as Amsterdam Capital Week (which I hope to be invited to this year…looking at you StartupAmsterdam reps) and Launchpad Meetups (pitch events where startups customize their offering to a public institution or corporate partner) didn’t garner traction. The large events and conferences would have never come to Amsterdam if the foundation of smaller events didn’t display a community that wanted to embrace innovation.
Create Sustainable Stakeholder Partnerships that can last past changes in Government officials
Many times government led initiatives to promote small businesses, innovation and entrepreneurship do not have a long-lasting impact because they are tied to a specific administration or politician. Once that visionary government official retires or isn’t reelected the promising programs come to a halt. StartupAmsterdam took a more systematic approach when thinking about their initiatives. They gave their programming a timeline of four years and insisted on involving public and private partnerships that could take the reigns early on. Each of the various initiatives is housed in another government agency or private corporation. The goal is that once the startup initiatives are in a steady state in 4 years then StartupAmsterdam can dissolve and the city can focus on new issues related to scaling up startups.
Key Takeaways
I was really impressed by the strategic approach StartupAmsterdam has taken in approximately two years and the results of its execution thus far. The efforts of this organization and its corporate, tech, and government partners have led to:
The EU innovation Union awarding Amsterdam its holistic vision of innovation in and for the city
Amsterdam awarded 2nd place as startup city and 3rd place as scale-up city in the European Digital City index
Amsterdam ranked 3rd place in Europe and 7th place in world in the global innovation economy
So I challenge each city looking to build a long standing and thriving startup community to answer more customized questions such as: ‘What is our city’s unfair advantage?’ or ‘What resources do we have in our city to address challenges particular to our startup community?’ I think these questions lead to much better long-term results than the old adage “What would Silicon Valley do?” Take it from someone who has lived in the Bay Area, Silicon Valley is the leader of technology and innovation but that is after decades of cultivating a community that reflects the region’s strengths and weaknesses. Just like I don’t want an NBA filled with faulty imitations of the Golden State Warriors, I don’t want a world filled with startup communities that are flawed copies of the Valley. So be Atlanta. Be Chattanooga. Be Dublin. Be Amsterdam.
Special thanks to Amsterdam Marketing’s Charlene Verweij for inviting me to the amazing week of events and to StartupAmsterdam’s Josephine Meijer for her help input to this post.
*Startup Fest had events throughout the Netherlands, it was the opening that centered in Amsterdam and there were nine events in total of the Fest hosted in Amsterdam.
**The Next Web Conference started in Amsterdam ten years ago as a small conference. StartupAmsterdam realized the importance of having this quality in the city and made it a point to support this year to help the conference grow.
Earnest Sweat is a Startup Adviser that specializes in mentoring startups within the fin tech, ed tech, and real estate tech sectors. If you have any questions, comments or requests please connect with Earnest through LinkedIn, Twitter, or AngelList.
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