Northern Lights: why founding your startup in Scandinavia is a shortcut to success

The heart of Norway’s success story lies in its design philosophy. But iconic Scandinavian design isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about performance, usability, and the never-ending quest to improve the user experience.

For any startup, it is important to ensure the successful adoption of a product or service. For this, the concept guides the design.

By this, I mean making sure you’re talking to people who will ultimately use your gift to make sure it solves their problem and that it’s natural for them to use it.

Ultimately, if the technology doesn’t fit seamlessly into your users’ lives and workflows, they won’t adopt (or buy) your product.

The guiding light is not unique to Norway but reflects international trends in successful innovation. Communication with end users can take many forms, from surveys or interviews to understand their pain points to collaboration by having them join your team as a consultant.

By working closely with end users, you can identify problems, develop solutions together, and build trust in your company and products. All of these factors increase the likelihood of acceptance by the target market.

Northern Lights

In the field of health technology, this approach has proven to be revolutionary. Here, design is not secondary; it is a guiding light that shapes how technology integrates into healthcare. For us, the thinking that leads to design allows us to understand the motivations, challenges, and needs of end users—be they patients, doctors, or surgical teams—and create technical solutions to meet their needs efficiently and effectively.

A new ecosystem

Norway is a breeding ground for tech unicorns, with seven to count – including Remarkable and Kahoot!

A thriving tech environment where startups are fueled by a unique mix of support, infrastructure, and culture that fosters entrepreneurial growth. For example, through Innovation Norway, our government supports companies to grow successfully by providing access to financial support and industry networks. In addition to this, the SkatteFUNN R&D tax system is also a government program designed to stimulate research and development in businesses and Norwegian companies by providing tax relief to companies and enterprises. Like the rest of Europe, it is also developing a network of accelerators and incubators that provide advice and resources.

And access to a strong ecosystem of investors and angels.-Invest in Norway. But at the heart of it, all are the ways in which universities and research institutions in Norway promote a culture of innovation by encouraging collaboration and social networks.

Let me share a story that encapsulates the spirit of this collaboration:

HoloCare is not a solitary project; It is the result of a collaboration between Sopra Steria, a technology company, and doctors at Oslo University Hospital. This partnership brings together people from different backgrounds—both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical—to accelerate our product and business development. This is the key to Norway’s innovation ecosystem: where different ideas come together to turn ideas into reality.

Magic often happens when different ideas come together to create something greater than the sum of its parts. My advice is to find partners with similar projects from the start, but make sure to build a diverse group in terms of skills and experience.

Why is Nordic technology development so successful?

Health innovations
Often, when you think of Norway, images of the northern lights, fjords, and beautiful places come to mind. But beyond its impressive natural beauty, Norway is making a mark in a sector that is important in the 21st century: health innovation. Spending 10.1% of its GDP on healthcare, Norway ranks among the highest healthcare spenders in the world.

This is not only a reflection of its wealth but also shows the country’s commitment to the welfare of its citizens. Although challenges such as an aging population and the rise of chronic diseases are not unique – by 2021 more than a third of the EU’s population will report having a health problem, and Norway’s – long-term – approach to health has transformed health outcomes. Norway is a breeding ground for health technology start-ups. Investors looking at the health sector will find that Norway is a country that is doing its best to set up health technology companies for success.

Norway’s collaborative approach extends to healthcare innovation, connecting healthcare startups directly with healthcare professionals, patients, and hospitals. This instant access is a game-changer, enabling companies to better understand the unique challenges, needs, and desires of the healthcare industry and its leadership. innovation in a direction that is very important.

Understanding your internal audience is key to creating valuable content. Don’t just rely on your imagination; Immerse yourself in the environment you want to serve.

Northern Lights

The trip has four sections. Up to around 1000 m above ocean level, there is a rough segment with a way to follow. Then you will enter the glacial mass, on which you will move to an elevation of around 1800 m above ocean level. There will be holding up an enormous level. Try not to walk the most brief conceivable course to the top of the level. There is the biggest gamble of falling into a hole. All things considered, follow the top on a bend, and don’t go straight. Toward the end, there is a precarious last segment to the pinnacle (ca. 300 meters).

The Nordic nations (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland) have as of late encountered a startup blast. Numerous specialists attribute this to their vigorous government assistance framework, elevated degrees of training, and imaginative strategic approaches. In any case, with the ongoing worldwide financial environment, many keep thinking about whether this blast is economical and whether it will go on into 2023 and then some.

The locale is home to probably the fastest-developing new businesses and organizations on the planet, including Spotify, Pleo, Klarna, and Too Great To Even Consider Going, to give some examples.

The Nordic Model

One of the key variables contributing to the financial progress of the Nordic nations is their special way of dealing with social government assistance. The Nordic model focuses on friendly government assistance projects and moderate tax collection, which has prompted an elevated expectation of living for residents and a generally equivalent dispersion of riches.

This approach has likewise supported business, internationalization, and advancement, with numerous effective new businesses and tech organizations arising out of the area as of late. In any case, this model has likewise confronted analysis for being impractical in the long haul. A few specialists are worried that the high expenses expected to keep up with it will ultimately prompt a decrease in financial development.

How the startup environment has developed throughout the course of recent years
Long perceived for its emphasis on business and advancement, the Nordic region has reliably filled this role over the past couple of years. In any case, there are questions with respect to the Nordic model’s drawn-out reasonability, especially for new businesses and organizations that need to scale.

To confront and defeat this trouble, numerous Nordic new companies are focusing on building closer associations with laid-out organizations and using their organizations to get to new business sectors and clients. The closeness and likenesses of the Nordic nations make for a lot more straightforward systems of administration and organization, which can immediately turn into a fundamental piece of assisting a business with scaling.

Northern Lights

The locale’s emphasis on business ventures and advancement will probably keep driving financial development. In any case, it will be critical for new companies and emerging organizations to zero in on practical development, framing even associations and systems administration to thrive over the long haul. Estelle Roux from StellarUp makes reference to: “As Chief and prime supporter, I know direct that it is so basic to approach assets, for example, financing, savvy coaches and friends who can team up with you. Versatility should become an integral factor in a startup’s life span, which is at last our objective. One needs to embrace development steadily while going ahead with reasonable courses of action in any event when confronted with different impediments or economic situations. This attitude will permit every one of us to make due, however, flourish!”