Leadership and innovation at the country level

I have been in Estonia for a couple of years now on a full time basis. Although I visited Estonia regularly for the past 15 years, the experience of living here, gave me a deeper and far more interesting view of the dynamics that have taken place in this country pertaining to technology.

At first sight, one can easily miss the technological revolution that took place in Estonia in the Post-Soviet era if one just focuses on the pronounced rural life that dominates most of the land. But one cannot really miss it once you interact with the system. Some claim that Estonia now has more start-up per capita than the Valley.

9% percent of global Billion dollar exits have come from Nordic countries since 2005. The theory is that the smallness of Estonia coupled with the small population in addition to security risks posed by their prominent neighbors, pushed the country to excel and take leadership in certain areas. And in the absence of an infrastructure in the Post-Soviet era, that land was just ripe for that thing to be technology!

Some of the e-experiences ranging from e-voting, paying for parking with a phone (since probably the last century), the amazing digital banking, the school system, the 4.5 minutes tax filing, public transportation, and every service you can imagine are simply something Estonians are proud of and rightfully they should be.

Estonians brought forth lots of start-up success stories in the past including the ubiquitous Skype of course as well as an interesting pipeline in the making securing the country the title "tech powerhouse". Lots of investments in Apps, Mobile, Banking and many new comers like Taxify, Transfer Wise, GrabCat (a recent exit by SSYS  3D printing company), Mobile billing, Teleport, BuildIt and lots more. Very impressive! Estonia definitely took the plunge with the national identity gone global. The e-Estonia initiative has been gaining some momentum with global aspirations.

Interestingly, the start-up friendly government is helping push the envelope via enabling investments, facilitating the inflow of talent and programs with a focus on a mobile digital society. Additionally, there are close ties with Silicon Valley and other large metropolitan cities around the globe to encourage investments and deployments. I understood the president is personally interested and taking an active seat driving some of these programs.

Another aspect that is interesting for start-ups is that the local market is tiny which means that new companies must have broader global views and ambitions if they want to do well.

I get a kick every time I visit the main site for citizen services (see below). There are two options (Citizens and Entrepreneurs). I think that says it all.

By any means, it's not perfect - there is some bureaucracy as well just like every other place, but just in smaller doses. I know I am probably less exposed to this by virtue of being a foreigner. In most of my interactions, where bureaucracy is about to show it's ugly face, I seem to have the advantage of speaking in English and the primary concern of the person I am speaking with is to understand and make the conversations short so they place less of an effort on fencing. I suspect others may have a different view or experience.

The bottom line, is that Estonia is in the vanguard of of all digital societies on earth and is headed in a unique direction. With continued government support and the e-residency program, you can bet that the number of start-ups with global penetration will double or triple within the next five years.