Estonia is the Silicon Valley of Europe, at least according to several headlines over the years.
While it's true that Estonia has a very high concentration of unicorn startups, the comparisons drop off pretty fast.
Entrepreneurs and investors like Estonia for very different reasons to why they like Silicon Valley.
Comparators like that - or labels like 'Nordic' - can be a useful shortcut for recognition, but they can also lack nuance and confidence in your own unique offerings. If your startup is "the Uber of" something then it might help a bit with seed funding, but it won't get you much further. The same principle applies for startup nations.
To encourage more business into Estonia, we want to find more of the entrepreneurs and investors who like Estonia for its own unique strengths and how that can uniquely benefit them.
And that also means being open about the downsides too.
Radical honesty works pretty well. If you've been reading product reviews on Amazon, you'll understand that a critical, balanced review of pros and cons is more likely to prompt you to buy something than all those suspiciously glowing ones.
Fortunately, Estonians are notoriously straight-talking. There's little small talk and few pushy sales people here. That's actually one of the many advantages about doing business in Estonia. Estonians mean what they say and they say what they mean. If you make a promise or agree a time then they'll stick to it precisely and expect you to as well.
This led the Estonian Investment Agency to an idea. What if our communications with potential investors and entrepreneurs were just as blunt?
Our country already gets quite a lot of positive media coverage as a digital utopia and great place to do business. So what if we subverted that slightly by showing the naked truth ourselves?
And, speaking of getting naked, it's in the sauna that Estonians most open up and connect in this radically honest way.
So at Latitude59, Estonia's flagship tech festival attended by investors and entrepreneurs and journalists from around the world, the Estonian Investment Agency went all in on a sauna theme to share 'the naked truth about Estonia' - and we were all too happy to help.
The Estonian Investment Agency got us involved and we wrote up a series of naked truths that give a different perspective or helped correct misunderstandings, even those meant positively.
Despite the claim getting repeated in numerous reports, there is no nationwide free WiFi, but you won't need that anyway!
Overlapping identities
We showed that no one is more critical of Estonia's digital society than Estonians themselves who expect it to keep improving. Innovations like e-Residency get a lot of praise globally but we think they should just be considered normal.
We even weighed into the discussion of whether Estonia is actually Nordic. The truth is that Estonians have multiple overlapping identities — just like everyone else in the world. We can be Nordic and Baltic. Northern and Eastern and Western. A forest nation and a digital nation. Finno-Ugric, European, and definitely just very Estonian.
Being any one of those doesn't negate any other.
It also gave us the opportunity to challenge any perception that Estonia might serve as some kind of tax haven or a place to anonymously run a shell company. Afterall, those people are going to be the most disappointed.
Perhaps the most important point is that Estonia is actually not the best place for everyone to start a company. Nowhere can call itself the best place for everyone.
For some entrepreneurs and some types of companies, Silicon Valley is better suited. I hear it's the Estonia of America.
But Estonia is the best place to start a company for many, many people so it's important we reach them specifically.
Award winning
The Estonian Investment Agency picked up a prestigious and very deserved marketing award in Estonia for 'the naked truth about Estonia'.
The idea and brilliant execution was all theirs so we were grateful to provide copy for the truths - and also let them film at our home sauna, which you'll see in the marketing photos!
Best Marketing
At this year's Latitude59, I wrote an article for Estonian World reflecting on how the startup scene is evolving and maturing - and also becoming more pan-Baltic in some ways. This part seemed to resonate with other attendees:
"Estonia’s own national branding ..is more widely recognised and more confident. There is slightly less insistence on being Nordic and less boasting about being the Silicon Valley of Europe. Estonia is the Estonia of Europe – with its own unique strengths, and challenges."