Taige Zhang's Page

Do you mind me posting your message on my blog? I think that's the best way to get more replies, in terms of participation. I can provide your email address, at the end of the post, so people can send their answers directly to you. Furthermore, there are some other greek blogs that could help you as well, shall I forward the message to those two?

Hi Taige
See my answers below.

Question 1:

How entrepreneurial do you consider yourself? Your peers? Your area in general? How do you think it compares to US, rest of EU, UK?
I see my self as very entrepreneurial having started company more than once. Though non of wich is alive today ;) I know other start-ups arround Denmark, naming: podhandle.dk (you could contact her if you wish)
zyb.com (i don't know them but they are danish)
I think Denmark in general is focused on the good idea, and creativity. Maybe because of our small size a comparrison to US is hard. But in general i think the spirit of US is favourable to start-ups compared to danish/EU. Though the minds of EU/Denmark probably come up with the most inovative ideas :)


Question 2:

Do you feel you have enough local resources to start your business? What are they? E.g. News sites, blogs, groups, VCs. How adequate are they? How easy is it for a startup?

Depending on where you live in DK the funding from STATE is different. Though their is a high focus on this in Denmark and is becomming better and better. There are a LOT of start-up help organisations. And on TV there are generally a lot of shows/programs about start-up/ideas and how to get help and succeed.

I think in general it's never easy to be a start-up - but then again if it was easy. Anybody would do it, and then there is no real value in it anymore. You neeeed that struggle to make it work. If you don't hit a wall you won't harden...

Thank you for your time and answers. Please let me know if you would like to receive the results of my research. Thank you.

Yes that would be interesting to read :)

yeps - should have used a form...

Hello. More than happy to help. I'll reply by email. Cheers.

Q1: I'm quite entrepreneurial, having been involved in 3 startups so far in Prague. Many of my peers are entrepreneurial. Prague is very entrepreneurial I think, but I cannot give you the hard statistics compared to other countries, just that I know of many startups. Q2: Definitely enough local resources to start a business, many entrepreneurial groups, VCs and the like. Prague is a good place for a startup.

No problem. Let me just answer here... faster than an email:

1. Yes, I'm entrepreneurial. My peers are as well, but there's a general lack of business know-how in general. There's nothing even remotely similar to the startup scene in the US or UK. Some community building initiatives are gaining traction, but there's a long way to go. Italy is far behind in the startup scene.

2. Starting up in Italy is an uphill battle. There are few resources, and only a handful of VCs. A lot of the money is tied up in public funds, and the real sore spot is lack of proper finance law (for example, preferred stock is *illegal*). Starting a company requires red tape and is quite expensive, while the service industry like lawyers, accountants etc tend to bleed small companies while being not very well informed about global issues.

On the upside, we've got a boatload of talented people with crazy innovative ideas. And prolific bloggers. :)

Cheers.

Answer 1:

Pretty entrepreneurial in the last two years - starting 3 big start-ups that happen to be small :)
Most of my close peers are also entrepreneurial as I've met most of them
on entrepreneurship events or classes.
Still there is not enough entrepreneurial spirit in my area, probably because of the post-socialistic reality. However in the last few year this spirit continually arises and there are some young business guys, not only old "fat" businessmen.
Currently - light years away form US/UK as there is no built ecosystem. Mostly sporadic, though heroic ventures. I'm not enough informed how things are in the rest of EU, as I mainly use US for reference.


Answer 2:

In general people and organizations are open for win-win partnerships, at least the good companies. However - still organizations are quite slow although their size is relatively small according to world standards, but big-enough-to-be-slow for our national standard.
The VC funding is in its baby years, at least in the tech sector. There are only two tech-oriented VC funds. The angel investing is also in its infancy and usually individual.
Hmm... what to say :) Despite everything that I wrote I could say that starting a start-up here is pretty interesting experience. Probably if you mange to do it here, you'll can do it almost anywhere afterward ;)

Hi, I just forwared your questions to the Open Coffe Sofia meet up group, I think there are more people that might help you get the answers...

All the best,

Chris

answered your questions via mail ;)

Social Networks:
www.startupbusiness.it -- not unlike opencofee's ning, with starups, investors both present. A decent amount of activity, organized by Tech journalist Emil Abirascid.

people.techgarage.eu -- mini social network backed by a seed fund (dPixel). They also organize pitching competitions under the same TechGarage brand

Blogs:
Ahh... there are tons. A good person to ask is Nicola Mattina, he knows all the local top bloggers: http://opencoffee.ning.com/profile/nicolamattina

Good luck!