Comments on: Slovenian startup ecosystem: July 2012 [infographic]

By: » Slovinská startup scéna [infografika] Michal Blaha

» Slovinská startup scéna [infografika] Michal Blaha — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 23:08:23 +0000

[...] s českou a slovenskou startup scénou….. Zdroj: Orange.and.Nuts 10 Tagged ecosystem, Slovenia, startups Cancel [...]

By: From exhaust systems to Y Combinator: meet Slovenia's startup scene

From exhaust systems to Y Combinator: meet Slovenia's startup scene — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 21:22:01 +0000

[...] The Slovenian startup scene is alive and kicking, and the kicking is becoming stronger fast. [...]

By: Andrej Volčanšek

Andrej Volčanšek — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 17:50:00 +0000

Its nice to observe that death of modern liberal (hint:neo-liberal)financial capitalism comes even to such a rigid place like Slovenia. Otherwise I prefer to call an infografic (in general) ‘the visual illusion about how I think I wish I’d like you to perceive things to have appeared’. Nontheless, let us all stay strong in belief, because as Instagram founder put it: “shit happens”.

By: INFOGRAFIKA slovenskega startup sveta: 80 podjetij z 800 zaposlenimi, 3 zmage na Seedcampu, 40 milijonov USD investicij | Netokracija

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 20:11:59 +0000

[...] Petkovič je na svojem blogu objavil zanimivo infografiko slovenskega startup [...]

By: Tomaž Kovačič

Tomaž Kovačič — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 19:49:00 +0000

Very inspiring info-graphic there @yougo:twitter . Just wondering – how did you add up the 15M in exists?

By: Marko

Marko — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 09:00:00 +0000

I disagree and personally I dislike hanging so much on being a Slovenian. I would not count those whose primary action is elsewhere but even if I did, I don’t see why I should care if they are Slovenian or not. Either their influence is big enough to count or it isn’t. Nationality or citizenship don’t really matter.

And what is a Slovenian anyway? Are we talking about nationality in which case why? If it’s about citizenship then it’s just a different shade of absurd. I am sure all Zemanta’s engineers were counted, just as they should be, not only Slovenians.Counting people living and working outside just makes that number less reliable, more inflated and less meaningful.I also have no clue what a Slovenian soul of a startup would be.

By: Jugoslav

Jugoslav — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 20:50:00 +0000

Yes, I’m talking about the ecosystem, which includes Slovenian founders even if they decided to start the company abroad. Of course I only know about those who stay in touch, so the question “are they really members of the ecosystem” is answered right there.

This post is meant to spark conversations, both within Slovenia and outside, so I guess it worked. I’ll make sure the next iterations are more transparent, but for the first time I wanted to get the information out as soon as possible.

By: andraz

andraz — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 20:23:00 +0000

I think that Marko is spot on that the way things are counted needs to be more explicit. What it seems you are counting is “how many start-ups did this ecosystem directly or indirectly produce”.
I am inclined to say this isn’t a bad way to look at the ecosystem. Some of those start-ups have a ‘slovenian soul’ and are returning a lot back to the ecosystem even if founders are mostly abroad now. Naturally that does not go for everyone, but it’s hard to count shades of gray.At the end I understand that infographics are mostly a marketing & link-bait material, but still being more explicit about the data might not hurt.

By: Jugoslav

Jugoslav — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 19:28:00 +0000

All data is from 2008 until July 2012.

By: Marko

Marko — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 19:26:00 +0000

Thanks Jugo for further explanation. I think it’s problematic to count defunct companies to headcount since they don’t exist anymore and people who working there might have moved to other startups (or companies) since, but realistically it wouldn’t change your numbers much.

What I think you *should* is stop counting startups created and active in other countries in your statistics just because they have a Slovenian founder. Title is, after all, Startup ecosystem in Slovenia. Not in London or Berlin. I don’t doubt your good intentions, but that is simply wrong. If infographic is about an ecosystem, a place, then citizenship and nationality don’t really matter. I know a lot of expats keep ties with home, but we also have ties elsewhere and that doesn’t make us integral parts of those ecosystems.

On second visit and reading it’s more obvious to me who your audience for this really is — foreign investors. If true, then I’d suggest to make this a bit more obvious (maybe with subtitle) and adding more information that you think would be of interest to them (e.g. what do we know that stands out – early mobile payment systems, first class university robotics teams…).

P.S:I also agree with comments made by Tomaž and Andraž.