Testimonials
What do some of the people in the ICT industry and the media have to say about Stockholm?
Petri Järvilehto, executive vice president Rovio:
2012 is going to be a big year in gaming for us, and we’re constantly on the lookout for great new talent. We’re excited to expand to Stockholm and work in one of Europe’s gaming and innovation hotspots.
Source: Invest Stockholm 2012 (May)
fDi Magazine’ European Region of the Future 2012/13:
The Greater Stockholm region of Sweden is the best small region of the future, and has overtaken the UK’s South-east to become fDi Magazine’s European Region of the Future 2012/13.
Source: fDi Magazine’ European Region of the Future 2012/13 2012 (February)
Mats Gustafsson, CEO Wednesday Relations & Digital Days Stockholm:
The “old” companies like Spotify are [inspiring] young people to start new companies, so there’s a lot happening right now [in Stockholm] and that’s very interesting.
Source: Stockholm IT Region video interview, 2012 (January)
Daniel Ek, CEO & Co-founder, Spotify:
I think that there’s so much cool innovation going on in Europe right now. I was really surprised coming back to Sweden earlier this year and there’s some fantastic companies there; up and coming companies like Trip Birds and others, but there’s also Mojang that does Minecraft, there’s Klarna that does payments, there’s all these companies now coming around and getting more and more mature. And I was honestly very inspired and feeling the buzz and the vibe in the Stockholm community and traveling around Europe I feel the same in pretty much in every city.
Source: Interviewed on stage at Le Web, Paris, 2011 (December)
Per Roman, Founding partner, GP Bullhound, on why opening an GP Bullhound office in Stockholm:
There is a lot of momentum in the Internet, digital media and mobile markets in the Nordic region. (…) There is a thriving entrepreneurial community that has generated successful companies like Avito, Spotify, Skype, C3 Technologies, QlikTech, Bambuser, Klarna, Rebtel, TAT, and MySQL to name a few.
Source: GP Bullhound , 2011 (september 2011)
Tom Cheshire, Wired Magazine (UK Edition)
Stockholm: A ‘game-changing’ city. And one of ‘Europe’s hottest startup capitals’.
Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/, 2011 (September 2011)
Karlheinz Wurm, Director, Audio/Video software engineering at Skype:
It’s very important for us to have an office here in Stockholm. First, it gives us an access to a great talent pool and they have a lot of good university and experts in the fields we are interested in. Second, it’s a very attractive city and it allows us to attract even talents outside Stockholm to relocate and accommodate in our family. Third, it has a really good infrastructure; which allows us to travel easily between our other European offices and worldwide offices.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErbK5It_dUw, 2011 (March 2011)
Matthew Glotzbach, Product Management Director at Google Apps:
We are constantly monitoring the Swedish marketplace, it is an excellent market for identifying IT related entrepreneurs.
Source: http://www.idg.se, 2011 (March2011)
Ben Cousins, CEO of Easy Studios:
Stockholm provides a good supply of expertise in Internet and web development. This offers us advantages. It is not at all difficult to find talented people to hire.
Source: Newsletter Issue 1, 2011 (January2011)
Louis Zacharilla, Co-founder of Intelligent Community Forum:
The strength is, I think that in Stockholm it’s not about technology. It’s about technology being the service of the human beings who live here. And of course the way to do that is to connect businesses, the ICT sector, the political sector, the academic sector to create a place where the human can be fully realized.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85uaTGyJkeY (September 2010)
In 2009 Stockholm was awarded as “the Most intelligent community of the year 2009″ by the American think tank Intelligent Community Forum. Hear what the people in the ICT industri, and decision-makers in Stockholm, think was the reason why Stockholm got this recognition.
Ola Ahlvarsson, internet entrepreneur and co-founder of SIME:
James Pearce, CEO dotMobi
Sweden is an excellent test environment, or petri dish, for the mobile web, with a heritage of telecom och wireless innovations. [...] Hundreds of exciting companies are out in the swedish environment creating cool new mobile apps, exploring the boundaries of mobile development. We really feel that we want to be part of that community.
Source: Stockholm´s digital infrastructure.pdf (march 2009)
Martin Hatas, Boardmember FTTH Council:
Sweden was one of the pioneer countries regarding fiber to the home. Swedish utility companies very early understood that beside water, power and gas supplies, broadband is an infrastructure that needs to be provided. Many people around the world are actually very envious about of the situation in Stockholm, and Stockholm is mentioned as a broadband paradise.
Source: Stockholm´s digital infrastructure.pdf (march 2009)
Tim Walker, journalist at The Independent:
Stockholm has emerged as the epicentre of an online revolution, giving us all we want…
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk (march 2009)
Per Ek, Sales Manager at Popcatcher:
Stockholm has a very good network of innovators and entrepreneurs and there is lots of commercial and technical support available for those who need it. In the beginning of 2000, Stockholm was on Newsweeks frontage as the leading IT innovation region. It feels like we’re heading towards that frontpage once again.
Source: http://www.mobilestockholm.blogspot.com/ (Feb 2009)
Farley Duvall, CEO EMEA at Red Herring:
For the first time ever, we plan to hold the ETRE (European Technology Round Table Exhibition) in Scandinavia since we know there are so many interesting growth companies based here. We received strong support from the City of Stockholm from the very beginning. For us, Stockholm was the obvious choice for ETRE.
Source: Stockholm Business Region, March 2008
Jeff Pulver, VoIP guru and founder of pulver.com:
Prior to last year’s VON Europe Spring I was contacted by several other European cities asking us to move the conference from Stockholm. But there is absolutely no reason to leave Stockholm. Quite the opposite – Stockholm is the most innovative and exciting region in Europe. There are not many places that can match the developments taking place within Kista Science City. Stockholm is open-minded when it comes to innovation and has a positive and supportive attitude towards entrepreneurship. The city with the most open and stimulating environment for new entrepreneurs will always win hands-down. That’s Stockholm.
Source: Stockholm IT Region’s Newsletter No. 2, 2007
Bas Boorsma, Exec. Dir. of Intl. Network of E-Communities:
“And welcome to the beautiful city of Stockholm, the Internet capital of Europe”
