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Personally, I am bit sad that nothing stays in Finland. Too many promising companies have been sold into foreign countries recently. Just because founders look

by nicce 2y ago

Personally, I am bit sad that nothing stays in Finland. Too many promising companies have been sold into foreign countries recently. Just because founders look for exit strategy (not claiming that it is the case here). Not good for Finland in general.

baobabKoodaa 2y ago
Well, in this case the purchase price appears grossly overpriced. So even though Finland lost an AI startup, it gained money that is worth more than the startup. That money will to a large extent flow back into the Finnish economy in the form of taxes, investment in new startups, etc.
- nicce 2y ago
  > That money will to a large extent flow back into the Finnish economy in the form of taxes, investment in new startups, etc. Short term gains, in terms of taxes. Otherwise, there are no guarantees for that. Shareholders might just make some castle. Who knows. Or move away to different country.
  - thenaturalist 2y ago
    > Shareholders might just make some castle. And then be left with nothing? Look at Silo's About page. The people who started this are not slackers or already had so much money before that they could have bought a 3rd Porsche. Do you think these people will pull back and do nothing as their ability to benefit from and shape the technological advances happening just increases with this exit? I highly doubt that. > Or move away to different country. And then? Capital is global. And as per these [0] statistics, Finland is ranked 4th for per capita VC money invested in 2018, far ahead of France and Germany. As per this [1] article from May, Finland received the most private equity and VC investment adjusted for GDP in all of Europe in 2023. Finland is an attractive country to invest in, and I highly doubt native speakers with an excellent local network - i.e. much more expertise than the average non-Finnish speaking invesotor - will not be aware of that and capitalize on it. [0]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/879124/venture-capital-as-share-of-gdp/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/879124/venture-capital-a... [1]: https://www.goodnewsfinland.com/en/articles/breaking-news/2024/private-equity-2023/ https://www.goodnewsfinland.com/en/articles/breaking-news/20...
bjornsing 2y ago
But hats off to Finland for producing these companies. Here in Sweden there’s pretty much nothing in cloud computing or AI, AFAIK.
- kakoni 2y ago
  Well in Finland we seem to produce promising "early-stage" companies which are then eagerly sold to bigger players. Vs in Sweden there is will (and capital) to keep growing these.
Ekaros 2y ago
I'm more so for taking money off the table when possible. Future returns are future returns, they can materialize, but might not.
- nicce 2y ago
  But if that happens (almost) every time for a potential company, then you will never likely have successful company in Finland, where the decision making also stays in Finland, and the money benefits the country in larger scale. There is this saying that "don't sell the cow when you can sell the milk" - maybe there is still some wisdom... but Finland keeps selling the cow and buying the milk back over and over again. And then they wonder why the state of the economy is so sad and they never see "new Nokia".

by nicce 2y ago

baobabKoodaa 2y ago

Well, in this case the purchase price appears grossly overpriced. So even though Finland lost an AI startup, it gained money that is worth more than the startup. That money will to a large extent flow back into the Finnish economy in the form of taxes, investment in new startups, etc.

nicce 2y ago
> That money will to a large extent flow back into the Finnish economy in the form of taxes, investment in new startups, etc. Short term gains, in terms of taxes. Otherwise, there are no guarantees for that. Shareholders might just make some castle. Who knows. Or move away to different country.
- thenaturalist 2y ago
  > Shareholders might just make some castle. And then be left with nothing? Look at Silo's About page. The people who started this are not slackers or already had so much money before that they could have bought a 3rd Porsche. Do you think these people will pull back and do nothing as their ability to benefit from and shape the technological advances happening just increases with this exit? I highly doubt that. > Or move away to different country. And then? Capital is global. And as per these [0] statistics, Finland is ranked 4th for per capita VC money invested in 2018, far ahead of France and Germany. As per this [1] article from May, Finland received the most private equity and VC investment adjusted for GDP in all of Europe in 2023. Finland is an attractive country to invest in, and I highly doubt native speakers with an excellent local network - i.e. much more expertise than the average non-Finnish speaking invesotor - will not be aware of that and capitalize on it. [0]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/879124/venture-capital-as-share-of-gdp/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/879124/venture-capital-a... [1]: https://www.goodnewsfinland.com/en/articles/breaking-news/2024/private-equity-2023/ https://www.goodnewsfinland.com/en/articles/breaking-news/20...

bjornsing 2y ago

But hats off to Finland for producing these companies. Here in Sweden there’s pretty much nothing in cloud computing or AI, AFAIK.

kakoni 2y ago
Well in Finland we seem to produce promising "early-stage" companies which are then eagerly sold to bigger players. Vs in Sweden there is will (and capital) to keep growing these.

Ekaros 2y ago

I'm more so for taking money off the table when possible. Future returns are future returns, they can materialize, but might not.

nicce 2y ago
But if that happens (almost) every time for a potential company, then you will never likely have successful company in Finland, where the decision making also stays in Finland, and the money benefits the country in larger scale. There is this saying that "don't sell the cow when you can sell the milk" - maybe there is still some wisdom... but Finland keeps selling the cow and buying the milk back over and over again. And then they wonder why the state of the economy is so sad and they never see "new Nokia".