Northstack Editorial

Northstack Editorial

How to get the most out of Startup Iceland

On May 30th, the fifth annual Startup Iceland conference takes place in Harpa. This year’s roster of speakers includes entrepreneur and investor Ingrid Vanderveldt; Mark Solon and Jenny Fielding, both managing partners at TechStars; and Arvind Gupta, Investment Partner at SOS Ventures. There are many conferences in the startup

The Memo: The Airbnb bill – Good or Bad?

Another week, another Memo. Yesterday, Iceland’s former Prime Minister, Davíð Oddsson, announced his candidacy for the presidency. He was also the Mayor of Reykjavik and Chair of the Central Bank. Nothing much to add, except my favorite pundit theory. The theory says that Davíð is running for president to

Industrial equipment maker DTE raises $1.1 from Brunnur

Industrial process and quality control equipment maker Dynamic Technology Equipment has raised ~$1.1 million (135m ISK) from venture capital fund Brunnur. This is announced on the website of Einar Gunnar Guðmundsson, who is Chairman of the Board at SER Holding, the Startup Energy Reykjavik investment company. The company develops

Sling’s First Year in America: Lessons From an Icelandic Startup

Through the years, companies — not only tech startups — have grossly underestimated the cost of selling and developing businesses outside of their home market. So a year ago, when a small Icelandic tech company, Gangverk, decided to start investing in sales and business development by opening an office in New York

The Memo: Black Friday & last week's earnings season

Last week was an interesting roller coaster of tech news. Tech earnings calls dominated the news cycle. Most of the big companies underperformed, while Facebook hit a home run. Iceland also had several earnings calls. Norðurskautið uncovered that Nýherji’s CEO Finnur Oddsson used the opportunity to take a jab

Nýherji CEO takes a jab at Icelandic policies regarding R&D investment

In today’s Q1 earnings call for Nýherji, CEO Finnur Oddsson, took a jab at Icelandic policies regarding tax refunds based on investment in research and development. Finnur discussed the growth of Tempo, and why management decided to focus their growth in Montreal. “The reason is very practical: developing technology

The Memo: CCP's giant bet

Last week we covered Hilmar Veigar’s (CEO of CCP) keynote at the annual Eve Fanfest. As expected, a big part of it focused on the company’s VR efforts. Also, Dust 514, CCP’s PlayStation exclusive shooter, will be sunset later this year. Developing the VR in Iceland Although