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Inside Norway’s Startup Boom: Insights from Skyfall Ventures at Oslo Innovation Week

The Evolving Norwegian Startup Ecosystem

The Norwegian startup ecosystem has experienced rapid growth in recent years, especially in early-stage investments. Cecilie Skjong, an investment manager at Skyfall Ventures, shared her journey in the Nordic tech scene, highlighting how Norway’s market has become a magnet for both local and international investors. “Over the past decade, there’s been a real boom in early-stage investments here in Norway,” she noted, pointing to an increase in funding and support structures for tech startups.

Investing in Teams Over Products

At Skyfall Ventures, the investment focus centers on founders and their teams more than anything else. Cecilie emphasized, “When you’re investing at the pre-seed or seed stage, it’s almost all about the team and their vision.” Early-stage investments come with many unknowns, and for Skyfall Ventures, the founders’ commitment and passion are paramount. This focus on team dynamics reflects Norway’s unique, people-first investment culture.

Norway’s Generalist Approach to Investment

Skyfall Ventures embraces a generalist investment strategy, supporting companies across various sectors, from e-commerce to climate tech. “Our common denominator is software or software-enabled hardware,” Cecilie explained. This approach allows them to back a diverse range of startups, fueling innovation across different fields within the Norwegian startup ecosystem. By not limiting themselves to one niche, they provide crucial support to companies that might otherwise struggle to gain traction.

Building Global from Day One

Norway’s small population size encourages startups to think internationally from the start. Cecilie highlighted that Skyfall encourages founders to scale globally early on, given the limited local market. “Companies that embrace a global mindset early are seeing the most success,” she shared, underscoring Norway’s competitive advantage. By targeting international markets, Norwegian startups can accelerate growth, making the region a global leader in tech innovation.

The Future of Female Entrepreneurship in Norway

Despite Norway’s reputation as a progressive country, female-led startups still receive less funding than their male counterparts. Cecilie discussed how Skyfall is committed to supporting female founders, noting recent investments in companies led by talented female CEOs and engineers. “We’re not investing in them because they’re female founders, but because they’re exceptional,” she emphasized. Skyfall’s commitment to diversity and inclusivity is a vital part of its mission to create a more balanced Norwegian startup ecosystem.

Find Cecilie on:

LinkedIn: Cecilie Skjong

Skyfall Ventures website: skyfall.vc

Find Ben on:

LinkedIn: Ben Costantini

Twitter/X: @bencostantini

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Last week, I spent three days at Bits and Pretzels in Munich — a startup-focused event with a distinctly Bavarian flavor. Think Oktoberfest meets startup conference, complete with dirndls, lederhosen, and more beer than you might expect. As someone building an AI-powered event platform, I went in with a specific mission: Observe how startups actually market themselves at events. Here’s what I discovered: GoodBytz: The power of good demos What they did: Robotics startup GoodBytz set up a booth where its robots prepared kaiserschmarrn (a traditional German dessert) all day long. Why it worked: Nothing beats seeing a product in action. While other booths had brochures and demos, GoodBytz’s robots were actually cooking. The smell, the movement and the end result stirred together an experience that people will remember and talk about. The lesson: If you have a physical product, show it in action. The old writing adage generalizes well: Show, don’t tell.  Let people see, hear and touch the product. WeRoad: The bathroom hack What they did: Posted “Missing Investor” flyers in bathroom stalls with QR codes pointing to their website. Why it worked: Pure genius. Every startup at the event was looking for investors, but the “Missing Investor” headline, while a bit on the nose, proved irresistible. Plus, bathroom stalls are one of the few places where people have 30 seconds to actually read something. The lesson: Think about where your target audience’s attention will remain undivided. Sometimes, the most effective marketing leverages the most unexpected places. Emqopter: Visual impact matters What they did: Designed a bright orange booth that displayed their drone prominently. Why it worked: In a sea of grey, white, beige and brown, Emqopter’s bright orange booth was impossible to overlook. The drone was real, too, and proved a real conversation starter. The lesson: Your booth is competing with hundreds of others. Make it visually distinctive and ensure your product is the hero. Quests: Community building using the product What they did: Created a busy, branded booth with accessories (toy car, traffic cones, a bulletin board) and used their anti-loneliness app to build communities among founders at the event. Why it worked: Quests used their product to solve a real problem right at the event, and the busy booth design generated energy and curiosity. The lesson: Use your product to solve a problem at the event — if it’s possible, of course. Demonstrate your value in real time. Dyno: Event-themed marketing What they did: Distributed branded electrolyte packs with the tagline “Your hangover ends. Your pension lasts – with Dyno.” Why it worked: Dyno aligned its messaging perfectly with the Oktoberfest theme. Every attendee was thinking about beer and hangovers, so Dyno’s goodies were quite relevant. The tagline was clever, memorable, and directly addressed a pain point most people at the event might have to deal with later. The lesson: Tailor your marketing to the event’s theme and culture. The more you tie your messaging and product to the context, the more memorable you become. So, what did I learn? Event marketing is about more than just showing up and setting up a booth; you have to understand your audience and create experiences that people will remember. Here’s what really struck me: most startups and even big companies don’t know how to leverage events properly. They book the booth, show up and hope for the best; maybe they bring some branded pens and a pop-up banner. Then they’ll go back home and wonder why they spent €5,000 in exchange for 50 business cards that never convert. The startups that stood out at Bits and Pretzels understand something fundamental: event ROI isn’t about booth size or location; it’s about strategy, creativity and planning. None of the startups above improvised on-site, or planned something the night before the event in their hotel rooms. They laid everything out 4-6 weeks before the event. A solid pre-event strategy is what separates successful event marketing from expensive booth rental.  But what matters most for early-stage startups is that you don’t need a massive budget to stand out. WeRoad’s bathroom stall hack probably cost €50 to print the flyers. A standard booth package at Bits and Pretzels would go for €3,000 to €5,500. The ROI difference is staggering when you compare the cost per meaningful conversation. That’s the difference between simply spending money and investing smartly. Building Sesamers has taught me that helping startups find the right events is only half the equation. The other half is helping them understand how to maximize ROI once they’re there. Good props aren’t a marketing expense; they’re opportunities to meet customers, investors and partners, and strike up engaging conversations.

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