Well-known Swedish Startup Founders create Swedish Startup Manifesto

A total of 13 founders of fast-growing companies, such as iZettle Truecaller, Tictail and Fyndiq, have created a Swedish Startup Manifesto. The aim is to raise awareness of - and create an understanding of - what the Swedish government needs to change in order for Swedish startups to be able to grow, thrive and choose to stay in Sweden. The manifesto outlines the key issues and most prominent obstacles from a startups perspective, in a concrete way, together with suggestions of how they could be changed.

A staggering 99pc of all Swedish companies fall into the category Small Businesses and four out of five jobs are currently created in these. This is not reflected in Sweden’s financial politics where the focus lies on big corporations, and where the biggest slice of state funds are allocated to mature companies and regional policy regulations, with a very slim investment in, and understanding of, new and growing businesses. If Sweden should continue to be a high-tech, innovative country where almost half of its GDP come from exports, where there are plenty of jobs and a great welfare, the authors mean that several things need to change.

- We have taken this initiative because we want to improve the conditions for startups in Sweden. We want to intensify the dialogue with the Swedish government regarding the business environment and increase knowledge about startups among politicians in all parties, to create a deeper understanding and thus enable change. Without successful businesses Sweden will not prosper – it is unfortunately as simple as that, says Jessica Stark, CEO and co-founder of SUP46.

Sweden is a good incubator for innovation and has gained a worldwide reputation of being great at startups. Only Silicon Valley has now produced more unicorns, startups valued at more than $1bn, than Stockholm per capita. The current situation however is that we might be losing them, both the current but more importantly potential future unicorns, to countries where they are provided with better conditions.

Five prominent points of the manifesto:

• Enable compensation in the form of stock options. Today, Swedish startups both in early and later stages have a difficulty competing for the best talent, which is needed to become a market leader. Many also want to be able to share a part of the success with their employees if it comes to that. Unclear and inappropriate laws and very high taxes stop this today. Swedish startups therefore need to be able to offer stock options to their staff as per the American way.

• Facilitate fund raising for startups in the early phases. This must be done in several ways, including an increased inflow of capital by taking after UK’s SEIS and EIS schemes, by reducing the entrepreneurial capital that is now passive and instead make sure that it is actively invested in new companies without big taxations, by removing the penalty taxation of foreign investment companies and by redirecting state venture capital, from regional policies and support of mature companies – to seed and startup funding of growth companies.

• Stop the penalty tax. Sweden is the only country in the world that has a penalty tax on entrepreneurs. This is reflected in our overall corporate structure in which 96,4 pc of the companies are one-man or closely held companies that have a huge difficulty growing.

• Simplify skilled immigration. It needs to be easier for Swedish companies to recruit foreign experts. Waiting for months on end, sometimes up to a year, to get a work permit is not justifiable, nor is being forced to hire expensive consultants to receive priority access to the authority. We need flexible solutions, tailored to the business’ needs, to be able to recruit quickly.

• Create a functioning rental market. One of the biggest obstacles when it comes to recruiting key talent is the difficulty in obtaining a rental property. A more flexible and creative way of thinking is needed in order to create a rental market that functions properly.

Authors of the Swedish Startup Manifesto
Alan Mamedi, Truecaller
Jacob De Geer, iZettle
Jessica Stark, SUP46
Carl Waldekranz, Tictail
Annika Lidne, Dramatify
Nils-Erik Jansson, Jansson & Norin
Alexandra Bylund, Newshubby
Dinesh Nayar, Fyndiq
Andreas Ehn, Approach
Nami Zarringhalam, Truecaller
Adiba Barney, SVForum
Martin Källström, Narrative
Sofia Franzén, Owegoo
Douglas Roos, Nyheter24-Gruppen

More information
The Swedish Startup Manifesto can be found here: http://startupmanifesto.se/. This site also provides more information and a chance to support the manifesto.