Soundcloud, Berlin and business angels for a startup eco-system

Last week I was invited to join a small group from the City of Helsingborg that explored inspiration for a new creative meeting spot in the city. The group made a trip to Berlin. As Joakim Jardenberg was a part of that group, a lunch was arranged with Eric Wahlfors from Soundcloud.

Together with Emma and Dimitrij we talked with Eric for an hour about Berlin as a startup city (even thou it probably was a question he had answered too many times already) as well as co-working, entrepreneurship and startup community.

One of the takeaways was the opinion that Rocket Internets and Zalandos IPOs had an unnecessary flaw – that the IPO only made the investors and the three owners rich. If instead key employees, or maybe even all employees, had owned shares, then Berlin would now have 100 or even 1000s of new business angels. Something that would have propelled the citys startup environment in unprecedented ways. A very interesting insight, that I think is important when reflecting about building good communities for startups.

It was also very inspiring to hear Erics opinion that he will make sure Soundcloud does not make a similar ‘mistake’. Great business angels, but even better, great entrepreneurs, are really what builds a community at it’s core.

And really nice for Eric to take the time, from his no doubt extremely busy schedule.

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