July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Information may want to be free, but the organization behind Wikipedia wants knowledge to be free, too. So Wikimedia has formed a partnership with the world’s sixth-largest telecom, VimpelCom, to deliver Wikipedia mobile sites for free to developing countries.

It’s part of the Wikipedia Zero program, which is the project to deliver Wikipedia “free of data charges” on mobile devices in developing countries.

“The world’s sixth-largest telecommunications company and fifth-largest website globally are coming together to offer our customers a better mobile experience and greater access to free knowledge, particularly in emerging markets,” Mikhail Gerchuk, VimpelCom’s chief strategy officer, said in a statement.

You’ve probably never heard of VimpelCom — the organization typically does business under other brands, such as Wind and Mobilink — but the telecom has a strong presence in Russia, former Eastern bloc countries, parts of south-east Asia, and Africa, with 212 million subscribers in a service area with 780 million people.

With this partnership, Wikipedia Zero now will be providing free access to 330 million mobile users around the world, Wikimedia’s Kul Takanao Wadhwa said, adding that it was an important step towards the organizations’ ultimate goal: “free knowledge to everyone on the planet.”

The 18 countries that VimpelCom is bringing onboard include Russia, Italy, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia, Laos, Algeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Burundi, Zimbabwe, and the Central African Republic.

The roll out will start this year, Wikimedia said, with a focus on Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa.

photo credit: Absolute Chaos via photopin cc

Many German digital and media companies, corporations, and startups alike, see our eastern neighbors more as a source for employees (“they have so much technical talent!”) than as hotbeds of innovation in their own right.

So I was intrigued when the training program I founded, Berlin Startup Academy, was invited to speak at the Bitspiration conference in Cracow, Poland, in June, and mentor at StartupYard in Prague in July.

Seed money? Prague’s got it – what it needs are the big guys

At and around both events, we had time to talk to local tech innovators about where they saw the Polish and Czech startup scene going. Nearly all of them were positive about what was currently happening in their countries in terms of support for digital entrepreneurs.

In Prague, besides being hosted by StartupYard’s impressive facilitators Lenka Kucerova (left) and Nikola Rafaj, we visited a very Berlin-style co-working space/accelerator named Node 5, which immediately agreed to host visitors from Berlin for free and in return asked us to get investors from Berlin involved in a Skype “investor speed dating” with Czech startups they were hosting a few days later.

Somewhat to my surprise, Lenka and other Czech founders told us there was actually enough seed money available locally; quite a few wealthy individuals were pouring cash into the market, sponsoring activities like StartupYard and Node 5.

But all was not golden. Many Polish and Czech founders pointed out that it was hard to find bigger companies to work and go next steps with as distribution channels, M&A or exit opportunities, or other kinds of partnerships.

As we walked through Prague, our local startup guides told us to “just look around! The banks are all Austrian- or German-owned. The press? Subsidiaries of German publishers. The Telcos? Here’s the Vodafone shop, and over there, there’s T-Mobile. Their decisions about partnering and investments are not made here.” And then, there’s the natural size limits of the respective home markets.

Chuck Norris starring in a T-Mobile Czech Republic ad circa 2010

As a result of these limitations, most founders have their eyes trained on the English-speaking market. Even more than that: when asked about where they see the next step of their company-building taking place, the answer is almost universally “Silicon Valley” (featuring the likes of Googleplex, below right).

In this view, they are supported by some observers and mentors of the Central and Eastern European startup scene. As an example, in Cracow, we met HackFwd’s David Bizer, who flatly told us that in terms of startup ecosystem, company building, and accelerator programs, “nobody in Europe is doing it right”.

How fitting, then, that many eastern countries have or are in the process of establishing government-funded accelerator programs in Silicon Valley. In addition, programs like Fadi Bishara’s Blackbox.vc to an extent focus on Central and Eastern European (CEE) startups, so there’s definitely something going on there.

Silicon Valley doesn’t want you – and maybe you don’t want it

However, what many CEE founders don’t seem to acknowledge is that, despite these efforts, Silicon Valley is not exactly waiting for them. (This, by the way, applies to German founders, too). I’ve been to California twice in the past 12 months, talking to locals in the tech startup scene and asking them their opinion about the European startup scene. What emerged was that if there’s an advantage Europe has over the Valley, then it is precisely that it’s NOT the Valley. Meaning:

• No neck-breaking cost of living.
• No outrageous developer salaries.
• No employee loyalty that lasts only until the next big thing comes around the corner.

Unless…

Unless they make a conscious decision to choose Berlin as their base

It appeared counter-intuitive to the Polish and Czech founders we met. If you can’t make it locally, why not address – and work in – the biggest possible market directly, without detours?

But here’s my case. As our Czech friends pointed out, many to most players in established digital-, communications-, and media-related corporations in their home countries are German, Austrian, or (seldomly) UK subsidiaries. Accordingly, a Polish founder may find it easier to strike a deal with Deutsche Telekom in Germany than with their subsidiary in Poland – because that’s where DT decisions are made.

And that’s only the beginning. Berlin has a growing startup ecosystem that is extremely welcoming to foreigners. Conferences, community events, accelerator programs, pitch events – they’re all in English, and they are based on a sufficiently large group of people who bring in relevant experience.

A significant group of foreigners have already set up shop and scored success here, serving as role models for more to follow. The buzz created by our newly-arrived Anglophone tech-blogging friends draws in international media and investors. More and more startup-friendly infrastructure is becoming available.

Stop dreaming about the Valley, focus on what’s close to home

So here’s my message. You, as a founder from Central or Eastern Europe, should take advantage. Misguided media sometimes chastise Germany for leaving other European countries behind in economic drive. But Central and Eastern European founders have every reason and opportunity to turn that into an advantage: Leave the sidelines and profit from this drive instead of lamenting it!

This doesn’t necessarily mean incorporating or relocating your entire team here. It doesn’t even mean wanting to address the German-speaking market; you can still go for your home markets if there’s an opportunity. It only means getting your company going, finding business opportunities, building a network, and acquiring (seed) investors in a place where all this is much likelier to happen and easier to execute than in most CEE countries. And you’ll find a lot of like-minded support, without having to leave all you have light-years behind.

And the Magical Valley? Do visit; do join an accelerator program there, build a network, get inspired, learn about processes. But then come back and build and grow your company in everybody’s favourite German capital. It’s the smart thing to do.

Christoph Raethke is founder of Berlin Startup Academy, a five-month, part-time training program for entrepreneurial personalities.

This article originally appeared on VentureVillage, one of VentureBeat’s syndication partners.