ThirdFrameStudios

Silicon Valley in Slovenia?

Tomaž, owner of a funky karaoke blog, wrote a few lines about Slovenia as a Silicon Valley. Indeed, lately, we have all been moving ahead with a speed thats not exactly usual in the general industry as such. As Tomaž is saying, there is a bunch of companies in Slovenia that are worldwide competitive and it seems web IT euphoria drives the Slovenians as much as it drives the Silicon Valley guys. Perhaps even more, given the fact that overall gap still largely exists, most predominately in the finance area. Technology is here, people are here (or can be found expanding the net regionally) and energy is here. So, can we mention Slovenia and Silicon Valley in the same sentence?

Companies like Marand, Domenca, ThirdFrameStudios and heaps others prove that we can be easily compared to what Silicon Valley offers in technological and creative domains. And, given the human investment into these and similar companies, products and services are top notch and lately, everything else is following too. Zemanta, another fast moving IT company in Slovenia, broke the barrier with first noticeable VC investment in Slovenia for the web IT product. And others are taking similar steps, either with internal financing or full on large VC. So things are moving forward towards a the greater goal. For everyone, not just individuals.

Slovenia, such a miniature country, cannot compete with Silicon Valley on all scales, but with the scale ratio in mind, we believe we are (or will be very soon) pretty much on pair. Slovenia is a regional leader with fantastic connections in the Balkans, a Slavic connection to the majority of Eastern Europe and a foot in the door position by being so tightly integrated in EU and western neighbors. 2 million population is just inside of our borders. The whole region has a significant pool of potential clients end employee. And as many people have said, borders exists in heads. With EU, thats more and more of a reality.

So, what needs to be improved overall? Financing for sure. Slovenian VC capitalist are lagging behind foreign investors, so the cream will be taken by, most probably, Austrian, UK, American, Swedish VC funds. And this will not change for some time due to various reasons. Hands on education is also a problem that needs to be solved ASAP. Universities are notoriously great when it comes to classical education, but our industry needs hands on experience with a grain of classical eastern european education. Established universities are not moving in the right direction at the moment, but luckily, private sector is responding to the needs. We personally believe that a joint venture educational program will be build in Slovenia, that will be strictly IT oriented. And that program should and will be the trend setter regionally with top companies tightly involved and its people fantastically educated. Its already happening.

And we love to be a part of the most influential and fast moving companies in Slovenia.

Comments (5)

1.
author: andraz
Definitely things are moving fast, what I think is missing is cooperation between research and business, and researchers creating companies. There are projects in some research institutions that fail to have any meaningful commercial implications albeit possibility is there. Most of the time commercial entities join EU funded research projects to get some money out, but not really create a new marketable product out of it.

About universities, the largest problem I see is the length of the undergrad studies. 7 years avg. is way too high. While cozy, this does not provide incentive for people trying out new daunting things early in their life.

I heard something about game development undergrad course. Anything new on that one?

2.
author: Andraz Logar
Not sure about game development course, but I know Zoofly and SAE guys have been talking about this for quite some time. Perhaps its going to happen. Well, it should, to be totaly honest.

Connection between unis and real life companies has always been a struggle. And it will become better, but in the meantime, industry will be forced to create something in their domain. At least that's our prediction.

3.
author: TS
Just one clarification... You are not popular because of the T-Shirts, but because you are doing some great work with a team of great people. So keep it up ;)

4.
author: IT
"Companies like Marand, Domenca, ThirdFrameStudios and heaps others prove that we can be easily compared to what Silicon Valley offers in technological and creative domains."

Sorry, but where have you been for the last 15 years ? Definitely not in Slovenia :)

5.
author: Andraz Logar
exploring. And evolving into todays form. Not only in Slovenia :)

Post your comment