Oil and Gas Pose Challenge to Norway’s Tech Startups

The law of jante is slightly esoteric and so everyone feels the need to bring it up when the Scandinavian tech scene is discussed, just to show they are in the know. Nobody in a position to do a startup gives a shit about the law of jante. Neither is an investor going to turn away from a pile of money while muttering under his breath 'who does he think he is?'<p>Of all the people I know that could have done a startup, the main reason they did not is because the alternative is so good. Everyone in my class (5 years of computer engineering) who bothered with early interviews, had a job lined up 9 months prior to graduation. Even my mediocre classmates were being courted by multiple companies. Starting salary in Oslo is $80k, about 60k more than what a typical student lives off in Norway.

Norway have plenty of tech startups. It is just that most of them are in the oil technology and oil services, and very few are in the IT business. In fact, the oil technology business is the second largest industry in Norway after oil production itself, and I think that is the case even when only the part that is exported is counted. Besides that, Norway only import about 15% of the equipment needed for oil production and exploration, while many other oil producing Nations import most equipment.<p>The problem for Norwegian startup founders is that they have to compete with the oil industry as well as said oil service industry for the best people. Since both of these are insanely lucrative, it is hard for web and other IT-related startup to afford the salaries the oil related companies can pay. In Oslo you have less of that kind of industry, but on the other hand, bloated administrations of the government and said oil companies that makes it similary lucrative to get into IT consulting rather than doing startups.<p>The result is that there is little incentive for an engineer to start a web and other IT-related startups in Norway.

I would love to see more startups from Norway - unfortunately a lot of Norwegians don't seem to have an entrepreneurial mindset, so in reality there's only a tiny minority of youth that grows up wanting to start their own business.

Oil and Gas is a vastly more important portion of the economy than social media. The startups mentioned in other countries are essentially irrelevant.<p>I've read so many articles about startups solving non-problems. The oil and gas sector has some very real problems that need solving, good on Norway for putting solid money behind solid businesses rather than chase the latest social media fad.

In economics this is known as the "Dutch Disease". Surprised it wasn't called by that name in the WSJ. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease</a>

But oil and gas will run out eventually. Norway should be planning/investing for the transition now - Not waste the oil revenues like the UK did

People go to where the money is, doh. If oil and gas doubles my salary, I'll gladly switch professions.