As the world is increasingly digitally connected there are more and more tools that entrepreneurs can use to turn their ideas and dreams into a viable business. Expanding internationally is still difficult, but it has become a necessity for successful ventures to grow. It seems that geography is no longer a limiting factor in starting a business, but legal and cultural boundaries remain. The face of entrepreneurship is changing rapidly and cities can turn this into a big opportunity by teaming up to increase economic benefits. The Transatlantic Entrepreneur Partnership is one model to facilitate cooperation between the global cities like Berlin and New York City in the area of tech, media, and entrepreneurship.
Why NYC and Berlin?
New York City and Berlin are both hubs of digital technology; each has been working to foster a startup culture and has city initiatives to encourage entrepreneurs to pursue their ventures within the city. New York City has its “Silicon Alley” which is steadily growing and, according to some projections, will eventually reach the same scale as Silicon Valley in California. At the same time, Berlin is hailed as the creative center of Germany, and even Europe; this hip city is home to a growing number of startups and incubator programs aimed at fostering new business ideas. Both cities have different strengths which can work symbiotically. Berlin’s comparatively low cost of living and access to Central Eastern Europe’s markets and talents, when combined with New York City’s large consumer market and access to capital can come together to create the perfect partnership.
Why a Partnership?
In today’s fast-paced world a startup can go from having millions of dollars in capital, to crashing and disappearing in the matter of a few months, so it is important that cities provide the support that startups need to be successful in the long term. International expansion is a must for many companies – especially European companies – that wish to remain globally competitive, and cooperation between New York City and Berlin can provide certain startups with the international support that is so crucial.
A partnership presents some challenges, but according to a New York International-supported study the many opportunities outweigh the challenges by far. Both Berlin and New York City have advantages and certain things that they are “doing right” – if we can learn from one-another’s mistakes and triumphs it will benefit both and enable a faster trajectory into the future of entrepreneurship. City incentives for startups, fostering a creative talent pool, transparency in the digital ecosystem, systematic network building, serial entrepreneurship – these are all areas in which the cities can learn from each other. It is less about financial incentives, but rather supporting the crucial business setup in the first months.Berlin startups, particularly, are often globally minded from the beginning. Once successful in Berlin, the next step is often to look toward expansion in the US – and what better place than New York City?NYC worked very hard to become a welcoming place for international startups, and it makes sense to continue to foster this welcoming atmosphere: “The next big thing” can be a city that is open for international businesses – not only facilitating access to investors for money and the American consumer for scale, but also teaching entrepreneurs how to fail fast and how to fail cheap.
Facilitating a Partnership
The main challenges and opportunities for improvement in facilitating a partnership are the issues of fast business set up, immigration and of enabling political decision-makers to come up with smart policies for entrepreneurs. City politics can have a huge effect on how easy or hard it is for international startups to establish themselves and grow. Both cities struggle with federal regulations that do not support the particular needs of digital ventures. This year’s TEP conference will see Berlin’s senator for economic development, and the president of the NYC Economic Development Corporation come together to address this topic.