There are many shapes and colors in start-up environments like ours. Incubators, commercial gardens, accelerators, etc. They have many common features, but perhaps differ marginally in target groups. You have municipal, regional and national measures and it can, even for an experienced player, sometimes be a bit messy and unclear all together. What's more, it is the case that many of the roughest start-ups you hear about have never even visited such an environment. So what exactly are we going to do with them all?

Startups are volatile and get their opportunities sporadically. It may be accidental, but it may also be that they get their opportunities during pandemics or other circumstances that mean that the established players do not have the same dynamism or ability to reorganize or pivot, as it is popularly called. Here start-up companies can appear, turn around and deliver their services and products. Sometimes they hit, and sometimes they don't. But regardless of whether they have their window of opportunity, they can trust that environments like Kobben are there. We are present and contribute regardless of the above circumstances. And here lies part of the strength of our environment. We have funding that is partially predictable and, as a result of its public origin, is fairly independent of business cycles and unpredictable external influences. This means that entrepreneurs and young companies have a network and a supporter who has the stamina to lift them forward even when things are going badly.

If we envisioned a model where environments like ours were only financed by private income from established industry and the sale of services to start-up companies, the environment would not have the same muscle mass in good times as in bad. We would forge on red-hot iron in good times, but couldn't offer much more than a lukewarm fire and warm thoughts when the going was bad. We would extract large innovation gains for society when things went well, and not as much when things went badly. We believe that our function must be just as strong, if not stronger, when we are tired. We believe that environments like ours should help promote new solutions and technologies when we need it most. Our strength is our persistence even when the rest of the markets slow down. Because that's when we need innovative power the most.