Innovation Dock is one of the most successful co-working concepts in Stavanger, a city known for its innovation. Located in Stavanger East, a creative and vibrant part of the city, Innovation Dock offers more than just office space to its members. It provides a culture of collaboration, support and learning that helps start-ups grow and thrive. We wanted to find out the secret behind this success, and who better to tell us than Nils-Henrik Stokke, one of the founders of Innovation Dock and a well-known figure in the entrepreneurial circles of Stavanger.
Nils-Henrik is not a native of Stavanger, but he feels like one. “I am actually originally from Hof in Vestfold, and only arrived in Stavanger in 2005 to study business and economics,” he tells Localfolk. “But I feel I have finally been accepted as a native now,” he laughs.
He started his career as a start-up advisor and manager of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the university, but soon realized that he wanted to set up and develop his own companies. He noticed that most co-working concepts in Norway were just real-estate projects and office sharing. “Basically, someone has real estate they need to fill with tenants,” he says.
Nils-Henrik had a different vision for Innovation Dock. He wanted to create a true co-working space, with a culture that would nurture innovation and support start-ups through the entire process. He paid attention to small details, like calling tenants members and offering them various benefits, such as business development training programmes, lunch talks and networking events. Currently, there are more than 70 start-up companies in the Innovation Dock system. “Although we rarely reject any potential members, we are adamant that members must be both willing and actively interested in sharing their experiences and networks with other members when they are here. Sitting in your own office with a closed door, is not the way we do things here,” says Nils-Henrik enthusiastically.
Another key aspect of the Innovation Dock concept is that start-ups are provided with access to investors that not only invests – but perhaps most importantly – access to their network and experience. For many start-ups, this is the area that most often fails, they may have a good business idea but run out of capital before they can develop it and gain market access. “For us, the key is to match the start-up with the right investor, and we need to maintain a neutral position to be able to perform that role adequately,” states Nils-Henrik.
He also credits the location and design of Innovation Dock as factors for its success. “We were lucky to secure spectacular premises along the waterfront, that have become an attraction in itself, and we have continued to develop these to fit with the requests and needs of our members. Modern start-ups expect more than coffee and a water cooler, so our space is well thought out both technically and creatively.”
Innovation Dock now has two central locations in Stavanger East, where new start-ups can develop, grow, and succeed. They are just about to open a third one in nearby Sandnes. “Even when companies have grown to a size where they need to move out from our premises, we see that they almost always end up in the close neighbourhood, and we remain in close contact with most of them,” tells Nils-Henrik.
Nils-Henrik knows from personal experience how hard it is to start a business. He stresses the importance of having the full support of your family and social network. “Your key support team are the ones at home. They are the ones that will keep your physical and mental health balanced during the start-up period,” he says.
He also learned from his failures, such as Mathallen in Stavanger, an innovative concept that he started at the same time as Innovation Dock, but had to close down due to the financial crisis. “Having worked 90-hour weeks for a year to make it work, began to express both physically and mentally” he says, underlining that he learnt a lot from that experience. “Like most of my projects, it really just kind of snowballed from an initial hobby/idea and grew too fast.” Suddenly he felt stuck by obligations towards employees, customers, and even Stavanger as a city. “We really should have ended it before. The irony is that we had actually turned things around when I took the hit,” says Nils-Henrik thoughtfully.
Besides work and family life, Nils-Henrik also finds time to contribute to a charitable project he initiated in Tanzania. In memory of a friend who died on the operating table in Tanzania a few years back, Nils-Henrik has led the process to build a day care centre for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “Unfortunately, these children have not always been accepted in Tanzania,” he says, “so someone had to do something to help them obtain a dignified life.” Partnering with an organisation called MOSAIC, he has since also built a farm in connection with the day centre, which now provides work training for young adults. “Instead of being embarrassed and ostracised, parents are now proud of their children – as any parent should be,” says Nils-Henrik.
Last year he raised money for building a second centre, but due to Covid-19 the build is postponed until 2021. And as many other projects he has been involved with, which have snowballed into something bigger, he took on the Mongol Rally last year in order to raise the money through sponsors. Driving a stunning 25.000km from Norway to Mongolia in a small Opel Agila with two of his friends, through 25 countries including Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, to mention some, was quite an adventure.
Nils-Henrik says that he has incorporated the lessons learned into the start-up concept of Innovation Dock, and that sustainable business development is key to the message they convey to start-ups. “We see ourselves as an eco-system for start-ups,” he says, “and that means we have to continuously evolve to stay relevant.”
