Súsanna Laursen is one of the driving forces behind the Faroe Islands' emerging innovation ecosystem. Based in Tórshavn, she works at Hugskotið — the Islands' startup incubator, founded in 2014 by the municipality of Tórshavn — where she supports early-stage founders and helps shape an environment where bold ideas can take root in one of the world's most remote and distinctive places. In eight years working in the ecosystem, she has seen Hugskotið support over 200 companies, the launch of Far...

Total Innovation Podcast

The Infinite Loop

40. Susanna Laurson: The Edge Advantage: Building Innovation from the Faroe Islands

MAR 12, 202633 MIN
Total Innovation Podcast

40. Susanna Laurson: The Edge Advantage: Building Innovation from the Faroe Islands

MAR 12, 202633 MIN

Description

Súsanna Laursen is one of the driving forces behind the Faroe Islands' emerging innovation ecosystem. Based in Tórshavn, she works at Hugskotið — the Islands' startup incubator, founded in 2014 by the municipality of Tórshavn — where she supports early-stage founders and helps shape an environment where bold ideas can take root in one of the world's most remote and distinctive places. In eight years working in the ecosystem, she has seen Hugskotið support over 200 companies, the launch of FarBAN (the Faroe Business Angels Network), and growing interest from international investors who are increasingly paying attention to what's being built here.Súsanna is also co-founder of TONIK itself — the event you're at right now. TONIK was born out of a conviction that a small island nation doesn't have to think small. By blending technology, art, and meaningful human connection against the backdrop of the Faroese landscape, TONIK has become a gathering that draws founders, investors, and creative thinkers from across the Nordics and beyond — and sends them home with new collaborations, new friendships, and a new understanding of what's possible at the edge of the world.Her work is rooted in a simple but powerful idea: that the same qualities that make the Faroe Islands distinctive — resourcefulness, creativity, the habit of wearing many hats, and the necessity of solving your own problems — are precisely the qualities that make great innovators.