ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with thought leaders from intelligent communities around the world.

Estonia, the little country that packs a punch, is celebrated in tech circles for giving birth to unicorns like Skype, Wise and Bolt (and, more recently, customer experience platform Glia and ID verification company Veriff).

Why are so many successful startups emerging from a small pocket of Europe? And can the unicorn paddock keep growing?

I wrote my last post, “Why Are We Falling Apart?” in response to a heartfelt editorial by David Brooks of The New York Times. Confronting today’s epidemic of inhumane behavior in America – reckless driving, unrest in schools, fights on airliners, hate crimes and murders – he asked, “What the hell is going on?” His plaintive and honest answer was “I don’t know.”

In my post, I explained why I thought we have been falling apart – not just recently but gradually for the past 40 years, and not just in the United States but in fellow industrialized nations around the world.

But understanding reasons is only gets us so far. What matters is what we can do about it.

Earlier this month, the Tallinn Transport Department announced that it has developed a digital model of a new generation that can study and analyze the traffic movements occurring in the city and thus make predictions that would greatly help with traffic management.

The model incorporates continuously updated data for 130 000 road sections and 51 450 nodes in the capital and takes into account the movements of private cars, public transport vehicles, trucks and pedestrians.

“Our police are more trusted in our republic than our president.”

Here’s a “pop” quiz: name the source of that quote.

Hint: It does not come from an authoritarian leader of a country. Nor does it come from the United States in 2021.

It comes from representatives of the world’s most Intelligent Community: Tallinn, Estonia. It is part of a new podcast series that is my attempt to begin to get to the raw, poignant and seemingly intractable issues our communities continue to grapple with in this Era of COVID.

While many of us have been forced to work from home during the past year, few are likely to say they raised tens of millions for their startup from their bedroom, like Estonian entrepreneur Kaarel Kotkas.

Kotkas is founder and CEO of identity verification startup Veriff, which recently announced that it raised €58 million in a new Series B round led by venture capital firms IVP and Accel, on top of the €14 million it raised last year.

"Before the pandemic hit, I was in the UK and US for six months. Now for the past year, I have just been in Estonia and pretty much raised Series B from my bedroom/office in Tallinn," he says.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and the Land Board have unveiled an application that has overlaid three-dimensional building renders over the map of Estonia, allowing people to visualize most buildings in Estonia.

Artu Ellmann, Deputy Director General of the Land Board, said the Geo3D strategic program will be supplemented with further 3D data and additional services. The recently published three-dimensional map is the first of the services.

A city focused on environmental sustainability, one of six Factors in the ICF Method defining success for cities and regions in the 21st Century

(New York, USA and Tallinn, Estonia – April 6, 2021) – When Tallinn, Estonia was named the Intelligent Community of the Year in October 2020 by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), one factor in its selection was a commitment to environmental sustainability. In May of that year, Tallinn had been shortlisted by the European Commission as one of four finalists for the 2022 European Green Capital Award. The city followed up these achievements by launching a new brand as a Green Global City.

While most people think of Silicon Valley as the leading tech hub in the world, Estonia is quickly becoming a top player on the world stage for entrepreneurship and technology. Famed for its innovation, Estonia boasts a vast community of over 1,000 startups – famously dubbed the #EstonianMafia on Twitter – including a varied mix of established names such as Skype, to newer innovators such as unicorns including Pipedrive, Transferwise, and Bolt.

With its disruptive startup ecosystem, progressive government policies, and digital nomad education initiatives, it is fast becoming a more attractive alternative to Silicon Valley’s crowded ecosystem.

In this episode of The Intelligent Community, Lou Zacharilla speaks with Tallinn City Council Chairman Tiit Terik about his reaction to Tallinn being named the 2020 Intelligent Community of the Year.