Entrepreneurial enquiry – Daniil Kirikov

Luxembourg’s immunity to the far right may be more precarious than I thought.

In September, the UK’s most prominent far right figure, Tommy Robinson, mobilised more than 100,000 people for a “Unite the Kingdom” march. Elon Musk warned by video link that “violence is coming” in front of a crowd of Union Flag and St George cross waving supporters.

A display of nationalism that I previously did not imagine would happen in my home country.
 
But in my new home of Luxembourg, the approach to foreigners is thankfully very different.

I interviewed Daniil Kirikov for this week’s episode of Office Hours. Born in Russia, he came to Luxembourg with an entrepreneurial mindset and established the 3F Venture Studio that includes my personal favourite Easybiz. He is not well known, but a living demonstration of how a liberal approach to immigration is a huge advantage for our economy.
 
Not everyone comes as far away as Russia. André Reitenbach, originally from Germany, chose Luxembourg as the base for Gcore. Every time you watch a video on tiktok, Gcore’s technology is used and a contribution is made to the economy of Luxembourg.

© RTL

Luxembourg isn’t perfect, Easybiz wouldn’t have a viable business if the bureaucracy of creating a company was straight forward and simple. But with its openness creating a welcoming home for tech entrepreneurs and radio hosts alike, I can’t imagine there being a march on Avenue de la Liberté culminating in a large screen Zoom call with Elon Musk.
 
In Luxembourg we have a critical mass of foreign-born residents and citizens. My initial thought is that this population mix provide immunity against the rise of the far right.

But then again, isn’t the population of the USA dominated by people who only need to go a couple of generations to tie themselves to foreign-born ancestors?
 
And that chap Musk, where was he born again?