Yesterday, I went to the Stockholm Tech Meetup with IBM Ventures and Schibsted. The Stockholm Tech meet up is the Europe’s largest event for start ups and it takes place every first Monday of each month. The main guests this Monday were IBM Ventures and Schibsted.

 

IBM Ventures helps start-ups to grow up, to become more visible on the market and to find investors to start their business.

Schibsted is a Norwegian conglomerate in the media domain. For instance, they own 20minutes, Aftenposten or Blocket. They have more than 200 million users in the 5 continents.

First, they spoke about investment in Sweden. Indeed, Sweden continues to increase its share of investment into the Nordic due to multiple hubs maturing and in particular in Stockholm. In 2016, 1,4 billions $ were invested into Stockholm.  They explained that 25% exits of Nordic come from Stockholm. Moreover, acquires of Stockholm tech companies include Facebook, Microsoft or Cisco. Therefore, big companies pay attention to what happen in Stockholm. That’s why, Nordic and in particular Stockholm are strong markets.

Then different interviews of Sweden companies have been done to illustrate the increasing investment in Sweden. The companies interviewed were Swedbank, Dynamo and Drive Now.

Swedbank is a bank which helps lots of start-ups for the financing of their business. They receive 8 applications a day. Moreover, they explained the importance of partnering while they help a start-up. For them, the main goal is to give a better control to start-ups.  They also want to optimize the subscription of start-ups.

Then, Dynamo was interviewed. Dynamo is a company of 50 developers. On the one hand, they are doing consulting, for instance, they helped a company to create a service to reduce waste of production. On the other hand, they work on projects which come from the company. During the interview, they spoke about their method to innovate fastly: the Design Sprint. This method is interesting because it’s better to create a slice of something than spending 5 months on something not viable. To do the Design sprint method you need: a facilitator/ conductor, a recorder/note taker, a product owner and the stakeholders, a white board and supplies, and market and competition research. The method is composed of 5 steps:

• Understand: Elevator Pitch. You have to find the right problem and it has to be clear.
• Diverge: Generate ideas individually or in team. Here the most important rule is “No judging allowed”.
• Converge: here is the judging time to chose the best solution. For that, you can use a vote map.
• Prototype: Make your idea real.
• Test: Test your prototype with potential users from the market target. It’s important to not do this test with just colleagues but with real future customers.  After the test, you have to interview the testers. During the interview, you have to avoid questions of which the answer can start with “it depends”. Moreover you have to avoid using “how often” but you have to ask “when was the last time?” to collect more relevant information.

 

 

Finally, they interviewed Drive Now. A company of car sharing. This company offers an app where you can find their cars available near from you. Then, you can just use the car and let it wherever and whenever you want. You will just pay for the kilometers you have done with the car. It creates flexibility in the car sharing because you don’t need to reach a precise point to let the car. Drive now is present in various cities as London, Bruxelles or Stockholm. They explained that the helps from the cities depends on politics. For example, Stockholm is positively opened for Drive now, however, they not support the company.  Currently in Stockholm, they have 300 cars available with 10% of electric cars. They explained that for the future, they would like to increase the number of electrical cars to become more environmental friendly.

After these interviews, there was a discussion between an investor of IBM Ventures (Christoph Auer Welsbach),  a founder and two investment managers. They explained that banks as Swedbank are really important for innovation because without them we can’t innovate. Moreover, he shows that IBM is interesting because  decreasing the risk is never increasing innovation, that is why IBM’ help is really important for start-ups. Moreover IBM is interesting because find the idea is the easiest part but build a successful company is the hardest part. He also explained that when he has to chose a company to invest, the most relevant thing he wants is a team which think for the future, because the most important thing is to create a long partnership to build something that will last for a long time.

To participate to this event was really interesting because we have learnt a lot of things about investment for start-ups and innovation in general. It was also interesting to heard different actors like investors or entrepreneurs.

 

PS: I went to this event with Marilena so we both wrote about this event, but I did it without reading what she wrote before so I hope both will be interesting for you.

Yesterday I attended the STHLM TECH MEETUP in Hilton Auditorium, Stockholm. The STHLM TECH MEETUP is the Europe’s largest monthly event for start-ups and takes place the first Monday of each month. This time two big guests were centre-stage: IBM Ventures and Schibsted. IBM Venture Capital Group is dedicated to driving IBM’s commitment to innovation in the venture capital community. The Group helps start-ups rise above the rest by increasing their visibility, differentiation and credibility. On the other hand, Schibsted is one of the world’s leading digital media companies with 6,900 employees in 30 different countries including Sweden where this company has partnership with big companies as Blocket. Today, millions of people interact with Schibsted companies every day.

These two companies showed how big companies are investing a lot in start-ups, especially in Stockholm and the Nordics. On details, the business environment of Stockholm is broad and the investment landscape is changing and growing day-by-day. In 2016, for example, the initial investments were about 1.4 billions while the exit investments around 1.75 billions.

The meeting started with interviews to some Swedish companies operating in Stockholm in order to highlight this changing in the Stockholm investment landscape. Mentioned companies were Swedbank, Dynamo and DriveNow.

Swedbank’s operations are aimed to help the people and businesses achieve a solid financial sustainability. This company made lots of different start-ups partnerships to build customer value. They are able to give their customer more control and they try to achieve optimal solutions. This bank is very progressive even more than American banks.

Dynamo is a company focused on mobile since this is what they do best. Their main activities are consulting, creating new own ideas trough a concept studio and acting as a technical co-founder or a development team for start-ups. Indeed, with their code-for-equity program they lower the threshold for great start-ups. The design of Dynamo is based on Design Sprints – a five-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers. Design sprint is used in order not to waste time, as a great ice breaker for new teams and is a good habit and process. Moreover, people after these 5 days are tired but very happy. This process is composed by 5 phases:

• Understand: This phase must be clear and reach common understanding of the working context including the problem, the business, the customer, the value proposition, and how success will be determined
• Diverge: Generate insights and potential solutions to our customer’s problems. It is necessary to make assumptions to create our idea and no judgement is allowed. Individual and time exercise is necessary.
• Converge: in this phase judgement is allowed and we try to find a common solution.
• Prototype: creation of a prototype and is prepared for the test with existing or potential customers.
• Test & Learn: before penetrating the market, testing the product is necessary by making the right questions to the customers.

The last one was DriveNow, car sharing company. DriveNow owns 300 vehicles in Stockholm at the moment and it provides a more flexible way to have access to a car. Their purpose, indeed, is to guarantee flexibility and quick solutions to their customers. Principal competitors are the owners of private cars and their mental perception that stop them from using shared cars since they don’t really own them. The company goal is now to move in the direction of a green and sharing economy.

The central part of the meeting was composed by interviews to Christoph Auer Welsbach, investor of IBM Ventures, one founder and two investment managers. There was a long discussion and Christoph stated how IBM is searching strong start-ups that holds for the next hundreds years and more and more large companies today are seeking cooperation with startups.

In the conclusion, the meeting ended with three pitches of some of the newest Stockholm’s start-ups as Einride and CIRQS.

It was a great to partecipate to this start up event since it helped me to get in contact with the entrepreneurial world. I figured out how in Sweden there is a high quality start-up business full of start-ups with great visions and ideas as well as a deeper and innovative technology environment.

The event: https://www.meetup.com/it-IT/STHLM-Tech-Meetup/events/238554307/

Read more about IBM; IBM Watson new creation: http://www.adweek.com/digital/ibm-watson-created-a-modern-sculpture-inspired-by-the-work-of-one-spains-most-famous-architects/

I attended an entrepreneurship marathon from 24th-26th March with three friends. The event organized by Create Squared and mainly sponsored by Nordea. My team won the second price.

A Swedish guy Alexander Nilehn pitched his idea which develop edible cutleries in Sweden. I believe that this idea is viable and meet the sustainability goal of Sweden. Also the theme of this event was circular economy. If we can replace one time plastic spoons with edible spoons which will definitely reduce the consumption of plastic. So I joined in his team. Actually, we have a very diverse team who come from different countries and have diverse backgrounds which is a good factor for a team. During this event, the most impressional thing is to receive advices from mentors.

One aspect of advices from mentor is how to cooperate with this India company. This India company called Bakeys hired nine women to manufacture the edible spoons in low scale. If we work with this company, can this company scale up and meet the high volume requirements from Sweden or even the whole Europe? We know that this company is trying to develop automatic machines to do batch production. So the question is what is the role of us in this potential business relationship, partner or distributor. If we are only distributor, we care about the production volume and can we get our order on time. If we can become partner, we need to raise more money to help this company scale up as well as sell the product in Sweden. All the above assumptions based on that we can work with this company. What if we couldn’t. 

Things can be become really complicate, you never know what you will encounter in the business world. We as entrepreneurs should not only consider business parts, how to cooperate, how to make profits, how to raise money, how to distribute products, how to work with local companies, how to ship products, but also how the product tastes, what are the ingredients of this product, how long can it lasts, how easy it can be broke. Lots of hows and whats, and so many assumptions need to be prove. This is business world. You can get different information from different people which you may never think about. However, as one mentor said we are the team who really into this business right now, we know much better than other people. We should get as much information as possible, and narrow down make our own decisions.

This was a really good experience. I do like the advices from mentors. And thanks to the idea generator Alexander Nilehn, and team members Haonan Liu, Igor Panic and Shruti Kuber. Thanks to Create Squared who hosted  such a good event.

The event link: http://create-squared.com/

The event Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/createsquaredevent/ (Can see the video here)

Earlier this semester, I joined a mentorship program through KTH which is called Pepp. Pepp has created a mentorship program where girls in high school are connected to female engineering students. The engineering student tries to inspire and give insights about how the school is, why you should pursue a technical education and maybe share their own journey to university. The engineering students also have their own mentor which is a young professional that can give insights how career and life has been after graduation and share job experiences.

Last week I went to an event with Pepp where we went to a company called Cygni and had a seminar about mentorship. We had discussions on what mentorship has meant to us but also the differences of being a mentee and a mentor. I would recommend you to find a mentor if you feel that you need guidance in your future career. Since I joined this mentorship program, I have met other female engineering students from KTH that have shared their stories and dreams. Also, I have met a lot of young professionals that have shared their experiences.

I think it is really good to have a mentor because you create a relationship with a person that can guide you. The mentor and mentee relationship is not the same as the relationship you have with a friend, because you can talk about self-developing, career and other things you might not do with your other friends. The mentor also has the ability to give new perspective to things as she probability already been through the same journey. When having a startup, a mentor can be very valuable and give good support when you need to take big decisions.

 

You can read more about Pepp here: http://www.blipepp.nu/ (however, it is only in Swedish)

Last weekend friends of mine and I went to the create-squared event for a taste of so called business hackathon. At Norrsken House, students who came across Sweden and mentors who came with good entrepreneurship experiences meet together for the theme of ‘Closing the Loop’. After keynote speaker Alexander Verbeek gave his inspirational talk on sustainability, 2 days of innovative workings began.

Ideas generated varied a lot: food waste concerns, industrial waste concerns, suicide preventions, sustainable fashions, crime hotmaps, you name it. Mingling and voting were along with team forming, thus, the teams got diverse skill sets.

The team which I was in was one with a full skill set: entrepreneur, sale, economy, front-end, and back-end. Concerning about shopping locally, we were working on developing a location based product searching engine aimed for physical shopping. I was so lifted by their enthusiasms on entrepreneurship and sustainability thinking.

It was a great experience on such innovative and collaborative event and entrepreneurial team cooperation. Even though we did not manage to win the competition, it was memorable. The gold went to the B2B industrial waste market platform, while the silver went to the edible cutlery team which was of our classmates @Jingjing and @Shruti. Applause!

See http://create-squared.com/ for facts. Applause for our classmate @Dora as the organizing team member!

https://kth.instructure.com/courses/1753

comment below

 

 

 

Course Outline

TECHNOLOGY-BASED ENTREPRENEURSHIP

ME2062 – Spring 2017, 7.5 ECTS

 

 

COURSE LECTURERS

 

 

Serdar Temiz

PhD Candidate, KTH

serdar.temiz@indek.kth.se (Please contact by email and use ME2062 at subject line.)

twitter: @serdar_temiz

www.serdartemiz.com

Office hours by appointment

 

 

1        COURSE DESCRIPTION

The primary objective of the course, Technology-Based Entrepreneurship (ME2062), is to immerse the student in the entrepreneurial processes of creating and leading innovative and impactful technology-based ventures. While many of the frameworks and practices presented in the course are relevant across all forms of entrepreneurship in a wide variety of services and product markets, this course is based primarily on technology entrepreneurship practices since technology entrepreneurship tends to be more complex due to a higher level of uncertainty in the product and market.

The course provides a broad practice-based experience in the process of creating technology-based businesses. Through a collection of lectures, discussions with guest speakers, and project work, this course enables students to understand and apply some of the tools of entrepreneurship as they relate to technology ventures. Central to the learning experience is the Venture Project through which students working in small teams will develop their new venture creation and management skills. As such, this course will be a departure from more traditional engineering courses for many engineering students because it relies not on formulas but on conceptual thinking and analysis.

 

 

2        LEARNING OUTCOMES

This course is targeted towards engineering students who would like to begin to understand the technology and management phenomena of technology-based entrepreneurship. As this course focuses on real-world innovation and new venturing, participants are expected to take an active role in the course and their learning. After completing the course, you should be able to do the following:

 

• Demonstrate an understanding of how entrepreneurship theory and practice can inform the entrepreneurial decision making process from ideation to business model design to the launch of a new technology-based venture.
• Demonstrate the ability to gather, critically evaluate, and analyze relevant information using frameworks to make decisive recommendations for action in a given entrepreneurial situation.
• Demonstrate the ability to apply some of the tools to identify problems or needs related to technology; generate innovative, technological ideas; evaluate them; assess the competitive context; design business models; and begin laying the groundwork for the launch of dynamic technology-based enterprises.
• Demonstrate team management by producing professional reports and presentations developed through team collaboration.
• Demonstrate oral and written communication skills by using persuasive and evidence-based arguments in support of well-grounded management actions.

 

Please note that this course will not provide a complete overview of technology-based entrepreneurship since there are numerous complex issues related to the field that, unfortunately, cannot be covered due to the compact design of the course.

 

 

3        CLASS FORMAT

We will conduct each class more like a seminar in which our role will be as a moderator, questioner, and facilitator. The course involves a variety of activities such as lectures and discussions using pre-assigned readings, discussions, in-class exercises, outside class activities, group projects and presentations, and guest speakers. Students will be required to read classics in the field but also more contemporary works as well as deliver various inputs to a longer venture project. The core concepts and discussions are presented in the “anchor” sessions, which are mostly led by the course lecturers. Some of the sessions will be taught by an external lecturer who brings special knowledge or professional expertise to the topics under discussion.

 

We expect that you will come well prepared to each session. You are to complete the readings and assignments thoroughly before each class, and in some cases, you will present the assigned material in class. Being prepared includes being able to discuss the assigned literature and relating it to your own experience as well as knowing the facts and issues when appropriate. In addition, we expect those students who are not presenting to be prepared with questions and comments and to contribute to the discussion.

 

Moreover, we are interested in the quality of your participation. Quality is the extent to which you offer key insights on course topics and readings, relate your comments to the topics at hand, and relate current topics to previous topics or material from other classes. Comments that add value to our conversations possess one or more of the following attributes:

 

1. Offer a different, unique, and relevant perspective on the issue at hand.
2. Contribute to moving the discussion and analysis forward.
3. Build on others’ comments. Too often students and managers fail to listen to the comments of others.  Good comments might begin with “In agreement with what Jane has just said…” or “I’d like to disagree with Ted’s point….” or “I think we’re all missing a key point here…”
4. Transcend the “I feel” syndrome. In other words, a quality comment includes some evidence or analysis of inherent tradeoffs and demonstrates reflective thinking.

 

 

Electronic Devices Policy: Currently, there is a movement within academia to enforce a no electronic devices (e.g., laptops, tabs, phones) policy in the classroom (See http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/25/why-a-leading-professor-of-new-media-just-banned-technology-use-in-class/.) However, we are of the opinion that access to the internet during class can facilitate your learning in this course, e.g., back channel discussions, googling terms you do not understand. Having said that, we do ask you to restrict the use of your device in class to activities related to the course and to consider how your use of electronic devices affects your fellow students sitting near you.

 

 

4        ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT

Assignments will be completed either individually or in your groups, and there are three types of assignments: 1) Mandatory written and oral assignments and 2) In-class oral participation and outside of class written participation via your blog posts in which you share you learning and experiences. 3) Venture Creation simulation that teams are going to compete against each other.

 

You need to complete and submit all mandatory assignments and presentations by the respective times. Information on the submissions is outlined in the Schedule and Readings document. If you fail to submit your assignment by the specified due date and time, then you are submitting late. Submissions turned in late, but within 24 hours of the deadline, will receive half credit. Submissions more than 24 hours late will not be accepted. Exceptions to this policy may be granted for personal emergencies. All submission limits, including page limits, must be followed. Exceeding the limit will result in a reduction in the assessment of the submission.

 

We encourage you to be creative in your use of media and presentation tools in your coursework. Feel free to include YouTube or other video clips, storytelling, audience interaction, etc. This is a great chance to experiment. You are also more than welcome to use material from the internet for your assignments. Please remember, however, that you must properly cite any sources that you use. See www.plagiarism.org for some guidelines. You must also integrate the material into a professional presentation and be prepared to present as well as show that you have a thorough understanding of the material.

 

Please note that while all groups are asked to prepare the assignment for a session, only some groups may be asked to present their work, i.e., not all groups will have time to make their presentation.

 

4.1      ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE

You have two assignments schedule:

1) Regular Assignments Schedule

2) Venture Creation Simulation Assignments Schedule

Regular Assignments   Schedule
Due date	Assignment	How to label the assignment and format	Submission location	Weight*	Individual or Group Assignment
28 March/ 30 March	Elevator Pitch / Feedback	Pitch_Lastname.doc	Canvas and In class	5%	Individual
April 6 18:00	Group Formation for Venture Project	Groupname.doc	Canvas	P/F	Group
May-5 18:00	Venture Project Video	Video_Team_Nr_Groupname (post it at course blog)	Online	13%**	Group
May 9  18:00	Feedback on Venture Video	Feedback_YourGroupname.doc	In class opposition	2%	Group
May-26 18:00	Venture Project Paper	Venture_Groupname.pdf/Blog	Canvas	13%**	Group
Ongoing	In-class Participation	N/A	N/A	10%	Individual
Ongoing	Online and Offline Activity Outside Class	N/A	N/A	20%	Individual
Exam week	Final Exam	N/A	N/A	10%	Individual

 

 

 

Venture Creation Simulation Assignments

(it will also be in the simulation and you will receive notifications)

28 March	15:00 – 17:00	Q34	Meeting 1 Introduction: Lecture Q1, Q2
1 April	20:00	Online	Q1 Decision
6 April	15:00	Online	Q2 decisions
6 April	15:00 – 17:00	Q34	Meeting 2: Results Q2, discussion & lecture
15 April	20:00	Online	Q3 decisions
18 April	13:00 – 17:00	Q36	Meeting 3  Investor round for Q4
22 April	20:00	Online	Q4 decisions
25 April	15:00 – 17:00	Q 33	Meeting 4:
2 May	16:30	Class	Q5 decisions
5 May	20:00	Online	Q6 decisions
9 May	15:00 – 17:00	E35	Meeting 5 : Final Presentation to Board of Directors (Investors) or General Discussions (to be announced )

 

* P/F = Pass/Fail

**The presentation and paper are to be graded together for 13%.

Grading Scale:

A (90-100%): Excellent

B (80-89%): Very Good

C (70-79%): Good

D (60-69%): Satisfactory

E (50-59%): Sufficient

Fx/F (0-49%): Fail

 

 

For group submissions, choose one group member to upload the document to Canvas.

 

Please note: If there is any problem uploading an assignment to Canvas, email the assignment to Serdar by the respective deadline (temiz@kth.se).

 

More information on each of the assignments is below:

 

Group Formation for Simulation / Venture Project

You are to self-organize into groups of four to six students. It is your responsibility to form groups and choose the venture idea that will serve as the basis for your Venture Project assignment. Group composition is important since group work constitutes a large percentage of your grade.

 

After the Elevator Pitch the group will choose what venture idea that will serve as the basis for your New Business Venture Concept paper assignment.

Group Formation Tips:

• Start working early on group formation
• Aim for diversity of background and skills in your group—and people you would enjoy and benefit from working with
• Be clear and explicit about each person’s roles and responsibilities in the group and ensure there are clear milestones and accountability
• Set up regular group meetings and provide each other candid input and feedback

 

Venture Idea Simulation Grading

 

You will be graded by cumulative balance score card.

A Balanced Scorecard is used to measure the teams’ performance within the simulation. Effectively, it is a measure of the ability to create value for the firm’s stakeholders. It is also a measure of the team’s ability to integrate (harmonize) all of its business functions. Optimization can only be achieved by using the tools of management to assess the performance and evaluate the relative value of each option. Furthermore, it requires an understanding of how each decision can affect the business metrics, which have been incorporated into the scorecard.

In terms of mechanics, the teams receive a scorecard at the start of each quarter based upon their performance in the prior quarter. The objective criteria include measures of financial performance, market performance, marketing effectiveness, investments in the future, asset management, manufacturing productivity, creation of wealth, human resource management, and financial risk. These reports begin once the teams go to market and start selling to the users.

 

Elevator Pitch

You will perform an individual elevator pitch in the classroom as well as submit your pitch in written form online and in class. More information is in the Pitch document.

 

Group Formation

Depending on the number of students you will  have simulation team and venture creation team. Please follow discussions in the class.

 

 

Venture Project Video

You will create an Investment Pitch video to be presented in-class. More information is in the Venture Project document.

 

Feedback on Venture Project Video

During the Venture Project Presentation class, your group will be assigned to give Feedback on one other group’s Venture Project video and Q&A. More information is in the Venture Project document.

 

Venture Project Paper

You will submit a written paper on your Venture Project.  More information is in the Venture Project document.

Extra points:

You can nominate someone to receive up to 5 points (5%)due to contribution s/he did for your learning experience group work etc. You cannot nominate yourself, teacher can nominate as well. You have to be very detailed and specific why that person should receive and how that person contributed your learning experience? Please be aware of the deadline.

 

In-class Participation[1]

A goal for this classroom is to have a positive, courteous, and respectful environment that is conducive to learning. Each student must display a namecard in each session to facilitate class participation. Attendance, participation, assignments, and professionalism count toward this grade. Furthermore, irreverent and off-topic comments will affect your participation grade. Class participation grades will be assessed using the Participation Continuum below.

Participation Continuum

Scale                                                             Description                                          

Top

• A consistent leader is always well-prepared for the class. Has an understanding of the relevant material. Offers a unique and relevant perspective on the issue at hand. Demonstrates reflective thinking through analysis. An initiator of activity in the class. Contributes to moving the discussion forward through responding to and building on others’ comments. Listening is also given a priority.
• Reasonably frequent participator in class as described above. Responds to other students as well as the instructor.
• Occasionally takes the lead in introducing a new subject. Provides illustrations from his or her own experience about the subjects under discussion.
• Occasional contributions to the class. Occasional responses to the remarks of other students.
• Answers questions from the instructor. Occasionally provides illustrations from own experience in response to instructor’s remarks.  Rarely responds to other students.
• Answers questions from the instructor. Otherwise does not take part in class discussion.
• Takes no part in classroom discussion or activities.

Bottom

 

Online & Offline Activity Outside Class

Students must also be active by sharing their knowledge and experience related to the course with people in your own group, in other groups, and people outside this course as well as by reflecting constructively on other students’ work outside the classroom.  One factor that will determine the grading of this component is your ability to reference and use the tools and frameworks presented in this course, i.e., are you applying and integrating the course material? Below are the relevant activities for this course component.

 

Join the ‘KTH Tech Based Ent– 2016’ LinkedIn Group

Be active in this group, post relevant articles, start discussions, contribute discussions, reflect upon lectures, presentations. These activities will improve your individual ability to contribute to in-class learning url is: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8507896

 

Be active on Twitter

Please use the hashtags – #KTH and #ME2062 to share interesting sites and information you find related to the course on twitter (tweetdeck is a good twitter app).  You might also want to follow #sthlmtech to learn more about the Stockholm startup scene.

 

Be active on the Intropreneur blog

You should blog individually at www.intopreneur.com. Suggested topics for your blog posts are listed below, and we are interested in the frequency, regularity of your activities, blog posts and contents, linking to each other’s blogposts and blogs, discussing each other’s topics, and other individual activities on these blogs. You should categorize/tag each of your individual posts with your group name. Also we recommend that you add categories and tags to your blog posts and consider readers while you are writing.

 

There are numerous tips on how to write blog posts on the internet, e.g., http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-tips-for-writing-great-blog-posts/.

 

Collect Feedback on your Venture Idea

Each group member should receive feedback on your group’s venture service/product from at least five different prospective customer/users and then based on this feedback, reflect upon your idea and answer these questions:

1. How did you find these people?
2. Which feedback did you get from them?
3. How do you think how you found these people and who they are influences the feedback you received?
4. Will you change your idea based on their feedback, why, why not?

 

You should then blog your findings and use this information for your Venture Project.

 

Attend Startup Events

 

Attend at least two Startup events and blog about your experience at these events. How did you find these events? What was the purpose of the event? With whom have you met? Take a few photos and share your experiences from these activities. Some advice is that you blog right after you participate in the activity. Remember to submit your blogpost as a link in the LinkedIn group.  One suggestion is to join some of the Meetup Groups related to entrepreneurship and technology in Stockholm: http://www.meetup.com/. You might even want to start your own Meetup Group.

 

Help a Startup

Try out a product/service of at least two startups. What feedback would you give to this startup based on your experience with the product/service? In addition to your personal experience with the product, you may include other advice such as potential contacts you have that might be of help to the startup. Blog about these activities and submit it as a link in the LinkedIn group. We advise you to also send the feedback to the startup’s founders.  One idea is to look at the crowdfunding sites: FundedByMe, CrowdCube, Kickstarter, and Indiegogo, for ideas.

 

Lessons Learned

At the end of the course, you should blog about what you have learned during this course and what you would have liked to learn but did not.

 

 

 

Final Home Exam

The in-class/online exam will be in the form of essay questions and will be open course material/open computer/open internet. During the exam, you are not recommended to discuss, communicate, interact, etc. online or offline with anyone regarding the exam other than the Examinator. Your answers are to be the product of your individual work. Moreover, after you take the exam, you are not allowed to discuss the exam with others who have not yet taken the exam at any time. There will be time limit so internet research or discussion with someone else will not help you to deliver. You are responsible every class discussion, presentation, course reading.

 

 

5        COURSE ADMINISTRATION

We will put either links on the Canvas page or upload the slides to Canvas. Main communication platform for the course will be Canvas, please follow it.

Guest presentations may or may not be shared so please be aware of that.

 

NDA POLICY

With business ideas shared as part of the class, the issue of intellectual property sometimes arises. Please note that there will be no non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) for ideas in this class. However, by participating in this class, you agree to act with discretion and integrity and treat all ideas presented as privileged communication. You also agree not to disclose or distribute information received unless you receive explicit permission to do so.

 

 

COURSE FEEDBACK

This class is for you, and we encourage you to provide ongoing feedback on the course and to make requests or express concerns. You can do that in person with us before or after class or during breaks or appointments or by email.

 

 

Please note that we reserve the right to change this course outline.

 

 

 

[1] Adapted from D. McAlister.

 

 

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SCHEDULE AND READINGS

 

 

Session 1 

 

Introduction to Technology Entrepreneurship and the Importance of Technology and Innovations

 

Mandatory readings

• Course Outline for Technology-based Entrepreneurship ME2062
• Venture Project Description for ME2062
• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Part I “Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Policy”
• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Chapter 3 “Technology Entrepreneurs and New Technology Ventures”

 

Recommended readings

• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Chapter 1 “Smart Economies, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship”
• Kawasaki, “The Art of the Start,” Change This, August 2004 (note: long) http://changethis.com/manifesto/1.ArtOfTheStart/pdf/1.ArtOfTheStart.pdf
• Graham, “Startups in 13 Sentences,” com, February 2009 http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html
• “The Third Industrial Revolution,” The Economist, April 21st, 2012 http://www.economist.com/node/21553017

 

Idea, Opportunity, Innovation

 

Mandatory reading

• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Chapter 4 “Innovation and Diffusion of Technology in Products and Services”
• Sarasvathy, S. D., Dew, N., Velamuri, S. R., & Venkataraman, S. (2010). “Three views of entrepreneurial opportunity,” in Handbook of Entrepreneurship Research (pp. 77-96). Springer New York.
• Read about the PESTEL/PESTLE/PEST analysis online: http://pestleanalysis.com/what-is-pestle-analysis/

 

Recommended readings

• Seelig, T., “The Secret Sauce of Silicon Valley,” in What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20, http://ospflor63.stanford.edu/upload/handouts/Secret_Sauce_-_Seelig.pdf
• Alvarez, S. A., Barney, J. B., & Anderson, P. (2013). Forming and exploiting opportunities: The implications of discovery and creation processes for entrepreneurial and organizational research. Organization Science, 24(1), 301-317.
• Sarasvathy, S. D. (2001). “Causation and Effectuation: Toward a Theoretical Shift from Economic Inevitability to Entrepreneurial Contingency,” Academy of Management Review, 26, 2, 243-263.
• Graham, “How to Get Startup Ideas,” com, November 2012, http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html.
• Zwilling, “Stealth Mode Entrepreneurs Are Putting Themselves at a Disadvantage,” Business Insider, October 18, 2012, http://mobile.businessinsider.com/stealth-mode-entrepreneurs-only-increase-the-risk-2012-10
• Linkner, “The 10 Commandments of Brainstorming,” Forbes, April 20, 2010, http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/20/brainstorming-ideation-ideas-leadership-managing-innovation.html
• Carpenter, “Distributed Idea Generation Outperforms Traditional Brainstorming,” Blogging Innovation, March 7, 2010, http://www.business-strategy-innovation.com/2010/03/distributed-idea-generation-outperforms.html

 

 

Session 2  

 

Business Models

 

 

Mandatory readings

• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Chapter 6 “The Business Model and Business Plan”
• Yoon, E., & Deeken, L. (2013). “Why It Pays to Be a Category Creator,” Harvard Business Review, March.
• Baden-Fuller, C., & Morgan, M. S. (2010). “Business models as models,” Long Range Planning, 43(2), 156-171.

 

Recommended readings

• Lay, “Innovation: New Products Are Never Enough,” Forbes, 18, 2009, http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/18/innovation-business-model-leadership-managing-products.html
• Osterwalder & Pigneur, “Business Model Generation” (note: long), http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/downloads/businessmodelgeneration_preview.pdf

 

 

 

Clusters/Regional Innovation Systems

 

Mandatory readings

• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Chapter 1 “Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Policy”
• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Chapter 2 “Research and Technology Transfer from Universities to Business”
• Teigland, R., Hallencreutz, D., & Lundequist, P. (2007). “Uppsala BIO – the Life Science Initiative: Experiences of and Reflections on Starting a Regional Competitiveness Initiative,” in R. MacGregor (Ed.) Small Business Clustering Technologies: Applications in Marketing, Management, IT and Economics, London: Idea Group Inc.
• Wennberg, K., & Lindqvist, G. (2010). “The effect of clusters on the survival and performance of new firms,” Small Business Economics, 34, 221-241. http://opec.hse.ru/data/2010/09/14/1233515427/effect-of-clusters.pdf

 

Recommended readings

• Porter, M. E. (2000). “Location, competition, and economic development: Local clusters in a global economy,” Economic Development Quarterly, 14, 1, 15-34, http://www.development.wne.uw.edu.pl/uploads/Courses/ied_porter_2000.pdf

 

 

Session 3  

 

Creating a Strategy, Market Validation, & Introduction to Elevator Pitch

 

Mandatory readings

• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Part III “Market Opportunity and Strategy”.
• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Chapter 7 “Market Validation and Research”.
• Porter, M. E. (2001). “Strategy and the Internet”. Harvard Business Review, 79(3), 62-79.
• Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. (2004).“Blue Ocean Strategy”. Harvard Business Review. October.

 

Recommended readings

• Adams, R. (2010). If You Build It, Will They Come? Three Steps to Test and Validate any Market Opportunity. Summary here: http://www.slideshare.net/drrobadams/ktg-if-you-build-it-will-they-come?
• Porter, M.E. (2008) “The Five Competitive Forces that Shape Competitive Strategy”, HBR, January.
• Isenberg, “The 2-Minute Opportunity Checklist for Entrepreneurs,” HBR Blogs, March 4, 2010, http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/03/the_2minute_opportunity_checkl.html (Links to an external site.)
• Levine, “10 Ways to Find out If Your Idea is Actually Brilliant,” Business Insider, March 2, 2011, http://www.businessinsider.com/10-ways-to-find-out-if-your-idea-is-actually-brilliant-2011-3
• Feld, “Note to Entrepreneurs: Your Idea Is Not Special,” Reuters blogs, June 14, 2011 2 http://blogs.reuters.com/small-business/2011/06/14/note-to-entrepreneurs-your-idea-is-not-special/

 

 

Pitching Your Venture

 

Mandatory readings

• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Chapter 8 “Routes to Commercialisation and Pitching”
• Forbes, “This Entrepreneur Raised $2M With A Five-Slide Presentation — About Nothing,” 14 August 2014, http://www.forbes.com/sites/ilyapozin/2014/08/14/this-entrepreneur-raised-2m-with-a-five-slide-presentation-about-nothing/

 

Recommended readings

• Temiz, Serdar, http://serdartemiz.com/?p=20
• Rose, D. How to Pitch to a VC, TED video, http://www.ted.com/talks/david_s_rose_on_pitching_to_vcs
• Venture Cup – Guide to a Winning Pitch: http://www.venturecup.se/wp-content/uploads/Guide-to-a-winning-pitch-eng.pdf
• Macleod, “Investor Pitches—Do’s and Don’t’s,” StartupCFO, November 19, 2010, http://www.startupcfo.ca/2010/11/investor-pitches-dos-and-donts/
• Figliulo, “5 Idea Pitch Critical Success Factors for Entrepreneurs,” ThoughtLeaders, July 5, 2011, http://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/2011/07/5-reasons-your-idea-pitch-sucks/
• Spoon, R. How to create an early-stage pitch deck: http://www.slideshare.net/ryanspoon/how-to-create-an-early-stage-pitch-deck?ref=http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/07/pitchdeck/
• HBR Blog: “Building a Minimum Viable Product? You are probably doing it wrong.” http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/09/building-a-minimum-viable-prod/
• Rosoff, “Five VCs Explain What They Really Think about Your Pitches,” Business Insider, June 15, 2011, http://www.businessinsider.com/five-vcs-explain-what-they-really-think-about-your-pitches-2011-6

 

 

Session 4 

 

Market Analysis: The Marketing and Sales Plan

 

Mandatory readings

• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Chapter 9 “The Marketing Strategy”

 

Recommended readings

• Magretta, “Stop Competing to Be the Best,” HBR Blogs, November 30, 2011, http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/11/stop_competing_to_be_the_best.html
• “What Is Customer Development?” com, November 8, 2008, http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/11/what-is-customer-development.html (Links to an external site.)
• Blank, “Here’s Why the First-Mover Advantage Is Extremely Overrated,” Insider, Oct. 19, 2010, http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-10-19/tech/30027432_1_market-bad-idea-failure-rate
• Goffin, K., Varnes, C.J., van der Hoven, C., & Koners, U. (2012) “Beyond the Voice of the Customer: Ethnographic Market Research,” Research-Technology Management, 55, 4, 45-54.
• Kozinets, R. V. (2002). “The field behind the screen: Using netnography for marketing research in online communities,” Journal of Marketing Research, 39, 1, 61-72.
• Matzler, K. Bailom, F., Anschober, M., & Richardson, S. (2009) “Hypercompetition, customer-value competition, and the new role of market research, Innovative Marketing, 5, 2, 6-11, .
• Spenner, P. & Bird, M. (2012) “Marketers flunk the big data test,” http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/marketers_flunk_the_big_data_test.html?awid=7629625543278651899-3271 (Links to an external site.).

 

 

Business Models and Business Model Canvas

 

Mandatory readings

• Osterwalder, A. & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers, Paperback, pp1-72, http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/book (Links to an external site.), download first 72 pages from here
• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Chapter 6 “The Business Model and Business Plan”

 

Recommended readings

• Kawasaki, “The Zen of Business Plans,” January 21, 2006, http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_zen_of_busi.html#axzz1WMOb9bns
• Berry, “8 Factors that Make a Good Business Plan,” February 18, 2009, http://timberry.bplans.com/2009/02/some-key-questions-on-business-plans.html
• Debaise, “Why You Need a Business Plan,” Wall Street Journal, September 28, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125391138155241963.html

 

 

 

Session 5  

The Lean Start-up

 

Mandatory readings

• Ries, E. (2011). The Lean Start-up. Crown Publishing: New York, chapters 1-3.

 

Recommended readings

• Blank, S. (2013). “Why the lean start-up changes everything,” Harvard Business Review, 91, 5, 63-72.

 

Accounting Basics, Financial Planning

 

Mandatory readings

• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Chapter 12.11,12.12,12.13
• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Chapter 12 “Entrepreneurial Finance”
• Paul, S., & Whittam, G. (2010). “Business angel syndicates: An exploratory study of gatekeepers,” Venture Capital, 12(3), 241-256.
• Sørensen, M. (2007). “How smart is smart money? A two‐sided matching model of Venture Capital,” The Journal of Finance, 62, 6, 2725-2762.
• Ingram, C., & Teigland, R. (2013). Crowdfunding among IT Entrepreneurs in Sweden, https://91.226.36.46/docs/Crowdfunding_among_IT_Entrepreneurs_in_Sweden.pdf

 

Recommended readings

• Gunn, “Five Common Startup Money Mistakes,” Entrepreneur, March 18, 2011, http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219368
• Weisul, “Entrepreneurs Are Worse at Financial Projections…” BNet, May 16, 2011, http://www.bnet.com/blog/business-research/entrepreneurs-are-worse-at-financial-projections-than-you-think/1535
• Lynch, “10 Tips for Securing Angel or Venture Funding,” Reuters, December 1, 2010, http://blogs.reuters.com/small-business/2010/12/01/10-tips-for-securing-angel-or-venture-funding/
• Baker, “Derisking Buckets,” com, 2012, http://brendanbaker.tumblr.com/post/16830178199/derisking-buckets-how-to-identify-and-deal-with (Links to an external site.)

 

 

Session 6  

 

Legal Formation and Intellectual Capital

 

Mandatory readings

• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Chapter 5 “Managing Intellectual Property for New Venture Development”
• Vermaelen, T. (2014). “Why Business Schools Should Teach MBAs to Maximise Shareholder Value,” http://knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/why-business-schools-should-teach-mbas-to-maximise-shareholder-value-3726#o140Bd0Coc3kET3K.99
• Bontis, N. (2001). “Assessing Knowledge Assets: A Review of the Models Used to Measure Intellectual Capital,” https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nick_Bontis/publication/227726161_Assessing_knowledge_assets_a_review_of_the_models_used_to_measure_intellectual_capital/links/0c96051c9d5a079af4000000?origin=publication_list&ev=prf_pub_xdl (Links to an external site.)

 

Growing and Managing the New Venture

 

Mandatory readings

• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Chapter 10 “Developing Teams and Building the Organisation”
• Evers, N., Cunningham, J. Hoholm, T. (2014). Chapter 11 “Internationalisation”

Session 7   

 

First Part: Presentation of Venture Projects

 Exam Week

Final Exam

 

 

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ME2062 – Spring 2017

Elevator Pitch

 

Assignment This assignment contains two parts: 1)     A max 1 page summary submitted to Canvas and printed to be brought to class 2)     A verbal “elevator pitch” delivered in class

 

Instructions

Deliver a verbal elevator pitch presentation in class, which provides a concise and engaging summary of an innovative new venture and the product(s) and/or service(s) you would like to develop.

Design the pitch to capture the interest of potential investors (or partners) so they want to hear more. Assume your audience is full of angel investors or potential partners and speak to the whole class. Some helpful examples can be found on crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, FundedByMe, and CrowdCube.

Time Limit

The pitch must be between 40 and 80 seconds, but try to aim at 60 seconds, which is generally the maximum. The instructors will stop you if you reach 80 seconds. Avoid speaking too quickly.

Other Constraints

Deliver only a verbal pitch, with no accompanying audio, video, or other props or aids. No notes, devices, watches, or devices of any kind (e.g., no looking at smartphones or tablets). No help or signals of any kind from people in the class.

Required Components

You must cover all of the following components in the pitch:

• What is the venture / product / service? Clear explanation of the product/service.
• What is the customer problem / pain you will solve (or delight)?
• How is your venture / product / service unique and differentiated from other alternatives?
• How big is the market and how will you be able to penetrate the market?
• What is the business model – how will you make money?
• What is the current development stage?
• How much money do you need and what will it be used for?

Your task is to convince your peers that this is a sellable product that will have a market somewhere. You should primarily describe the product or service, and you should consider giving it a name and your venture a logo. Avoid long technical descriptions and instead you should emphasize what the product or service does, or what problem it solves, or why anyone would be interested in buying it.

Key Considerations

• Appropriate and substantive coverage of the required components
• Presentation quality (clarity, creativity, poise, energy, “hook”)

Avoid Common Elevator Pitch Mistakes[1]

• No energy or passion in the presentation
• Too much technical language; focusing on the technology rather than the customer need
• Failure to explain what customer problem you are trying to solve
• Too much discussion about the idea and product and not enough explanation about the market, business opportunity, and revenue models
• Listing too many names of clients or partners. Indicate how many clients and name a few big names to spark interest.

Written Summary

In addition to the verbal elevator pitch, you must submit a maximum one-page pitch summary in class and to Bilda. It does not have to be the verbatim text of the speech—just bullet points or narrative is fine. When submitting to Bilda, label it Pitch_Lastname.doc. Do not forget to put your name on the written summary in class.

Assessment

After your presentation, you will have a few minutes for Q&A. After this, the class will vote thumbs up or thumbs down. Everyone must vote and there are no abstentions. A majority vote means that your peers have approved your idea.

The grading will then focus almost exclusively on the verbal pitch, but you must submit the written summary to the lecturers as well.

[1] http://alliance.rice.edu/uploadedFiles/RBPC/2015%20RBPC%20Official%20Rules%20and%20Judging%20Criteria%2011.10.14.pdf

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A very short summary and reflection on my learnings from this course.

What I am taking away from this course is a changed and evolved understanding of both open and user innovation. It has challenged my view of innovation that stems from users and open data. As an HCI-student, I was already quite familiar with user innovation before the start of this course. I thought I had so much knowledge on the topic already. But in this course I have learnt about user innovation from another perspective – mainly the business side of things, as a strategy to further innovation processes. I now know that there are many ways to access and manage external innovation depending on your purpose. While this new understanding is vital for me as an innovator, it will also be of essence for me as a designer.

I believe open innovation is only in its infancy. It will become even more important, maybe especially for authorities but also for companies to able to compete. Especially in combination with, or to facilitate user innovation. Both the knowledge and technology required to innovate will only become more accessible to more people.

SUP46 and 19@19 networks December Event – Holiday Party

19@19 netWORKs host networking events with the vision to empower people communication, accelerate their entrepreneurial journey but also prepare people for everyday human interactions. This event, the Holiday Party, was co-organised with SUP46 and Stockholm Entrepreneurs and held at December 19.

Faviana Vangelius was the guest at the meet-up. She is a true innovator and entrepreneur and could be described as a pioneer within the field of VR. At only 29 years old, she is the founder and CEO of one of Sweden’s few virtual reality game studios, the newly founded SVRVIVE Studios. About 6 months ago, Faviana got hooked on VR and realised that she wants to work with it somehow. The problem was that, at the time, there weren’t any jobs to apply for or educations to apply to within the field. She saw a need in the market for VR content, and decided to start SVRVIVE Studios. Already today, the company has 13 employees.

Faviana talked about the wide range of possibilities and application areas of VR, from military and medicine to education and gaming. SVRVIVE works with the latter: gaming. They make VR games for premium VR and platforms such as HTC Vive, Oculus and Playstation. Their first game was just released, created and put out in the market in just 6 months. One of the great challenges for SVRVIVE, who strive to be among the first in the market, is to release games to the consumer at a high quality but produced in a high pace. In order to achieve this, they released a free to download demo to test the market, and allow the market to test the game. With this strategy, the company received a lot of valuable feedback directly from their customers.

SVRVIVE as a company operates in an emerging, but still infant market. Many actors are involved in pushing this market, especially the great hardware giants Facebook with Oculus, Playstation with their VR-set and HTC with Vive. This has been the year of the early adopters. Faviana expects the early majority to follow as soon as next year, even though we all know there is often quite a gap between the early adopters and early majority that can be a though period for new and small business to survive. She claims this because of the many actors involved in pushing VR to the public, but also as she expects the cost of the hardware to begin to drop to a more consumer friendly price along with a greater availability of content.