Vapiano

by ⋅ 17 Comments

Last evening, I join some friends to go for dinner at Vapiano  restaurant. It sounded great but I didn’t know this restaurant except that you can eat Pizza – an italian restaurant. You’ll may laugh at me to have never been be there but I would like to share my experience with you.

When I arrived there, I realized that it was so much more than a simple restaurant.

You come in an amazing place where you can be served at the individual station at the middle of Vapiano, people are sitting around long oak tables which are open to communication, there are long bar to have a break after the dinner, ….

“Chi va piano va sano e va lontano – world wide.” : According to an italian proverb “If you have an easy-going and relaxed approach to life, you’ll live more healthily and longer”

So, when you arrive, the waiter/waitress give you your personal smart-card. This card will register all the dishes you will take during your dinner. At the end of the night, you just have to give this card and pay with you credit card. Then, if you have to wait for a table because of there is too many people in the restaurant, they give you a casing which will ring when a table will be available. And what is amazing, it is that you don’t have to wait at the entrance, but you can go in and have a drink at the bar with your friend.  Moreover, it is a self service, so with your card, you can go to the differents individual station :

  • Pizza
  • Pasta
  • Antipasta
  • Specials
  • Bar
  • Deserts

When your order is made, you go back to discuss with your friends at the table and wait the ringing of the casing when your dish is ready to savor.

Thus, you can’t expect to wait at you table that the waitress/waiter serve you is this type of restaurant. It looks like a self service canteen and we can forget the traditional restaurant. But I think it is a wonderful system, because the guests can see all the ingredients, how its cook and if its seem to be fresh. Everyone can have his meal prepared to his own personal preference.

To conclude, the inventor of this chaine cumble the clients’ needs and developped his idea all over the world. People trust food, are not annoyed by the receipt and just enjoy their meal in Vapiano.

I liked it !

http://de.vapiano.com/en/magazine/sorting/date/

 

Liked it? Why not to share then?
        

Genies, a myth. No more!

by ⋅ 3 Comments

So what’s a Genie?  You rub the lamp, make a wish and he gets it done? Well, except for the lamps being mobile phones in this case and pinging him on “Whatsapp” about what you want can make Genies possible. Can’t it?

I extrapolated this idea from a small company called Whatsapp Genie, an auto responder app back in India working on getting things done for the consumers without having to move/surf around. It uses Whatsapp as platform.

  1. Updates on train routes/delays/schedule ( Indian Railway network is kinda the largest in the world. Well, also dirty and screwed up in a way 😛 )
  2. Daily Jokes, quotes and score updates.
  3. Desserts, popcorns for movie nights at home.
  4. Grocery shopping
  5. They are diversifying themselves everyday. There must be more now.

The name  Whatsapp Genie actually got me quite excited. I am imagining a service where one has to just pick the category of service needed and Whatsapp this great Genie about what needs to be done.

  1. Hey Genie, book movie tickets for me?
  2. Hey Genie, get me pizzas from “$*%*&*%” ?
  3. ?  ( ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING)

My opinion: The taxi app “UBER” attracted a lot of users because one could book a taxi with just two clicks. I think that if an idea like this when tracked in the right way, it could become the one of the best startups of the decade.

Please feel free to comment below and let me know your views and ideas on Whatsapp Genie  🙂

 

Liked it? Why not to share then?
        

Wantentrepreneur or entrepreneur?

by ⋅ 2 Comments

Hello everyone,

So, it ‘s Sunday evening and today it’s almost two weeks ago since I entered that classroom for our first entrepreneur class. Since then I’ve had the opportunity to meet and listen to cool entrepreneurs, talk to inspiring people at the SUP46 event and I’ve also been hanging around in cyberspace to find some cool startups and stories and so I did.

I found this interview with Evan Asano, Founder and CEO of Mediakix and he is giving some advices on how you go from being a “wantentrepreneur ” to an entrepreneur. Follow the link below and you will have some inspiring thoughts.

http://www.inc.com/quora/9-reasons-why-you-need-to-stop-dreaming-and-start-building.html

/ Moa

Liked it? Why not to share then?
        

Battlehack

by ⋅ 8 Comments

So I visited this Battlehack event after receiving the tip at the lecture last Friday. I had a strong impression seeing all these hackers wanting to create something new and innovating. There were also some interesting presentations on IT innovation from people who encouraged others to make your idea come to reality. I was especially impressed by this small (and new) company called Estimote. They create beacons that you can attach to your daily object to make them a part of your digitalized world.

Before they started to hack, it was a great event to meet interesting and inspiring (present and future) entrepreneurs!
IMG_3887
//Nilay
Liked it? Why not to share then?
        

Imitation is Innovation

by ⋅ 2 Comments

A recent article in Times of India claims that imitation is innovation and refers to a quote by artist Pablo Picasso.  Further the article states that many successful Indian start-ups are based on similar ideas from the US or Europe which have then been customised to fit the Indian market.

 

”Good artists copy, great artists steal, said Pablo Picasso, one of the 20th century’s most influential artists, implying that a good artist merely reproduces a subject while a great one takes possession of it and turns it into something new. It’s a maxim that many Indian startups, who have adapted ideas for services from the US and other countries, seem to live by.”

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Imitation-is-innovation/articleshow/48907419.cms

 

#KTH #ME2603 #Entrepreneurship

Liked it? Why not to share then?
        

Steam

by ⋅ 1 Comment

In the  lecture today, Serdar spoke about how Spotify fought piracy and peer-to-peer downloads. I came to think about a different company called Valve and their service Steam. Steam uses the same ideas as Spotify but for PC games. They saw that piracy was a problem and found a solution by first creating an easier platform for finding games and then creating an easier payment method with Steam wallet.

Gabe Newell, the co-founder of Valve explains his views about piracy by saying

“In general, we think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate’s service is more valuable.”

This is very interesting because it contradicts what the developers of games are doing against piracy.

Source:

Interview: http://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/interviews/0012301-interview-gabe-newell.html

Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/

 

Liked it? Why not to share then?
        

How big is your niche?

by ⋅ 2 Comments

Hey everyone,

I was thinking about a good idea for my elevator pitch when I encountered this problem. How can you now how big your niche is and if the niche is big enough to support your idea and make it succesful? Because you have to find a problem in your daily life which you can solve with your solution. But what if you are an exception or that it is just a problem in your own country? I think it’s sometimes hard to know if you will have enough customers, because in the case that there are a few people with the same problem in every country, you have enough customers, but how will you get to all those different people around the world?

I’m curious what you think about this and if you are also struggeling with it. I hope to hear your opinions.

Regards,

Tim Buzink

Liked it? Why not to share then?
        

Female Entrepreneurs

by ⋅ 2 Comments

Hey Guys!

Really liked the blogpost by Celine Tevy Ly ” WHAT ABOUT FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS ?” which inspired be to look around and see what kind of big and famous tech-female entrepreneurs we have. Found this video on Ted talks about Dame Stephanie Shirley. I have never heard of her before but in the 1960s, she founded a pioneering all-woman software company in the UK, which was recently valued at $3 billion, making 70 people on her team millionaires. In the video she explains why she went by “Steve,” how she upended the expectations of the time, and shares some sure-fire ways to identify ambitious women.

HTTPS://WWW.TED.COM/TALKS/DAME_STEPHANIE_SHIRLEY_WHY_DO_AMBITIOUS_WOMEN_HAVE_FLAT_HEADS/TRANSCRIPT?LANGUAGE=EN

Liked it? Why not to share then?
        

So you have an idea. Now what?

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

There is a common misconception, probably inherited from movies and some particular cynical views of capitalism, namely that you should keep your ideas for yourself. Otherwise someone can steal your idea!

In my opinion (which is inherited from the opinions from people in the know), the reality does not conform to that.

To start a project/company takes energy. To start a project takes time. People wont quit what they’re doing and invest resources into some idea they heard somewhere.
Angel investors  (private investors who invests from their own pocket) are interesting to look at. The existance of Angel investors supports my claim in a way. Angel investors are experienced and rich, yet they don’t take ideas from a youths. They give money to the youths to capitalize on their time, energy and commitment.
Indeed Angel investors agrees. Here’s a fictional quote that sums up what I’ve heard from Angel investors (just because I like quotes and it looks cool):

The year is 2015! Do you really think your idea is unique? In this day and age, ideas are worth nothing. It’s all about the execution! I invest in the person, not in the idea.

—

So what is the next step?

The next step is to tell it to the world

Go to events and pitch your idea to as many as you can! This is what I did yesterday at SUP46, indeed it was super valuable.

I found a programmer who got so intrigued by the “It’s a mix of LinkedIn and WhatApp” pitch that we pivoted the idea for 20 minutes from a programmers point of view!
I also found 3-4 iOS developers who may or may not be interested in joining my team.

—

The idea in your head will never improve as long as it remains in your head only. Do yourself a favor and share it today in class! You will get two invalueable things: Feedback and contacts!

Liked it? Why not to share then?
        

Enthusiasm

by ⋅ 15 Comments

Entrepreneurship fascinates me. Not specifically because I have certain entrepreneurial ambitions. I have the feeling that I am better fitted for the position of “second man”, I’m not prone taking too many risks and I’ve never really felt the urge to start my own business. But I enjoy reading everything that has to do with the subject and I am very interested in the process of starting up a company.

One of the aspects that attracts me to entrepreneurship is the overwhelming enthusiasm that every entrepreneur seems to possess. As I do with all interests I normally have, I started googling. I started with search topics such as entrepreneurship enthusiasm, enthusiastic entrepreneurs and so on. Among the results were a lot of a lot of blogs, sites and even scientific proof that enthusiasm is a necessary ingredient for entrepreneurs. Sites about how you can share it with your team, your investors and even how you can make sure it lasts as long as possible.

Interestingly, besides those kind of positive articles, I also found a lot of sites stating that enthusiasm is a pitfall for start-ups and entrepreneurs. There is even a syndrome named after it: Enthusiasticus Founder syndrome. For me personally I don’t think the syndrome is an issue, therefore I will focus here on the positive side. I just looked up the definition of it to see whether I didn’t know what enthusiasm is or that I had the wrong picture of entrepreneurship. The Cambridge dictionary told me this:

Enthusiasm
Noun /ɪnˈθjuː.zi.æz.əm/
A feeling of energetic interest in a particular subject or activity and an eagerness to be involved in it.

If we take into account this explanation you would definitely agree that I describe the people at STHLM TECH FEST as enthusiastic. The people pitching on stage were of course very enthusiastic about their own idea. Standing in front of a big audience and a panel of important and influential people from well established companies. But especially the companies at the fair I found ultimately enthusiastic. Most of them were so fond of the idea that they conceived and so willing to share it with the crowd that they really tried to draw their attention. It was almost un-Swedish how they took the initiative to make contact with people who passed by. As a new student in town it felt really welcoming and very inspiring to see what’s going on in Stockholm.

I hope to see you all tomorrow for another enthusiastic (and very early) lecture entrepreneurship!

Michiel

If you are interested here is some more on the syndrome:
http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/20/startups-how-to-avoid-death-by-enthusiasm/

Liked it? Why not to share then?