From today’s class, this the video pitch for AirYoga Channel:
Warm waves, rock climbing, jungle adventures, healthy yummy food… Aaaah, some inspirational homeland memories woke me up this morning! my daily life has been disconnected from the wild nature since I started my studies in Sweden. Thinking of Galapagos, the Amazon and the great Andes brought me to an ecstatic moment. Then I got stressed because of the bunch of projects I need to work on… Come on, lets start with a motivational reminder of why am I here, studying human computer interaction instead of surfing.
Technological development and its immersion in human life is undeniable. Beyond questioning whether technology is good or bad for life, I have decided to channel it in healthy ways, as a form of integration, to reach a harmonious relationship between man, nature and machines. The potential of new technologies that connect the physical world with the virtual one, seem to be unlimited; however, the development of its applications just begun, which leads me to the creation of new interactive worlds.
Applications of 3d audio, augmented reality, GPS, multimodal interaction devices and a bunch of sensors are examples of the accelerated trend in which humanity integrates new technologies into everyday life. I know about them and in my entrepreneurial courses I have learned how to reach my niches and make a lot of revenue. But hey! such attempts of expanding technology are both exclusive and mediated by consumerist dynamics, perhaps driven by gated communities?
A globalized world should welcome integration proposals that rise from the local and improve regional potentials; however, “western” pragmatic premise “the end justifies the means, as long as it functions” has spread around the world, killing local identities and standardizing individuals into alienated slaves of the system. This ethical points must be considered and discussed in academia and all the ICT community.
My Yoga People, Quito 2014
Rather than designing objects to be installed in a defined space/client, I dream of sites fulfilled of significance, which offer people the opportunity to interact with the world in new cycles of activities. I don’t care too much about the little niche that will give me money; I project interactive products, which are inclusive and available to the entire population, because I want them to be aware, healthy and happy.
Back to my mind, I invent as a contribution for building interactive worlds, for a possible and desirable contemporaneity that will honour the individual and respect multicultural imagery.
Yn Ry
On February 17th I went to to STHLM, Stockholm’s tech meet up. A pity I arrived late at the event, the door gift was a microchip!
When I arrived at the meetup, the first start-up has already began pitching, I have forgotten the name but the idea was quite good. It is to create a market where consumers will pay for images. Like how Spotify revoltuionised the music industry, the founder believe that his platform will revolutionise the image industry. People do not pay for the images they use even if they do not possess the rights. Many people just rip it off google image search, just like how a huge number of consumers were illegally downloading music before spotify came about. The platform allows consumers to use images legally such as design work or photographs by professionals with a minimal amount of money. What was really amazing is that the founder actually got Microsoft to integrate his platform on the upcoming version of powerpoint. Hence, users can just insert an image into their presentations through his plug-in in Powerpoint, how convenient is that. The investors were also very impressed that he had secured a brilliant distribution channel.
The next 2 start ups are dating apps with somewhat creative ideas. One of them was 7 heaven which plans to solve the problem of people posting photos that do not look like them on dating platforms. Their workaround is too set a timing of 6 hours for the photo to uploaded after it is taken. Of course people can still edit their photos or choose a very good photo within 6 hours. The other was trice which wanted to do a snapchat version of a dating app where conversations can only be take place in pictures with captions. I felt that it was restricting it does not allow pure text to be sent over and just adding an image send to a dating app is just a small addition. However, one investor brought up an insightful point that dating apps are still hot as the market is always willing to accommodate more. Users of dating apps are desperate and they are willing to try new apps and most users use several dating apps at once.
All in all, STHLM was wonderful and I signed up for the next one on March 24th already. Next time I will arrive early for the door gift haha!
On February 11, I attended, Uppstart, my first start up event in Stockholm. It was quite a unique experience as it was held at the Uppsala castle; I have never attended a business event at a castle before.
The event started off the panel of investors introducing themselves and giving some useful tips for start ups. There were quite a few insightful points mentioned.
First of all, the panel informed us that the investment environment is much different from 5 years ago. Investment rounds are now longer and investors are willing to fund longer projects. The investment environment is less hostile overall. Many investors will still continue investing even when some start-ups are not making profits for a period of time.
One important tip for start-ups is to get funding when you can, not when you need it. The panels said that they have seen too many start-ups missed funding opportunities because they felt that they already have enough funding. Some came to regret it later. It is always better to have extra funds as the road of a start-up is very unpredictable.
Another tip is to demonstrate what can a start-up do without or minimal funding. Investors are more impressed with what you can do in your current state than what you plan to do if you have the funds. Being able to do a lot of little funding demonstrates a start-up resourcefulness.
The panel at Uppstart said that they look at 4 main criteria when investing in a start up. Team, Attraction, Market and Barriers.
Team: A team should have the right talent to pull off the project.
Attraction: The idea should be attractive enough to the investor
Market: The market should be ready to adopt the product or service
Barriers: Barriers to entry to the industry is a critical factor. This includes current big players and the network effect. Some apps are only useful if they have a large number of users(network effect), even if the app is really better than the competitor, without the network effect it may not take off.
3 companies pitched during the start up event which I felt were not very good ideas. In fact, they did not make much of an impression such that I do not remember much about them. One of the ideas to regulate the temperature of the heaters in the house to save energy, another one was an event manager app, I can’t remember the third one. The panel discussion was much better than the start-up pitching.
I recently listened to a really interesting episode of resumes podcast, featuring Ola Ahlvarsson who is a swedish veteran entrepreneur. In it they discuss innovation, communication, how he perceives entrepreneurship and the future of technology. All relevant topics, well worth a listen.
Unfortunately it’s in swedish, so i guess this is only aimed at the swedish speaking student.
I imaging that everyone has started with their venture project by now, deciding on what kind of service or product you would like to offer customers. Much of the focus is on how the product or service is going to be better than the competition or how it is going to satisfy the customers’ needs. This is all very important, but there is something else which might be event more important namely the name of your product or service. This is the first thing your customers is going to see or here when they meet your idea for the first time.
I found this interesting podcast episode where they discuss the importance of the name, since it is the name that will symbolize what you are trying to achieve with your product or service. So, should you go for an abstract or associative name?
Good evening folks,
Last week hosted several start-up meetings and events, and I though I would give a short review of each of them.
Tuesdag was the day of the Sthlm Tech Meetup, at Hilton Slussen. It was really crowded, not a chance to get a seat. The guest companies/investors this time among others included Bonnier Growth Media, a branch within the Bonnier Group relating to transform the editorial material to the new media landscape, briefly explained. Myself being a journalist since many years, working closely with especially Bonnier Magazines Group, it was sort of a nice touch to the evening. One of their main things to start is the KIT digital media platform, co-founded by a friend of mine, Robert Brännström. (Who unfortunately wasn’t present on the event…)
Other than that, there were three pitches presented, two of which included (remarkably similar) dating app services. And frankly, they both felt like less good competitors to Tinder, and not genuinely great ideas, to my mind. The third aimed to be some sort of Spotify service for images, but that also seemed to have a long way to be a worldwide success.
Thursday I attended a start-up event at familiar ground, here at KTH, where the Student Incubator (Student Inc) had a housewarming party in their new location at Lindstedtsvägen. A really nice place to mingle, have a beer and have a chat with one of the start-ups that have come out of KTH.
Oh, and the week before that, which I have forgotten to blog about, the startup event Uppstart, at the castle of Uppsala (my hometown) took place. A bit of a distance to travel, sure, but several of my friends in Uppsala University organisation Entrepreneurs Academy were present. However, not as crowded as the Tech Meetup… but maybe next time! 🙂
Right now, and this entire week, I am away on an industrial design engineering workshop/conference in Värnamo, in the southern part of Sweden. People from several schools, including KTH, Linneaus University and Jönköping University, gather for a week’s work and business cooperation. Hopefully plenty of good ideas will come out of this. Or, wait… They already have.
Therefore, you will not see me until next week. Have a good time back in Estocolmo!
Erik
Automattic was recently listed by the Wall Street Journals as one of the world’s 73 most-valuable startups. Funded in 2005 by Matt Mullenweg, it is mostly known for being the driving force behind WordPress.
WordPress is not their only product, though. Among them, there is Simplenote, a note taking app that values simplicity. I have been using it for a some time now, and I think it’s worth trying.
The app is free to use and it’s available on multiple platforms: iOS, Android, Mac, Kindle. It’s also possible to use it from the web.
It comes with a lot of good features: instant synchronisation across different devices; tagging; revision history (to go back in time and never loose changes).
Yesterday I went to STHLM Tech Meetup and it was a really good experience. I really like the concept and how they carried out the event. It was a little bit like a talk show with a fun and outgoing host and his sidekick. They started of with some information about what is going on in the Stockholm startup scene and what media is writing about on the topic. It is great to summarize in a forum like this and highlight interesting and actual news.
Then they smoothly transitioned to interviews where they talked to KnCMiner and their startup story. They also talked to Bonnier growth media and Dawn capital about what they are up to right now.
After the interviews three startups got the chance to pitch their ideas. The setup for the pitches was really interesting because the host interrupted and asked the jury what they thought so far, when only the basic outlines of the idea were given. It was interesting to see how the persons who pitched handled the situation and the input during the rest of the pitch. This way the pitches got interactive and the audience got a chance to understand what potential investors might think about during a pitch.
I had a really positive experience and can recommend a visit to the STHLM tech meetup which was fun and informative in a relaxed way.
