STHLM: Stockholm’s Tech Meetup

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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.
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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!

Uppstart: Gathering Tech Startups in Uppsala

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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.

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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.
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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.
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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.

Focus on the strategy, not the business plan

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http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/242452

I came across this article on entrepreneur.com and felt that it had some astute points on strategy and business plan/model.

In my opinion, the article made some strong cases that entrepreneurs should focus more on their business strategy, product and their customers instead of their revenue model or business plan.

However, a business plan is not as redundant as the title suggests. A business plan is still essential in a start-up, though it is not the main focus. Later in the article, the author suggests a lean business model canvas that capture the succinct points of a business plan in a page.

I can’t agree more with the author. Start-ups should cut away the details of the business plan as plans change from time to time; nothing is predictable in a start up.

 

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The lean business model canvas allows customers or investors to easily understand the business plan and it allows easy transition to another business plan. I will definitely use this as a tool if I am starting something.

Yi Quan