Spreading your Startup & Co-ops

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Spreading your startup, especially when bootstrapping, is all about facilitating win-win cooperations with places where you want your startup to be.

For me: Spreading Netty to people who are interested in networking is all about making win-win co-ops with places where the networkers are. One of the interesting places are StudentNode!

StudentNode is a platform where companies post events. But not any events; only events made FOR students. It’s a really cool site which features a lot of different companies. The initiative is intended to boost the relationship between students and our future employers. There are frequent events where students can get to know how it is to work at different companies.
E.g. I attended one of the events today which actually turned out to be a challenge from PwC. It was called ProjectX. Me and a teammate went into a room and tried to find the key to get out of the room. It was a fun exercise of teamwork.
After that I emailed StudentNode, suggesting a coop.

More updates in next blogpost!
http://www.pwcprojectx.se/
http://www.studentnode.com/

STARTING UP!

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Hey everyone! 😀

As some of you already know.

Netty is under development and I will soon be in KTH innovation with my team.

 

If you’re interested, sign up! www.Netty.se

And like us on Facebook and LinkedIn if you like the product 🙂

 

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Here’s a sneak peek of the ad campaign we’ll run at KTH. Wish me luck 🙂

Venture Cup – Win 250 000 kr for your idea!

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Venture Cup is Swedens biggest competition for startups/business ideas!

If you have an idea, you can submit it and win 250 000 kr!

The most valueable thing (according to me) though is the feedback you get. Everyone who submits get feedback from experts who will read your application. Your idea won’t be public for everyone of course, only for specific experts.

Here’s a workshop by Venture Cup at Student Inc (I’m the one with the white Tshirt)
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And heres something I’ve been doing outside of the library. Promoting entrepreneurship!

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The idea competition is due to 6:th of October.

Followed by the Business plan competition due to months later.

You got nothing to lose! http://www.venturecup.se/

Update & The N-ABC model you need to know for your idea

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There was actually so much to write about in the weekend that I ended up writing about nothing.

As a Tech person who’ve previously underestimated the importance of marketing, I’m not repeating same mistake.

IMG-20150916-WA0000

A poster we put up in a high-school along with a happy student

So www.StudiePortalen.nu is a site where college students helps high-school students by simply sharing their experience of their study and college.
If contributing with your experiences/thoughts of your study is something for you, hit me up!

Also started an online profile for future online marketing.
https://twitter.com/fragaenstudent
(Facebook coming soon)

—

And for the virtual network project:

App

I put a lot of these in the computer departments of the E- and D-house  yesterday. I got an answer today and interviewed rightaway. The programmer hunt seems to be under control.

 

HERE’S WHAT I HAVE TO PREPARE FOR THE MEETING WITH KTH INNOVATION:
Need- What are the problem(s) and important needs you are solving. Who is your customer? What do you know about the market?

Approach- What do you offer? (Tech / solution, business idea)

Benefits- Whats the benefit for your customer with your offer/solution?

Competition- Which are your competitors/alternatives? What makes your offer unique comparing to those?

 

So to follow up on what I previously posted

Step 1: Tell the world

Step 2: Think out you N-ABC

 

Next steps coming soon

So you have an idea. Now what?

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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.

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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!

Networkr – How big should you think?

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You want to hear a secret?
Last week, KTH innovation sent me a ticket to Stockholm Tech fest.
What they didn’t know was that they accidentally also sent me a ticket to the super-VIP hangout BEFORE the Tech fest.
(I’m not talking about the VIP dinner, but the VIP hangout that took place before that!)

I wasn’t even aware of it myself, even though they’d ask me
– Are you a speaker or an investor?
– (Me:) umm, I’m just a student…

—

Being in a room with only investors felt kind of alienating, but at the same time, of course I felt like I should take advantage of the situation. I didn’t know how, but I just made sure to talk as much as I could.

The last conversation of the day happened to be with a student of Handelshögskolan who started J12Ventures, a company that invests in Startups. He told me

“I’ve had so many ideas the last 6 months, and all I’ve been wanting to do is to network with KTH (technical-) students. But I’m isolated at handels and there isn’t really an event
between KTH and Handels…”

Having trained my ear to listen to “pains”, of course I saved that sentence in my brain-RAM as we continued the conversation. I later thought of arranging an event between Handels and KTH. Then I applied the concept of always “thinking bigger” as Micael told us at his talk.
Should we really be limited by events in our possibilities to network?
Why not make an app where you combine LinkedIn with WhatsApp?

I call it Virtual Networking…

The main concept being that you can “Create a room” (representing an event), and in there you can chat everyone else in the room. You can also see every other conversation in the room, and jump into conversations. You can of course chose to chat privately, Skype and exchange contact information (kind of like you exchange business card).

I went on to pitch the idea to a friend who works at STING (the best Startup incubator in Sweden if I remember correctly), who thought it was an interesting idea and supported it.

—

Michael (our last speaker) told us to “Think big”. Well, I already know that, right? I originally learned it from Tai Lopez, a wealth mentor. That’s why I want to make an app instead of an event…

But why not take a step further and make the app not just for business networking, but for everything. Like reddit! The difference being that Networkr is in real-time and more
interactive.

So what do you think. Should I go with niched or not?

Remember: “If you try to satisfy everyone, you won’t make anyone happy” – Serdar Temiz
PS. Can I use Networkr as my idea for the cource?

Me <3 The startup world

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I guess everything started when I came to KTH, only to discover that innovation is possible, and people like you are doing it!…

I’ve lived in the suburbs of Stockholm my whole life. And not the good kind. The kind where drug dealing is common and theft/shooting happens every once in a while.
But I was a good boy. I was smart they said. I got good grades and my future would be bright.

That was the view of everyone except my Father. Not because of something personal to me, but because he was not a (business-)optimist. So I grew up thinking that it is
hard for everybody except the wealthy 1 % who controlles everything. I would become a doctor, get a job/house/kids and that would be the best I could do.

Then I started at KTH and I couldn’t help but to get fascinated by the innovation that is done by “regular people” and youths. People just like you and me! Being exposed to talks and events at school, I felt that the more experienced were very encouraging. I guess I was so fascinated because I had so low  expectations.

I happily dwelved into the startup world by going to events where I found out that it is a rather small community, and everyone knows each other. Even though I was busy with studies and web design, I took the position of being a Brand ambassador for two startups. I am now the Brand ambassador at KTH for Venture Cup.

The whole time has been like a 1-year-journey in a flow state. Novelty, new challenges to overcome & room for personal development are always found in the  Startup world!

Next year, I am the project manager of Entrepreneurial Days here at KTH which you are invited to. But even earlier than that

Join me at SUP46 today
https://www.facebook.com/events/581650585306870/
(I was planning to post sooner but I was busy recruiting)

PS. You must know about Venture Cup! Far too many students have an idea but think that they are too young/inexperienced/incompetent to execute. That is most likely not the case.

Venture Cup is Swedens biggest competition for ideas and Startups where you can win 260 000 SEK. Talk to me if you have an idea, there’s tons of free support to get 🙂

My experience with Ecommerce

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Micael Widell made sure that everyone brought something home from his arsenal of experiences.
For me was the pointer that

“> 50% of your funding should go to marketing”

I’ve actually built an ecommerce myself. www.inEar.nu
I did it last summer, and a big component why was to learn to make websites. I was mind-boggled by the amount of people who are self-learned web-designers. The programmer at one of the Startups I was an intern for said that he sold his first website before being able to make websites, later going home and learning to do it. Indeed even Daniel Ek (founder of Spotify) did the same thing as he reported at the interview at Tech fest.

However the main purpose of making the site was of course to make a profit. But I wouldn’t regret making it if it didn’t. The outcome?
When I had the cheapest prices on the market, I usually got around 3 orders per day. I did this even though profits where non-existent to create an awareness of the brand. When I later increased the prices, I got nearly zero visitors.

inear Statistiv

Everything Micael said made sense to me and just hammered home the belief structure I’ve gotten through the experience! An ecommerce is a place where you want real
people to spend their real money. You can’t expect them to do so without good branding and marketing.

—

Over the past year, a big reason of being an incomplete online-entreprenour was the lack of knowledge regarding the importance of marketing.

inEar.nu was one example, I have another example (which I’ll share later perhaps). Now I won’t make the same mistake with
Studieportalen.nu and StartupJournals.eu ! (not yet launched)

—

Something I remember from a recent seminar by JT Foxx (Worlds #1 wealth coach) on branding.

“Prada can buy a bag for 50 dollars, put their name on it and sell it for 5 000 dollars.
Would that work if you write your name on it instead? Most probably not.
Why? Because of branding!”

And not even a great product saves you the effort of marketing/branding! E.g Elon Musk gave 20 $ to the first users of Paypal. Up to an amount of some billions! (If I remember
correctly)

So always expect to put a lot of effort in marketing and branding and make place for it in your budget!