How to Start a Start-up

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I found this interesting article which I think summarizes a lot of what have been discussing in the classes. The author of the article describes what is important to think about when you first have an idea for a start-up. He includes questions about the funding, the market, the product and the business model which are all subjects which have been discussed during the time of this course. The most important thing a take with me from this article is that you should try to kill your own idea, if that is possible there is no point of spending more time on it. It might not be a fun thing to do but if the idea survives these arguments it will be much easier to continue to work on it. And one thing I’ve learnt from this course is that working on an idea as an entrepreneur will take a lot of time and energy; and it would be really pointless to have spent all that time for nothing.

Many of the questions are similar to what we are writing about in our venture papers, so if you’re not done yet take a quick look on and you might get some new ideas.

Innovation according to Google

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Today the EIT ICT Labs CLC in Stockholm hosted a talk on innovation and entrepreneurship by Nicklas Lundblad. He is Public policy officer at Google, and also an adjunct professor at KTH.

The discussion touched on different topics related to innovation, with a focus on what Google is doing.

As Lundblad said, innovation needs to be useful, therefore it’s important to take a look at how it can be embedded in society. When innovations fail to address people’s needs, they face rejection. For example, Google Glass has been considered a failure under many aspects. The company eventually realised that they were not a viable consumer product, because there was no use case in which people would be willing to use them. On the other hand, certain contexts (e.g. medical practice, construction workers, etc.) proved to be more fruitful.

Lundblad also talked about how government policy can influence the trajectory a company takes and this is especially relevant to Google, which has been under scrutiny in Europe. Legislators argue that the company has a de-facto monopoly in the search market, while they say to be in the “information discovery market”, which is much broader and where competition is more than abundant. While definitely clever, this position only circumvents the issue at stake and I don’t think it is acceptable to have big corporations try to dictate policies and basically undermine regulations in the name of a better market. It is true that the lack of a single digital market has consequences on the entrepreneurial efforts of Europe, as Lundblad highlighted, but the solution is not as easy as Google might make it seem.

The discussion also focused on what innovation really is, and using Google’s mission statement as a reference, Lundblad concluded that it could be said that innovation really is about organising information. In that sense, Google is trying to keep innovating by moving in always new territories.

Overall, this was an extremely interesting event, that nicely touched on many topics we discussed and read about during the course.

What is a job going to be in the future?

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A couple of weeks ago the guest lecturer Albert Bengtson from  Apple asked us a question which got me thinking. It was: “What do you think having a job would look like in the future?”

At least in Germany, my generation is known as the “generation  internship” due to the need of experience you need, when you want to apply for a new job. In order to meet the job requirements of certain career fields, inexperienced job applicants need to absolve a  lot of a internships. This was not always the case and belittles the  value of education which certainly generates a problem: If you do not have job experience, you will not get a job. If you do not have a job, it is hard to get experience. Thus there is a need for internships (according to the industry). Doing internships can be fun and rewarding for a short time. But if you are paid little or even not at all, it can be frustrating after a while and lower the attractiveness of actually working for someone else in general.

Furthermore, if you compare the consistency on the job market from two decades ago with today’s standards, it is hard for me to imagine to have one job for the rest of my life. Regardless whether I would like it or not, this scenario seems to be gone forever. A lot of people are thrown out of jobs (certainly also because of the financial crisis a couple of years back) and forced to learn new jobs. Ergo the ones who adapt fastest, will have an advantage. Being able to adapt and coping with new things seems to be a crucial part of being a successful entrepreneur.

Robotics and computers in general are going to automate simple and even difficult tasks to a level where human accord labour is not required anymore. Highly skilled professionals with a broad scope will be the profile of many job descriptions. (Who has not alredy heard of the so called “T-shaped” professional) The needs will shift and being on the forefront of this development instead of longing for the ‘goog old days’ will probably pay off.

Additionally more and more people seem to have the dream of being their own boss. This is what I perceive as the main motivator for entrepreneurs to take the risk and try to exploit an opportunity. Entrepreneurship also enables the entrepreneur to develop a product or service which is produced with own resources and skills. Since the probability for an entrepreneur to be successful is closely connected to their motivation and interest in their product, this work has the potential to be far more rewarding than a random job, carried out for someone else.

Combining all these observations, I believe that some kind of entrepreneurship will be the norm in a few decades from now. Fostering your own skills and knowing how to sell them will be a crucial aspect of work life. Big companies will most certainly still exist but the way people are employed will probably change. After all, regardless of what will come in the future, we will experience a major change.

Pushbullet: a startup with great potential

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Pushbullet is a cross-platform application that aims to connect multiple devices to create a shared user experience: with it you can share your phone’s notifications to your computers, share files/links/notes between devices, and answer messages on your phone from your computer.

Developed by a six-person startup, it’s been described as a life-changing application. It recently received $1.5 million in seed funding, and it’s expanding rapidly: at the moment is available both on desktop (as a browser extension or application) and mobile.

I tried using it with an Android smartphone and a Macbook: in this case it’s especially useful, because otherwise the communication between the two devices would be quite limited.

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Stockholm entrepreuneurs – Innovation & Disruptive Technologies

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Last Wednesday I went with Niclas to Stockholm Entrepreneurs’ event “Innovation & Disruptive Technologies: Entrepreneurship As A Mindset” at Epicenter. The topic was discussed by a panel with a lot of experience in the field;

Mahesh Kumar – Digital entrepreneur, Innovation advisor

Lisa Renander – Founder of Hus24, ‎Manager & Advisor: Innovation, Entrepreneurship

Yatin Sethi – Innovator and Design Thinker, working on societal challenges

The event was moderated by the serial entrepreneur Peter Fosso, Founder of Global Music Project, NetMusic Entertainment, Stockholm Entrepreneurs.

They covered a lot of big questions about innovation and startups. The panel was very competent so it was really nice and interesting to hear what they thought about innovation in today’s society and also what they thought awaits in the future. The panel interacted with the audience and for example asked a question if we are afraid for anything due to future innovation? Should we? Some responds was about AI and data collection, interesting subjects which could not be covered in depth because of the limited time unfortunately.

Besides the panel discussion Hannes Sjöblad presented shortly Epicenter and his work with implanted microchips, which replaces access cards. He is currently using it to access his office, open his phone and computer and he believes it might replace credit cards and keys in the future. You can read more about it at bionyfiken.se.

Another cool item was presented by Robert Nyman from Google and it was the Google cardboard, http://www.google.com/get/cardboard/index.html. It is a simple cardboard box with two lenses that enables you to experience VR with your phone. Very simple but very fun, check it out.

I had great experience and I can truly recommend Stockholm Entrepreneurs’ events!

#ExpertNight: Funding for Startups

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Yesterday at SUP46 (Startup People of Sweden) I attended an #ExpertNight focused on funding for startups, a topic closely related to what we did and discussed about in class.

The event tried to answer some of the most common questions startups face: “When should you raise money? How much do you need? Who should you take funding from? Is it better to grow organically?”

Among the guests for the panel discussion were Tim Yi He (Northzone), Joakim Dal (GP Bullhound), Johan Crona (ALMI Invest), Henrik von Stockenstrom (FundedByMe), Anette Nordvall (Stoaf.se).

After a brief introduction, the panelists talked about how they scout for startups to invest in: some go to events and get to know people, some do generic market research to see if there’s anything interested that has been funded recently, others just filter the applications they receive.

The most important question is another, though: what is the selling point that captures the interest of investors when talking with startups?

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My Little Reminder

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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.

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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.

circulo vida

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