Monthly Archives: September 2015

 

 

Hi folks,

As part of our assignments, we need to help one or more startup by trying their products/services and feedback on it. The first startup I have been focusing on is Snapchat.

Snapchat is pretty well known by everybody know. For people unaware of it,  Snapchat is an application used to send pictures to our contacts with a set time limit for how long the recipients can view the Snaps. The application was released 4 years ago. As most of the people, I started to use Snapchat 2 years ago ish.

However, a new function has been released on the application quite recently and I have just started to use it a couple of weeks ago : the Snapchat channels. If you swipe two times to the right in the application, you will have access to 14 different channels.

The Snapchat channels are offering very short videos, pictures and tips on various subjects. The channels are 5 minutes long maximum and change every 24 hours. As part of my interests, I have tried the following channels :

• Tastemade : this is a cooking/baking channel. I can discover new recipes via 1-2 minutes videos on a specific country. For example, yesterday it was Russia. They are also sharing mini-articles that you can read like ‘7 things you did not know about Russia’. I have learnt a lot of things about different countries those last couple of weeks!
• Food Network : Cooking/baking channel again. Pretty different from Tastemade because they are not focused on a specific country but just share random recipes. A bit more articles than videos.
• Cosmopolitans : The gossip press – if you want to be aware day to day of what is happening in famous people’s lives!
• Mashable : the tech channel! They are sharing everyday a nice tech article, highlighting one new app to try out and often offer as well their feedback of a new technology. For instance, it was the new 3D touch or the live video on the Iphone 6S the last 2 days.

My feedback on it : I completely love it! I think Snapchat succeeds in understanding the need of the young generation to get information the kind of information they do want, very rapidly/shortly and when they want it. The fact that you can choose the channel you wanna watch is awesome. Also, if there is anything you are not interested in within the channel, you can just skip it by snapping left – that easy! This is innovation for me in the sense that Snapchat already has a very good idea with the time-set pictures but now try to improve their service by offering the channels now. The subjects are made by real professionals, the image quality/video is awesomely recorded. This is defenitely something that comes into my daily habits now – instead of reading lots of articles for hours or watching TV on a specific time for the news, I can get information pretty easily via Snapchat whenever I want to.

If I had to send them a ‘bad’ feedback, I would maybe try to extend the service to new types of channels (language, culture) that are a bit lacking at the moment. Also, I would try to find a way to be able to share the interestings snaps I have seen in my story or to link it to my facebook. We can only snap it to a specific list of contacts for now and sometimes I would love to share it to all my contacts – which is not possible for the moment.

Give it a try – I am sure you guys will find the right channel for you and enjoy this new way of getting information!

Thanks for reading,

Celine

 

 

Hi all,

Yesterday, I went to the Sup46 FemTech event. It was the first time that I was attending this kind of event and I wanted to share my feelings with you guys.

First thing first, I was quite surprised with the whole event organisation. Quite fancy and professional but pretty casual at the same time: I guess this is the good atmosphere they wanted to give us to make us feel comfortable. Free pop corn and drinks were offered to us so as well. During 30 minutes, I had the chance to put in practice my introduction pitch with quite a lot of female entrepreneurs, listen back to their presentations and just network! This comforts me in the idea that Stockholm seems to be a great place to start a company in ! There are so many new ideas, so many ways to improve the world and the new entrepreneurs generation seems to be very excited about it.

Then, during 45 minutes we had the chance to listen to Adiba Barney, CEO of SVForum. SVForum is a platform to connect innovators, entrepreneurs and business partners within the Silicon Valley (USA). Founded in 1983, SV Forum is organising 150 events a year and a lot of workshops to allow people growing their idea and improving their entrepreneur skills in a technology incubator.

 

Some “AHA” moments I wanted to share as well :

1. It often takes 6 to 12 months to get investors giving you money
2. A fearless attitude from the young generation has been observed the last couple of years
3. Sweden is in the Top 5 in Equality ranking vs USA in position 26
4. Woman co-founders companies are returning 35% more in investment, generate 12% more revenue and spend 1/3 less than male co-founders companies!

I really enjoy Adiba’s interview. She is very good at sharing her story and attracting your attention without showing off. She was very close to us, very accessible and pretty nice as well. Among all her advice I wanted to share some take home messages.

At the question “What should you do before starting a company?“, Adiba highlights 3 key points:

• Knowing why you are doing it : building a company requires a lot of passion and a lot of energy. If you are only doing it for money, it is probably not going to work. Being sure why you are willing to put yourself in such an adventure will help you focus on a main goal during your journey
• Knowing what kind of company you want : is it a lifestyle company? a tech company? People in the Silicon Valley are insane and pretty open to everything but very  professional at the same time. Know your market, your competitors landscape or in other words be an expert in your field! Preparation is the key to defend your idea. They are expecting a lot from entrepreneurs even if they look very friendly and nice to you, they are actually judging your potential and your idea while you are talking to them! Do not underestimate Americans.
• Who do I want to do it with ? Investors are often expecting a 1 or 2 co-founders with you. Building a company by your own is not well seen. On the other side, having a too crowded starting team is not helping neither. If you decide to build a company with your best friend(s), make sure you are still doing all the official business papers. You never know if you are going to hate them in a few months! Also, try not associate with people who are exactly the same as you: diversity is a strength!

At the question “What are the key qualities to be a successful global company?“,  Adiba shares her thoughts:

• Having a dynamic team – obviously
• Act and react properly : Adiba highlights the number of entrepreneurs who are not able to react properly to investors or even coworkers feedback. A good entrepreneur needs to take into account good and bad feedbacks- this is how we are progressing. Otherwise, you are just going to loose credibility and trust!

Adiba is a very young business woman I admire for her professional orator skills but also for the events she has been through in her life : a civil war, 2 breast cancers and now a incurable cancer coming back in stage 4. Despite this, she was very warm, smiling and close to us.

A Q&A session followed her interview and 30 more minutes to network with the audience.

I really enjoy this first experience within the entrepreneurs “community” and will shortly try to attend some more events like this!

Any questions, please feel free to give me a shout!

Celine

After the elevator pitch we had in class I took some time to review my idea and get some feedback from last year students. I thought I’d share this with you since you all might have thought on this when stepping into the venture project. I pitched my idea from the four perspectives below and was given feedback accordingly:

What is the problem? I identified the problem as for me, gym services today don’t offer the flexible training form I am asking for.
Feedback: This could have been taken to a more general perspective. By combining personal experience (“I”) with the more general problem (“you”) it can capture the interest of the audience even more.

What is the idea? Flextraining as I named it is a service to offer you flexible training through an online gym membership that enables you to book passes and activities at any gym or sport club you like. Secondly, the monthly pay rates are set from the activities you actually attend, and therefore, are variable. Feedback: A more visual description of the idea can be in order to fully grasp the service in such a short time.

What makes the idea unique? I mainly devided it into 1. it is the first service to offer you activities at both sport clubs and gyms without being committed to one gym enterprise. 2. The monthly pay rate is set from the activities you actually attend instead of the a fixed pay rate like regular gyms.
Feedback: Could incorporate key words to make it more tangible.

What’s my business model? In the short time I divided it into two parts: Revenues and costs. On revenues I related it to the monthly customer payments and regarding costs I discussed the potential partnerships with gyms and sport clubs with the trade of new customers.
Feedback: Maybe push for the collaboration and potential of the market more since you just have a short time to widen the interest of potential angel investors.

Key Take-away: What the feedback gave me in general was the need of focusing on capturing the potential angel investor’s interest. From my point of view this would have meant incorporating some vital key words to build a story that both captures and tells the story of the idea. In my case this could have been “flexible”, “gym trades”, “customized offer” for mentioning just a few.

Have you got any feedback or learned anything from the elevator pitch that could be valuable when going forward with the venture project?

Hello all!

 

During Friday’s team exercises and discussions about how to act under various circumstances when working with a partner or in a team, the opinions somewhat differed in the class. Not much, but a little. For example there were discussions about responsibilities and ways of handling things in case of unexpected events.

What I have posted below is a short article that describes 5 necessary steps to build an effective team. These steps doesn’t necessarily answers the questions raised during Friday’s exercises but they certainly cover one of in my opinion most important aspects; clarification and realisation of what and how much that can be achieved through successful teamwork. More specifically these simple steps made me think about the importance of being of a common opinion within the team before the actual work begins.

BUT, mainly I consider these steps useful to just read through and think about when working with the venture project. Although the article is from a leader point of view, seeing these steps from a group perspective reminds me of some things that are important to effectively work in a team.

Here’s the article: http://www.inc.com/peter-economy/5-steps-to-really-effective-teams.html

//Mattias

Yesterday I stumbled across an article with an interview with 91-year-old entrepreneur Jack Nadel. During the last 70 years he has been able to achieve a sustainable success in a wide range of different industries worldwide, creating millions of dollars in profits. In this article he shared his three most valuable lessons to know when starting and managing your company.

 

These are his lessons:

• Find a need and fill it
• Don’t let your ego get in the way
• Most successful entrepreneur aren’t geniuses

 

All of these lessons seem quite simple and I don’t think it’s anything revolutionary for anyone taking this course. But reflecting a bit more over the meaning of these lessons I realized that we maybe look at it in the wrong way. We want to hear some complex and complicated lessons because we think this is something complex and complicated. But in reality all of us could start a company just by finding a need and filling it and never doubt ourselves.

 

/Felix

In most courses, you get specific information on what your project should be about and some information on what you have to do for reaching different grades. What I like about this project is that nothing is given to us. We don’t have any specific “problem” to solve. We have to come up with an business idea by ourselves, we have to agree on that idea as a group and form the project group together.

I think its a great exercise for real life situations. Entrepreneurship is not all about getting a great idea and earn money. This stuff are things all entrepreneurs have to deal with. You need to formate your group. There is no teacher who will tell you what to do and there is no facit.

You could have a great mind, but if you are not able to lead the company of yours, you will not succeed.

Hi all,

I found this thing called Techstar while reading about accelerator companies online. Techstar is a global eco system that is built for entrepreneurs all over the world. Techstar provides accelerators, venture capital and an enormous entrepreneurial network. They encourage people to build their businesses wherever they live and invest in you as an entrepreneur and not necessarily the business that you are in.

I think it is perfect for entrepreneurs to be able to visit such events where they can get the chance to meet with other entrepreneurs and also get the chance to be funded. According to Techstar 89 % of the accelerator companies are still active or has been acquired which I think is a quite good number. Currently in Europe they have programs in Berlin and London but hopefully (if they consider all tech startups) they will host a programme in Stockholm as well.

Check it out!

Listen to this interview with entrepreneur Christofer Engman who is founder of three IT-companies. He is giving some advices on how to become a successful business leader. The video is only 8 minutes long! 🙂

 

The article has listed 13 sentences which look easy to understand but they are very meaningful.

The first is to pick up good cofunders. I really have some thoughts on it. I planned to start my company but I needed to find a cofunder. My best friends seemed best choice, actually I had no better choice. We have a lot of differences in the personality and attitude of doing things. Sometimes you should consider it very cautiously. Best match always facilitates process of having things done.

Even though there 13 sentences as recommendation you as startup don’t think so much, which can make you afraid to make choice, i.e. don’t let 13 sentences be your burdens and worries of your startup and choose some of them to compensate your weakness and encourage you.

 

// Zhen Li