Course ME2603 – learnings & takeaways

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Hi everyone,

I want to summarize the course through this blog post to complement the course evaluation we’ve filled in 🙂

I have decided to divide the review into the some of the given course components. I share my thoughts on each component and finishes by giving some tips to next years students! Overall this have been a great course, many elements that demands some time dedication but also gives lots of valuable experiences back.

Blogging: Interactive element to the course that I have considered the best way to discuss topics. Fun that everyone can contribute with research and analysis of each others findings. My greatest learning have been about networking since there have been valuable discussions on this topic. Also how to network in forums like this blog. It has also been a lot of fun to network with everyone and discuss entrepreneurship in class and at startup events.

Lectures: Interactive and fun! I think the best part is how many great guest speakers that have visited us. All of them have been of high quality and unique in its own sense. Great variation between early stage startups and different positions in companies and organisations. My greatest learning from this was actually Nordnet since that presentation gave concrete models to use for evaluating products. By putting it in to a context like the following you can break down the value for the customer in a structured way.

When situation, I can motivation, so I outcome

Twitter: Never used twitter before so learned a lot by having a twitter flow consisting of just entrepreneurial tweets from different sources. Saw lots of differences in what different organisations lift as important regarding entrepreneurship. It has a lot to do with the perspective on innovation; governmental, political, seed funding, startups, IPOs or the actual entrepreneur. Interesting to just follow these and I will definitely continue.

LinkedIn: Have used LinkedIn a lot before and thought it was a great source to get an overview of the activities in the different forums. Tip is to activate push notifications to get updates in real time.

Elevator pitch: Great opportunity to 1) test your idea, and 2) push your own ability to pitch. I learned more about how to prioritize what to tell when time is limited and therefore what aspects are most important to investors. This also made me think through my own projects and how to portray them. My greatest takeaway was the importance of finding the intriguing topic of the idea and keep to that to make sure interest from the listeners is kept and the speech is remembered.

Venture project: To take the venture idea to the next level. We are in the middle of this so won’t go so deep into this yet. Fun to work on the idea together. Get the feeling of starting a company and the questions you encounter together and need to approach. Have already realized the importance of doing significant analysis work with limited research material and finished product. One element that covers many interesting subjects is the Business Model Canvas. Even though this is just one of many ways to manage your business model it has been a huge help in understanding entrepreneurship. How to color-code the canvas is something I will take with me. I’ve learned the importance of structuring how different aspects in the business like revenue streams and cost structure are related to different customer groups. This is an importance aspect when evaluating your business and taking strategic decisions even if you don’t use the exact BMC.

Summing up this have been a fun course to take with a lot of interactive elements. The more time you put into it the more you get out of it. My greatest tip is to sum your work and thoughts on the blog to process it along the way.

Hope to see you all soon again 🙂

/Linda

 

Heping Start Ups – Operates 2

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Hi,

Since before the start of this course, me and Fredrik Nordström has been involved in a Start up by a couple of KTH students from our program. It began before the summer when we first heard the idea and had some heated discussions with the founders regarding the project and continued after the summer we where asked to operate two of the companies, which we said yes to.

The idea in short is to identify craftsmen markets where, above all, the communication between customer and contractor is undeveloped (websites that are unprofessional, no clear “hits” when searching the internet etc) and where it’s believed that new companies can enter and earn market shares.

So since the beginning of september we operate a company that suplies lands for your garden etc, called Gräsbolaget (that Fredrik has written about earlier) and a company which does drainage and earthwork, called Svenska Markspecialisten:)

We entered the companies in the middle of high season and much of the work up till now has been about making sure that the day to day operations work and that we can manage the customers we get. But now when the season are coming to its end (the frost bites hard soon), we are going to start focusing more on developing the strategies of the companies for the spring. This includes contacting future and existing partners (which we have talked about a lot in this course), talking with suppliers and figuring out price plans.

And we also would like your help!

If you have the time, please go to our websites (unfortunately everything is in Swedish since our market is Stockholm..) and give feedback on whats good and whats missing/can be improved:)

http://grasbolaget.se

http://svenskamarkspecialisten.se

Oh and one more thing! If you do a Google search and find the websites that way, don’t click on the ad-link because we are paying for every click and we want to save them for possible customers;)

Looking forward to your feedback/thoughts!

/ Emil

Helping Start-Up: Arctos

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The previous study year I worked with start-up company named Arctos brings nature close to people, by making it easy to find and book outdoor experiences. They’re building a platform that connects users to local partners, who offer experiences and activities such as hiking, camping and kayaking. You can use a local bus to go Nuuksio where Arctos performs. The main idea is to lower the first step to go to nature.

arc

So I made their survey and gave some feedback about their current situation. I advised them to expand to Sweden also and their main goal is to expand whole Scandinavia but before that they have to test the idea in Finland to see if it works well. I also advised them to increase their marketing so people will get know it and then start use the service. I really like the idea because it connect busy urban peoples and nature by lowering the cap between them.

Here some nice links:

http://arctosadventures.com

http://www.espooinnovationgarden.fi/en/espoo-innovation-garden/summer-of-startups-arctos-makes-it-easy-to-get-out-into-the-great-outdoors/

https://www.facebook.com/arctosadventures

STHML Tech Meet Up event 13rd October

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A week ago I joined with some of classmates at the STHML Tech Meet Up event. The event was totally crowded and air ventilation was not that good. The event was divided to two pieces, the first part was a overview of this month’s biggest investments in Stockholm start-ups. Some of those start-ups came to the stage to tell about their business and chatting with presenters. For me that part was quite boring because generally the presenters just chatted at the stage without any goal.

At the second part some investors came on to the stage and told something about themselves. After that started real pitching where some start-ups tried to convince the investors about their ideas or business opportunities. The first pitcher’s idea was to solve a refugee problems with a mobile application where they can communicate, get some activities and information. I personally liked the idea but I am a bit worried about how they can get enough income because that segment’s purchasing power is really low. After that, there was some other pitches which I can’t remember clearly because I didn’t find them enough interesting for me.

But I can clearly remember Gymgo’s pitch which didn’t go that well. Gymgo’s idea was to create universal gym membership which means that you can use any gym anywhere you want. After one minute presentation one of the investors said “PASS!” that was like a punch in the pither’s face. The investors commented the idea like usually people don’t want to use all gyms because they just pick the closest one. At the end of Gymgo presentation the pitcher presented that Gymgo covers other activities like hiking, skiing, climbing etc. So the investors started asking “Why the name is GymGO when it is not for gyms only?!”. That was a good point. I think the main idea of GymGo is good but I assume that the prize for customers will be really high, it will be really hard to get all gyms and other activity providers into it and also people really rarely need worldwide gym or activity membership. If you have money for travelling around the world you have money for a random gym visit in a random place, and maybe it is also cheaper.

IMG_0522IMG_0522

After GymGo it was Zeifie pitcher’s turn. Zeifie is a security app or device which you can use when someone following you and you are afraid to be robbed or raped. I liked idea and also investors generally liked it. One of the last pitches was a random guy from the audience who wanted to tell his idea. The idea was that everyone can be an advertiser so you can post advertisements to your facebook, twitter, linkedIn or other social networks. So he explained his idea like that “if you have 300 friends and you post one advertisement to your facebook, you can get like 2-3 euros from advertisers if you can reach those peoples.” The investors and my opinion is that the idea might work once but when some of my friends start to spamming my facebook with advertisements, I will block or remove him/her. And that idea will probably lead for whole facebook or twitter being just full of advertisements because all just keeps spamming them so idea can’t work like that. I also think that advertisers outcome will be bigger than income. The guy who presented the idea was totally convinced about his idea and he couldn’t understand why people didn’t like his idea.

Useful things about the course for me

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  1. Business Model Canvas and innovation

BMC was useful because it gives you good visual overview about your business and how the different blocks affecting to whole BMC and to other blocks. One important thing in BMC is that you should use different colours for different customer segments so BMC is clear and easy to read. BMC is a useful tool so I think I will use it in the future.

business-model-canvas-101-27-638

Picture 1. Gillette’s BMC.

Sometimes people think that an invention means an innovation which is not true. “An invention is a novel idea and innovation is the commercialization of that novel idea.” Creating a successful invention can be a lot harder and might requires a lot of money so that is one reason why big companies like Apple can create strong long lasting innovations. There are four types of innovations: technology, process, product/service and business model innovation. For me the most eye opening innovations were product/service and business model innovation because just changing those a little bit it might affect to your business income a lot. For example the right business model can be the main reason for the success, one good example about that is Spotify whose business model is totally different comparing to iTunes’ and that is their main reason for success.

  1. Approaches to Product Ideas

I liked this part because the way how you think is usually quite limited so getting better ideas you have to break the old chains. You should think really carefully what you really need and not need or how you can make your product more interesting for your customers. Variation of product attributes or functions is divided to 5 categories:

  1. Subtraction: Remove a key element.
  2. Multiplication: Copy a key element.
  3. Division: Dividing a product into components.
  4. Task unification: assign new task to exiting elements.
  5. Attribute dependency change: create new dependencies or break old ones.

Nophone was a good example about subtraction but the whole idea behind that is just a joke so is it really anymore subtraction when you remove almost all key elements? Like my friend said “I just created NoNophone which volume and weight is zero, and you can summon it by just using your imagination”. The example about camels and task unification was great because a camel is a lot more than just a carrier. Also the example about sprinklers and removing dependencies were really useful.

  1. Start Up Finance & Venture Capital

For me this part of the course was maybe the most important because getting an invention and if you want to rise it to innovation level or just get started you will need funding. Three the most common way to get funding are 3Fs & Bootstrapping, Debt financing and Equity financing. Understanding these financing opinions advantages and disadvantages generally helps you think which kind funding is good for your company. Very important part of equity financing was to know differences between angel investors and venture capital investors also when to use them, how they might affect, advantages and disadvantages.

Venture project feedback – EasyMessages

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One important element of the venture project is to do some market research in the first phase of building a business plan so I have gathered som thought on our project. By interviewing 5 people from different sources we have got some feedback on our product EasyMessages. When getting the feedback, they all got to watch the Video Pitch and ask complementing questions.

Who? Wanted to reach both early tech adopters and stressful business people with the targeted characteristics by choosing respondents from both groups. In this way we can compare the reaction to see were they overlap. It is a small set of data so the choice of individuals can affect the feedback a lot. From the limited pitch this should still be enough to gather some initial thoughts.

How did we find them? Searched in our own networks since the target group is close to our educational orientation. Family friends were a good way to find the attractive group of people.

Feedback 1: Direct response “I would be willing to pay an initial cost to have an app that solves my organizational problems”. Express a willingness to pay around 50 SEK to have an app that solves this problem. Prefers an initial cost but could also see a low monthly cost of ca 10-20 SEK. The targeted customer can probably afford this even if it can be a bit of a barrier.

Feedback 2: “I like the way of gathering all sources under one roof”. Likes the idea and express an interest in knowing which messages comes from what source. Think the icons used in the video pitch prototype is important.

Feedback 3: Enjoys the app and see the only challenge on how to let big players like Facebook differentiate in the app. Otherwise they may not want to collaborate. Needs to look into this but should be able to lift some players and benefit them in the work. Great potential of fast growth and funding and soon selling to one of the big market players.

Feedback 4: Great idea. Likes the most: the highlighting of the person you’re communicating with. Suggests opportunity to interlink this with usual contact book so all personal information also is gathered and can be used directly via the app, e.g. phone calls.

Feedback 5: Want us to think about: How to market the idea. Which forums are the best to enter? The project are on the right track of targeting the specific segment of customers with multitasking stressful business lives and early tech adopters. Possibility to do a market research on which forums that bring these two groups together? Also look in to different ways of marketing and establishing customer channels that contributes to an easier every day life for the targeted customers.

Going further with feedback: These are points we’ve considered in group and we will take them with us in the further development of our business plan. All ideas and feedback will be gathered and evaluated separately but definitely be used in some way.

Beside this we’ve gotten some detailed feedback from the opposition group we will regard 🙂

 

Help a startup – Boksnok

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This is my second post to sum of the feedback work with the startups I’ve tried to help during the course. The first one up was Mentimeter and now it’s Boksnok’s turn.

Boksnok is a startup in a very early stage. They are soon to release their product to public and have pre-orders on their webpage http://boksnok.se/

They have developed an app for mobile tablets with interactive children books that they will sell to parents of kids in their targeted ages. They have established relations with customers and books that will be available. The product have been developed through an iterative process with customer feedback so I’ve got to test a demo and later also the actual app. The main feedback I gave on the demo and application were as following:

Design: The design needs to be compelling for both the parents and the children which makes the product unique. It needs to satisfy the need of two customer groups at the same time and the characteristics of these groups differ and the subject behind using the app is different. The kids want to be entertained and the parents targeted wants a calming setting to enjoy. I think the app design fulfills this by being easy to understand and very visual, it succeeds to attract adults by adding elements such as comments and music. To increase the value from their proposition even more they could work on the customization even more. Maybe it can add value if it is possible to customize the book design through colors, background pictures and music etc.

Functionality: Interactive and customized is what I think they’ve captured and should continue to improve. To attract both parents and kids they could twist the functions so it involves both at the same time even more. One option could be to have some sort of review function throughout the books were the readers can evaluate the app and interact with other readers through example parent forums. This could be a way to involve the parents even more. This also opens up for other partners like parenting discussion forums or related consumer goods.

To sum up the points I’ve communicated, these are the main takeaways for Boksnok’s further development:

  • Push key points of being interactive and visual. This is what distinguishes them from traditional books and children-parents activities.
  • Evaluate options of having partnerships with attractive players. If they choose a partner, they need them to be modern in digital terms and share the same values as Boksnok. It is of high importance to only partner with brands that are aligned with Boksnok since a strong brand and good reputation is crucial on the specific targeted market.
  • Have in mind that it may be possible to add elements to the app. Functions should serve to involve both readers without disturbing the simple design and functionality of the app.

Boksnok will soon release their product. If you know any parents that are into digital solutions for their kids, you should check it out: http://boksnok.se/ It will be available on Appstore and Google play.

 

Twitter-pitch

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Hi guys,

Hope your weekend was good and that studying for the final exams in all your other courses is going well!

A couple of days ago I stumbled over a interesting tweet, labeled #140pitchen. This is something the tele market company Telenor initiated to “clean” the Swedish internet for the best entrepreneurial ideas. The campaign makes you, in 140 characters or less, pitch your business idea to three Swedish angel investors (Magnus Winberg, founder of Pricerunner, Susanna Falkengren, known from Draknästet and Karolina Räntfors, founder of Tic) by using the hashtag, and then the angels respond to your idea.

The angels had control over Telenor’s twitter account (the campaign is over now unfortunately..) and if they thought the idea was interesting they asked you to send a email to describe the idea further.

I thought the campaign was really cool but it got me thinking, is this all just a marketing trick from Telenor or what do they want to get from the campaign?  Also is 140 characters enough to describe an idea?

I think so. In a intervju one of the angels (Magnus Winberg) said that “it dosen’t have to be a complete idea, rather to capture my, and the other angel’s interest, by pinpointing a specific problem”. This is something we have talked about a lot in the course and it is nice to hear it from a real angel investor as well. In this way you don’t have time to present a business modell or describe your competitors like we did in our elevator pitch, but maybe it’s enough? Also this might be the new way to introduce your idea to investors (not using twitter necessarily). Because how often do you meet with a investor in person? Maybe you have to send something (email or post on linkedin) in written form and make it short enough so the person receiving it dosen’t throw it away.

I scrolled thru the tweets and got surprised to se responses from Telenor’s account (from the angels) on virtually every tweet! Some of the ideas got the respons “I don’t understand” while other got the respons “very interesting, please send me an email and describe more” (witch must be pretty cool to receive from a angel investor!).

The best tweet i read was simply, “UBER for tattoos”, without further explanation:) That tweet got the respons “now you got me interested! Email me an describe more”.

So, what do you guys think, will there come any businesses from this campaign or is it just a market trick and is this the new way to introduce your ideas to investors?

All the best!

/ Emil

PS: Since the campaign is over (and it was in Swedish) I didn’t post a link but you can search on the hashtag #140pitchen if you want do read som of the ideas and responses.

Interested in improving your pitching skills?

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Hi there, hope the final exam went well and that everyone had a good weekend. I’m directing my feedback to the course evaluation, right now I just wanted to do a quick shout-out to anyone interested in learning more about how to do an elevator pitch. If so, you should really order tickets (they are free of charge) in the link below, since SUP46 is hosting another exiting event this week. There will be eight innovative Swedish startups attending, and they all have to convince a qualified jury to pick them, in only 90 seconds.

Since a big part of this course have been linked with delivering an idea/product in a convincing and selling way, I think that it could be very interesting to see if any of these skills will be practiced by the contenders.

Following every single elevator pitch, there will also be a  short Q&A where the entrepreneurs will be answering questions from the judges.

/Isac

http://www.eventbrite.fr/e/handson-startup-tour-2015-stockholm-registration-18629123209?aff=erellivorg

Help a startup – Mentimeter

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Through the course I’ve had contact with some startups to help them in their phase of development.

We’ve reached the end of the course and I want to take time to sum up the work. First startup up is Mentimeter who we have shared office with during september. By trying their product I’ve summarized some main points to consider. I’ve both commented on internal and external factors.

Mentimeter sells an app service to companies and other organisations that holds event where they want to interact with the audience through Mentimeter’s app. Visitors can respond on questions during the event and the hosters get direct feedback and data. When I last met them they announced that they will take part of the 500 startups in the U.S. which means they will get mentoring and help during four months and the possibility to pitch their results for large investors in the end of the period. They will be there for four months next spring so all the luck and congratulations to the great success!

http://500.co/startups/

Strengths to highlight: I found the functionality of the app of really high quality with focus on being user-friendly. In comparison with competitors on the market I’ve investigated other options and come to find their design and simplicity of the application far more understandable and responsive. This is of great importance in the targeted user setting. At events I find it very important to quickly understand the app and how to interact easily.

Opportunities to exploit: This also makes it scalable since the concept needs to be easy to understand quick in case of a big and changing audience during events. In order to protect this unique value proposition I would suggest them to think through how they brand the functionality in the app.  By being the first on the market to offer this packaging they can make sure to establish a large installed base. Maybe they can look over their customer channels and what partners they could have a potential collaboration with to reach more customers  in the targeted forums.

Weaknesses to consider: Price strategy contra cost structure. The price is differentiated across different levels of usage. The fees are low but it may be a barrier of increasing usage if the only reason for going up in price is level of usage. Customers may stick with a lower usage just to avoid fees. I would recommend them to investigate if the incitaments of paying for the app is enough of they could greater greater gaps in offering of different price levels. Also this should be weighted against the cost associated with each product variation so each offer has margins enough to cover fixed costs.

Challenges to approach: Online approval from customers and company design is two points regarding the actual product I see as challenging and in need of consideration for further growth. The app needs to be easy to connect to and respond in when entering events of different kinds. They therefore  should look into how people connect to the app. Today you need to approve the connection to the application when joining the event. It is easy to reject this and this can damage the quality of the app results and the overall value. My second point is the design since companies at bigger event may want to insert their own colors and logos in the app. This needs to be weighed with the reputation and branding of having their own look to the app. A customized color-scheme is a possibility but can also be damaging to the long term branding.

In the end I want to give them positive feedback since I experience that they have a close relation between their programming skills and customer relations. This is something I think they needs to conserve in order to tackle these challenges and exploit the great opportunities they possess.

All the best luck to Mentimeter! I’m sure they will have great success the coming year. Check out their webpage and use their app if you will host any events in the future!

Check out https://www.mentimeter.com/