Monthly Archives: April 2016

From left to right: Peter, Fritjof, Therése, Andreas

Definition of Bootstrapping : To start a business without external help or capital

Bootstrapping is definitely one of the main challenges of startups, and the speakers during this event shared personal anecdotes and distilled their years of experience into tips for the aspiring entrepreneur.

Before I delve into the content of the talk, let me introduce the speakers.

Event Panelists:
Fritjof Andersson – Founder and CEO, RelationDesk.com
Therése Gedda – Founder and CEO at 30minMBA
Andreas Andersson – Founder and CEO of DMG Education

Event Moderator:

Peter Fosso (from USA; Founder of Global Music Project, NetMusic Entertainment, Stockholm Entrepreneurs, etc.)

The format of the talk was a panel discussion where the 3 speakers and a moderator sat in front of an audience who would them ask them questions. I found it to be an interesting and informative 2 hour long discussion, and I was glad that the panelists were there to help start-ups and did not try pitching their products.

Here are some stuff I learnt from the discussion and the questions that were asked.

1. How do you save money on software spending for a startup?

• Communications Software – Use Slack (it’s a whatsapp for businesses, and is geared towards making collaborations easier)
• Accounting Software – Use Speedledger, Fortnox
• Cloud Storage – Just stick to your google drive/ dropbx

Most importantly, it comes down to what you think needs to be paid for, and what you think you can save by doing it yourself/ making use of free resources. Therése even said what some startups do was to take photos of their receipts and send them to a freelance accountant who does small accounting jobs for a cheap fee.

2. What is your work-life balance and work culture in the startup?

• 1-2 years without salary is a norm.
• Getting personal working space is recommended. Working at home will mix private and work life which could prove to be a bad idea as work life takes over private life eventually.
• Do anything that fits you. Work culture of startups aims at maximising the efficiency and not falling into the trap of existing office models that traditional large firms run. Employees are given free a choice on where and when they want to work, and this is not limited to within Stockholm. Some of the panelists had full-time employees as well. You do not have enough money to implement a traditional workplace anyway.
• Environment is important. When sharing workspaces with other companies, their culture can affect yours and it is important to choose a company you are comfortable with to share a workspace. (e.g. A Tech startup can find another tech startup to share a workspace, pooling together resources and expertise.)
• Standing meetings! They are apparently more efficient than seating ones where computers and mobile devices ensure our attention span is capped at a long 3 seconds. Maybe someone could try this out?

3. Where is the most money wasted?

• People waste money and energy when they are not focused. When they do what other people do and not what they should do.
• Most startups gamble on what they need (e.g. Business plans, accountants, office space), and while one is never certain on what he needs, it is good to prioritise the resources, and time is usually the most important resource.
• Limited resources might prove to be a boon to a company as it encourages creative thinking.

4. How do you market/ advertise your products cheaply?

• By value adding to a customer’s experience, they are more likely to pass on the company’s brand through recommending it to their peers/friends, and this is one of the strongest and cheapest advertising tools
• By actively engaging in meetups/ mingling sessions will give you the opportunity to showcase the your products and brand.

The discussion later went on to how building the team and being sure of your goals was key to success in a startup. All 3 panelists emphasised on the importance of knowing the reason and  purpose of them knowing why they founded the start-up. It was their common opinion that aligning your purpose and beliefs was a very important motivational tool for both themselves and their employees as well. It provided them with the direction on making decisions on how the company should be run, and attracted like-minded employees and customers as well, which creates a strong and united team culture within the company.

Another important piece of advice that was given by them was that unicorns are after unicorns after all and while it is sort of a taboo to mention to VCs and angels that being one was not a goal of your company, it was being realistic. At times, having a company that was profitable and could grow based on funding from oneself was a better idea than trying to become a billion dollar valued company that had no tried and tested profit-making strategy.

I will end of with some final quotes from each panelist.

Fritjof : “Refugees can be very highly skilled in Sweden as well.” – On how to recruit quality individuals into the team inexpensively.

Therése : “Do things properly right away, do not keep it hanging. It takes more time later and keeps your attention.”

Andreas : “You don’t have to be a tech person to start a tech company.” – He was a tour manager/guitarist/ singer before founding the start-up.

That quote came from one of the speakers at yesterday’s Startup event with Stockholm Entrepreneurs at Epicenter. He said that originally this is the expression that bootstrapping your Startup comes from. The speaker, of who’s name I unfortunately didn’t catch, added that this is very difficult to do and that it is easy to get stuck in your “bootstraps”, which I can imagine.

Since Paulina already has written so well about the event, I will only add some more thoughts. I was very impressed of the speakers at this event who all have dedicated their life to their startup.

One tip that I found well is that you have to prioritize. As a starup it is difficult knowing what resources you need and it is easy to throw money at anything. Therefore it is highly important to prioritize the resources you actually need. Also, there are no limitations when you have a startup and you could build your company as you like. Here you find the possibilities! When you lay your time into something, make sure it gives you value now or in the future.

Another important learning when bootstrapping your startup was to early on have costumers, so you at least get some money for the work. The speakers also added that the value of having costumers early in the process is that it gives you a clear view of the market. You need to know the market and the costumers in order to give them a product their willing to pay for.

Lastly it is important knowing what company you have and not comparing with other startups. Some might need funding, others don’t and then there is some in the middle. And be sure of why you want to have a startup, because it will be tough. Make sure to have the right reasons and to keep a positive attitude!

I tweeted a picture of the event and by now its been retweeted by @EpicenterSthlm and liked by one of the panel speakers Therése Gedda at the event. So that made me happy.

I attended the event Bootstrapping Your Startup held by Stockholm Entrepreneurs with moderator Peter Fosso and panelists Fritjof Andersson (RelationDesk.com), Therése Gedda (30minMBA) and Andreas Andersson (DMG Education), all founders and CEO’s. 

Bootstrapping refers to a self-starting process that is supposed to proceed without external input (making it without VC’s or angel investors). The phrase ”pull oneself up by one’s bootstrap” is meant to be an impossible task, but as shown and discussed by the panelists – it is fully possible. But that might mean eating noodles and becoming a vegetarian to stretch the dollars.

Their tips on managing a company with bootstrapping and getting people on board are as follows;

Use free tools! Free tools for creating, storing, and communicating is key as there is no need to spend money on things that are just as good when free of charge. Examples of these are Slack, AudioSauna, Wrike, Basecamp, Buffer, Grammarly, Google docs and Dropbox.

Where are you going to make a difference? Decide what you are going to do yourself and decide what you are going to outsource – make a difference where your strength is and acquire the help needed. Don’t fall into the trap of working as everybody else does, the office is where and when you are creative. Work around equally creative and motivated people, and create a culture that are alined with your values. http://guerillaoffice.com/ scouts inspiring and practical locations, creating temporary offices for entrepreneurs and creative workers. Anyones is welcome to join and there are no fees.

Wasting time and money! The number one thing is – make sure it is worth the investment of time and money. MVP and A/B testing with feedback is crucial to see that you have a demand. Another important lesson is to do things properly from the beginning and implementing that mindset to the rest of the team. Put in that extra time and effort.
When not focused on what you are creating, and listening to other peoples comments about ”how it should be done” you start wasting time and money. Stay focused, prioritize towards you set goals and gamle on the resources you might need. Spending your time going in the right direction leads to managing costs and limited resources sparks creativity and creates smart, small cost solutions.

Getting other to eat noodles with you! Choose the right people, because it will be a long marriage. Bonuses and motivation is not correlated, so find out what is. Salaries, internships, freedom at work, gym cards, growing and learning, being appreciated and having fun are factors to consider. We all need money for food and a roof over our heads, but that might come from another income, so find out what is needed and try to provide that.

Unicorns! Something that is taboo right now is saying that you don’t want to create a unicorn. Not wanting that is not wanting to be a part of Silicon Valley, not wanting to be an intopreneur, not wanting to be anything (harshly said).

You be what you want to be. Meditate and reflect what makes you want to run a startup, and from that build a profitable company and don’t force a unicorn. 

I have posted this blog before on my website about how IKEA adjusts its business model for localisation, thinking it is a good chance to share with you to discuss. Any thoughts and comments are welcomed 🙂

“宜家(yi jia)” is the Chinese name of IKEA, which literally means “Suitable and nice for your home”. Efforts can be seen in the process of expanding IKEA’s market from Europe to North America, from western countries to the oriental world, like Japan, China, South Korea, etc.

In order to set foot in local markets in different countries, IKEA does do many changes to its business model. I want to share some interesting points that I found about how IKEA adapt to the Chinese market.

Target customer segment: In western countries, IKEA serves as the furniture provider for everyone and gets its popularity especially among families with middle or low level income. But when IKEA opened its first store in Beijing in 1999, IKEA products’ high prices scared aways many price-sensitive consumers in China. After realising this, IKEA decided to target its consumer group of young middle-class professionals, who get relatively higher salaries, are better educated and have better understanding of western cultures and design styles. This major strategy change helps IKEA to build the impressions of itself as an aspirational western brand and get many customers.

Value Proposition: in Europe, the value proposition mostly focuses on good quality and stylish furniture with affordable prices for everyone. In China, it slightly changes to good quality, western or more nordic designed aspirational brand for middle-class consumers.

Store location – How the customers are reached? As we can see in many cities, like in Stockholm, IKEA stores are mostly in suburbs with easy access by car. The driving time from Stockholm central to both of the two IKEA stores nearby is about 20 minutes. But considering the situation in China, “Only 20 percent of visitors in Shanghai have cars”, says the marketing manager of IKEA China, Ulf Smedberg, you often find the IKEA stores in the outskirts of cities near public transportation station. Actually I have been to one IKEA store in Shanghai which is quite in the city center, just walking distance away from Shanghai Stadium and two nearby metro stations.

Due to the efforts that IKEA has put to the Chinese markets, IKEA becomes more and more famous and popular in China now. Currently there are 18 IKEA branches in the mainland of China, including 8 of 10 largest IKEA stores in the world. And IKEA China is becoming one of the most important space in business growth thanks to the rapid growing middle-class population in the big cities.

References:
http://www.chinabusinessreview.com/ikea-with-chinese-characteristics/
http://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/lbs-case-study/how-ikea-adapted-its-strategies-to-expand-in-china/story/196322.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA
http://brandongaille.com/ikea-business-model-and-marketing-strategy/
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/sep/09/ikea-sales-rise-china-middle-class

By Zhihao Yang

It’s been an inspiring experience to attend the Start Up Day 2016 to get a “tangible” feeling of the ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation in the startup hub – Stockholm.

Here are some of the notes which I made during the speeches that I found interesting and worth spreading.

The day was started by the talk by Nick Kaye, Co-funder of Klarna:
– “Success is luck combines a lot of work.”
– “You need time to do some reflection to know how you are satisfied.” (Nick has found the “White Space” during his vocation, which is doing good by his social entrepreneurship project to be launched during this summer and he referred it as a way to refuel.)
– “Don’t go to all the network events, office is where all the work is done.” (He mentioned that it is important to meet people and exchange ideas, but don’t be obsessed about it.)

The talk “Can our society cope with AI?” given by Christoph Auer-Welsbach, IBM Waston BD Leader Europe, also impressed me a lot.
– “A machine will always reflect the values of its creator.”
– “Human need to adapt quickly and be changed for the new era.”
– “AI is a tool to assist human, not to replace them.”
– “AI could be considered during startups’ product design and development process.” (To my understanding, he was suggesting that startups could adopt AI as new features to improve their products and services, and create more values for users.)

The whole day speeches was ended by Simone Giertz, the famous “Queen of shitty robots”. She builds many robots that are fun but spectacularly useless things. Her videos went virus and famous worldwide. In the talk she explained why she is doing this:
– “The best way to learn is by doing it.” (Learning by doing is her motto.)
– “Idea first, tools later.” (For me, this concept that it is not difficult to implement as long as you have the idea, is little bit hard for me, an engineer student, to understand at first. When we want to build something, the first thing come to our minds is “Is it feasible?”. However, I think, for a creator, innovator, entrepreneur, feasibility might be an constraint for thoughts and innovation.)
– “Your ideas might be smarter than you.” (She said she always got many comments about her video on how her robots could be used to help others’ lives, which she didn’t thought about before. The idea you think is useless might be useful for others.)

Here is a short video about her “shitty” projects:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcxlSLNH5M0

It’s an intensive day full of ideas and knowledge. The words “#Luck” and “#HardWork” said by Nick in the beginning are used throughout the day by Moderator, Aurore Belfrage. Let’s see how these two words accompany us in our journey of entrepreneurship.

By Zhihao Yang

San Francisco is now the largest city in US to legislate all new buildings of 10 storeys or under to install rooftop solar panels. It is not surprising that San Francisco, US’s leading cleantech hub and head area of start-ups and entrepreneurs, makes this resolution for the environment.

I believe that this is a great step toward a stronger environmental situation in the US and hopefully, if successful, will lead to further legislation in the favour of green energy. Scott Wiener, who introduced the legislation in San Francisco, said in the article; “This legislation will activate our roofs, which are an under-utilised urban resource, to make our city more sustainable and our air cleaner”. Hopefully, the technology of solar panels and perhaps also the strength of the legislation will diffuse into regionally near cities and also across the sea to other continents with a great amount of sunlight.

From an entrepreneurial perspective, this new law is interesting since Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, also was the co-funder and still is the largest shareholder of SolarCity, one of US largest provider of solar power systems. They claim to decrease the electricity cost for the users even though there is an investment cost to get it installed. This new legislation will increase the number of solar panels installed which eventually will lead to economies of scale and the cost of the product will drop further. The solar industry will grow and Elon Musk will be seen as even more successful. It’s all about timing when it comes to be an entrepreneur.

You can read the article about the legislation here: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/21/san-francisco-adopts-law-requiring-solar-panels-on-all-new-buildings

Today, I took part in the Startup day event organized by the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship. It is an event that gathers a thousand people(founders, entrepreneurs, students, VCs, press……) for a full day of eclectic startup inspiration and once-in-a-year networking.

Thanks to this event, I got a chance to listen to many impressive speeches given by some infamous and successful entrepreneurs. The co-founder of Klarna,Niklas Adalberth, talked about how hard-working and lucky he was on the way to make Klarna a billion-dollar Unicorn and now they are devoting to charity to make this world a better place. The Chief Coffee Drinker, York Zucchi, impressed us with his sense of humor and also shared his experience in building startup in emerging market like Africa. Besides, Professor in KTH, Danica Kragic Jensfelt, talked about how robot is changing our life. There were many other amazing speeches and experience-sharing from which I got more or less inspirations.

But there was one speech impressing me the most. It was given by Natalia Brzezinski, who is the CEO of ymposium Stockholm, a feminist as she addressed herself, and to me a really good story teller.

She started her story with story between her daughter and herself. She was born and raised in USA, where people are taught to always be the best. When she moved to Stockholm with her Husband and her 3-year old daughter, She said to her daughter to always be the best at school as that was what she believed in at that time. But Graudually , she found out it was not the same situation here in Sweden. Not like in America, here in Stockholm, no one is the best. She started to feel it and figured out that this was exactly the secret of success in Sweden.

Stockholm is a symbol for new leadership models, new definitions of success and community, and a path -breaker in connecting people around exciting concepts. Entrepreneurs in Sweden,  push  themselves to boundaries and always reach the future first.  This is why Sweden becomes the most creative country and Stockholm becomes a dream place for new ideas and startups.  Think big. Dare to fail. Get out of your comfort zone. This is entrepreneurial spirit all about.