Fuckup Morning Stockholm #3

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On Tuesday 17th May, I attended an event named “Fuckup morning #3”. The event was at 8am, early in the morning, but what I have learned from it is indeed invaluable and worth the pain of waking up early. As the name “Fuckup morning” implies, the event was about three successful entrepreneurs who have been gone through several failures and obstacles in their lives, specifically lives as entrepreneurs.

The event started with Andreas Vural, Founder and CEO of Happy Plugs, sharing the obstacles he faced until the day he finally found Happy Plugs. Andreas’ first fuckup story begins in cold winter when he tried to invent tangle free earphones. The first 50,000 earphones he created froze and broke due to the weather. Once he settled the freezing issue, Andreas failed to create right earphones many times again. Now, Happy Plugs sells 1 headphone and expects to double the sales this year. Andreas mentioned that he started the business locally in Sweden with further international expansion plans because he believes that having a strong base in Sweden is important before expanding to other countries.

The second speaker was Emilia De Poret, the most inspiring woman I have ever listened to. She started the speech by saying, “Whenever I fuck up or face failure, I will immediately turn it into positivity.” As a singer, entrepreneur, author, and mother of 2 kids all at the same time, she had felt that she was f*cked up for 3 times in her life.

1st f*ckup moment: When she failed from embarking on her career as a singer.

As Emilia enjoyed singing and performing on stages, she has been dreaming of being a singer. With great opportunities, she filmed music videos in United States and was thinking that it is finally her chance to become a pop star/singer until one day she realized that no one has been calling her for music videos and she suddenly got fired from her dream job. From the depression caused by this, she locked herself in her apartment for 2 weeks and ate ice cream nonstop. Fortunately, after 2 weeks of depression, she moved on and decided that she will always be in control of herself instead of working for anyone.

2nd f*ckup moment: When she got pregnant.

Emilia thought that her professions have all come to an end when she got pregnant. However, having a baby made her a better person both personally and professionally. She also learned how to say no and to choose right opportunities among tons of opportunities given to her.

3rd f*ckup moment: When she thought that working alone is the best.

Being an independent and confident woman, Emilia always thought that working alone is the best for herself and her business. However, she realized that this is wrong when she found a partner who is an inspiring, passionate and strong woman just like her and they have been working together perfectly until now.

Emilia ended the speech by encouraging all of us to have a right posture and clothing as those give us confidence.

Lessons Learned – Gunilla

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During the technology-based entrepreneurship course I have learnt a lot. Both regarding the theoretical material with the lecture notes but also through the course book Technology Entrepreneurship has been very given. I have understood the difference between an entrepreneur and a technology entrepreneur and what advantages and difficulties that they have depending on previous knowledge base.

Moreover, the guest lecturers have been very enhancing to the course content. Receiving external knowledge and experience has been great for the understanding of entrepreneurship and what it actually means to run a start-up. I had a clue about it before but I definitively know more about it know.

If I should criticize some part of the course, I would have liked more theory and focus upon concept regarding entrepreneurship and running a start-up. At times I thought there were too many guest lecturer and too little focus upon knowledge. I would have liked more lectures based on the book and in deep knowledge about theory and concept. The way the course is built now, I had my own drive in reading the book and taking on new theory.

One thing that has been very given is the events that I have been participating at. The first one was the lecture at House of Innovation and Epicentre. It was amazing to see that they have chips in their hands that helps them open the doors and so fourth. The lecture was very giving and makes you really look forward to the future of technology. The same week I went back for the Bootstrapping your Start-up event, which I blogged about on Intropreneur. I had never heard about the concept before so that made it specially interesting, Also, the people talking at the event had real life experience of bootstrapping which made it very tangible and knowledge-enhancing. This Monday I visited Pirate Summit Stockholm and their pitch competition. What was very interesting about that was that it was very similar to the pitches made in class and I must say that you guys keeps a high level!

Thanks for this course, it have been very given! Especially, since I know have at least four new friends the group work, one frim India, one from China, one from Italy and one from Greece, its been a pleasure getting to know you all!

 

Lesson Learned

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The course is over  and I want to thank Professor Serdar for teaching.

I believe the objectives of the course were clear: define and analyze the successful factors in technology-based entrepreneurship in order to develop a startup with a defined methodology  and learn how to analyze situations from a strategic perspectives.
All the contents analyzed during the lectures were are useful for those who want to start a new business, those who are managing an existing one but even for the students aiming to work in a consolidated company as it provided elements valid through all the business areas.

One of the main lessons learnt was to be not too much tied to the technology of the innovation. In proposing a new idea, most of the investors do not have the required expertise to understand the technology under the idea. Also, I learnt that it is not beneficial to explain all the technological details during a presentation.  What the investor wants to know is the problem, the solution proposed, how the business makes money and the costs faced. This elements  are not so obvious for an entrepreneur without a business background.

Another important knowledge acquired was that listening to the customer is fundamental for the success of the business. Firstly, it is important to establish who are the customers going to buy the products as it is not always clear. Secondly, the company has to be able to understand how the product should be to meet the customer needs. A product made according to the engineers needs is not likely at all to penetrate the markets.

Furthermore, the guest lectures provided us the practical knowledge useful to understand how a startups is run. They gave us suggestions and clarified some entrepreneurial doubts. Most notably, I enjoyed the guest lecture by Bill Schacht. Probably, as a result of the market in which his business operates, he knows how to capture the attention of the audience.

As far as I am concerned, before starting the course I had no intention in starting a new business. However, the topics faced during the course inspired me bringing myself to take into consideration the adventure of a startup. I learnt that starting a new business puts at risk great part of the life and not everyone is able to make this decision.

The dynamic approach held by Serdar during the frontal lecture was really beneficial for all of us as students: he induced us to interact and to think personally. This is what I appreciated the most. I agree on taking into account for the grading the participation both in-class and outside. However, not all the students embraced this invitation as an incentive to participate and grow personally.

Moreover, we, as entrepreneurs, must be able to think, take decisions under pressure and in short time. The teacher tried to pose us in a situation as much as close to the real environment. But the rest depends on ourselves. We must have the initiative to learn and understand the issues in-depth.  This course was a useful training for the startups world, allowing us to learn our mistakes and get feedbacks from professionals in the area. In particular, the presentation of the ideas held on the May 9th was a special event and a crucial moment for us to learn as entrepreneurs. I got important feedbacks that I hope to exploit in my future career as entrepreneur.

 

See you and good luck to everyone!

Helping start-ups

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  1. The start-up Anchr App

I met with the Start-up Anchr on the 18 of April and their founder, Marcus Skagerberg who is in our class, to discuss their start-up background, idea and business strategy. They are making an app that I believe will be of great use, especially for international visitors and exchange students, who are their first test users, but also other people seeking information based on a particular place. I find their business strategy very interesting and I look forward in using their app. I wrote about them on our class LinkedIn page earlier and you can read about them here: http://anchrapp.com

 

  1. Moggi – a start-up for cats

I came across this start-up at the Pirate Summit event Monday 23 of May. They participated in the pitching competition and afterward I sent an email discussing their venture strategy. The idea is a color connected to the app who shows the cat’s medical state and when you need to visit the vet. I was wondering how come they chose only cats and why they didn’t also include dogs, rabbits, and other pets that people have high medical fees of. I was wondering if it was their strategy to begin with cats and then diffuse to other pets. The answer to that is that it is their strategy, which I belive might be a good strategy if comparing with Amazon who begun merely as an online store for books. Its smart to begin within a specific niche in the beginning of a start-up phase, to more easily get market introduction. If you have a cat and would like to try it out, you could help them with feedback to their product, here is a link: http://www.moggie.me. Unfortunately, I don’t have any cat, which stopped me from trying it out.

Entrepreneurs spirit

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It has been not a long journey with ME2062 — technology-based entrepreneurship, but it indeed has inspired me a lot about entrepreneurship and innovation. Besides all the materials, business models and strategies covered in the course content, what I appreciated more is the idea sharing from different real startup companies.

Many startup companies from different industries have shared their experience and inspiration with us during the lecture. Those startup companies were from different industries, Fashion, Music and many others were involved. Although the products and services they deliver might vary from different industries, but they shared many common values along the journey. And I would like to conclude those values as — Entrepreneurs spirits.

Here I concluded the 5 main characteristics of Entrepreneurs spirits as below:

  1. They are in-tune with their passion.

Passion is definitely the most important attributes for start up companies. I can see the passion behind from every startup companies shared with us. I can see that they are passionate with their ideas, with their product or services and with exactly what they are doing. Passionate people know what it is like to dive deep into a subject and completely understand it. When people are genuinely passionate about the problems that your company is trying to solve, they will be energised by any challenge that stands in their way.

  1. They are always questioning how it can be done better.

Mark Twain once said, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” Those with the entrepreneurial spirits always consider how ordinary things can be made better or improved. They are continually questioning why things are done the way they are and aren’t afraid to go against the majority to make changes.

  1. Optimistic about all possibilities

To be entrepreneurial by nature is to be optimistic. People with the entrepreneurial spirit don’t spend time thinking about what they can’t do, but instead ask themselves, “Why can’t I?” Always be optimistic and be positive to challenge oneself and to seize for all possibilities and opportunities are also key attributes for entrepreneurs to success.

  1. They take calculated risks

In addition to optimism, entrepreneurs are predisposed to a high tolerance for risk. But it doesn’t mean they jump blindly into action, it’s instead the opposite. Those with the entrepreneurial spirit make calculated moves while understanding that there are never any guarantees of success. It’s also the ability to work autonomously and be decisive. The playbook is not always clear, so it is ideal to be able to say agile and adapt in a high degree of ambiguity.

  1. Above all, they execute

Only idea is actually meaningless until they are acted on. Those with the entrepreneurial sprit realise that execution is everything when it comes down to success or failure.

Last words

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Technology based entrepreneurship has been a very interesting course. I chose to read it on top of my mandatory courses because it is closely related to what I do for a living as well as it being a big interest of mine. I have learnt a lot of things, many of which I will probably, and hopefully, never forget. What I found most interesting was probably the procedure of approaching the market with a new product. Looking at unicorn companies, one seldom think about the struggle that they have been through, it’s easy to focus solely on the success stories. At the same time, I think that it’s important to know that being an entrepreneur is not just fun and game, it is a struggle and it’s all about tweaking and prying an idea until it matches the market demands.

Overall, the course covered more than I thought it would, it has given great insights in both theoretical concepts as well as practicalities. From my own experience in startup I could recognise a lot from the course theory, this made everything even more interesting because it someway added another dimension to it.

The guest lecturers were a true asset, it was interesting to listen to such a diverse group of entrepreneurs. They were all active within the technology sector but their products differed a lot from each other. I found Bill Schacht from Orb Industries to be most intriguing, he presented a very cool and interesting product and his high level of enthusiasm could not go unnoticed.

As previously mentioned, the course covered more than I expected so I cannot think of anything to add in the future.
To summarize, a fun and interesting course that I surely will recommend to my fellow students.

Thanks!

Low-fi prototype and cargo cult design

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This blog post is about prototyping and more specifically about low fidelity prototypes, what does it mean ? How useful it can be and what are the limitations ? I would also point out brief discussion on the importance of feasibility study on designing prototypes. These are some concepts I learnt while studying about prototyping on some previous course and within this course and I think it’s worth sharing with you.

In simple words a prototype refers to a representation of a product. Depending on the details of this representation a prototype can be of high fidelity or medium fidelity or low fidelity. A low fidelity prototype can be just a sketch on a piece of paper or cut and pasted piece of papers to represent the prospective product. Sometimes they are also referred to as paper prototypes. At the beginning of the product design this kind of low fidelity prototypes are very useful to get quick feedback from intended users (customers) and refining the concept accordingly in an iterative manner. Main goal is to involve as many target users as possible to be integrated with the design process (also known as ‘participatory design’) for getting a better product. These low-fi paper prototypes not only helpful to get feedback it also make our job quite easy to explain our idea to intended customers.

iteration

Fig 1: Iterative design process

Now, how it works ? Or how it can be used effectively ? A group of three people along with potential user is perfect to get the best out of a paper prototype. One of the designers or developers should take the role of a facilitator who would be mainly communicating with the user, another person should play the role of a computer (i.e. move the pages when user selects a image of button or do some other action on paper). Another person should take notes i.e. What user got wrong, what was confusing to him/her etc. After collecting feedback in this manner with several users some changes should be made on the paper prototype and repeating the process several times. As it is a low fidelity prototype it can help to do the iteration within a short amount of time and get an overall design of the desired product in an user centered way. However it may not reveal the detailed issues related to product design and development. Still it is very effective at an early stage to begin with.

hci-user-testing

Fig 2: Paper prototype on test

Sometimes being over dependent on the prototypes without analyzing the technical feasibility can be problematic. An idea can sound really promising and may seem to be implementable as low fidelity provides only the proof of idea and basic functionalities through some sort of mimics. For example, if some one thinks about an idea involves context based services it may seem to be doable and a paper prototype will never reveal its actual technical difficulties which will arise while implementing the actual product. These type of prototypes are sometimes called cargo cult design, which seem to represent actual product but in reality they don’t. So, the designers also have to be careful about these issues. Technical feasibility should not be totally ignored even if it is quite early stage of the design.

For enthusiast reader, there is an article called “Prototyping: generating ideas or cargo cult designs?”, available in ACM digital libray:

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1052465&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CFID=621001535&CFTOKEN=33199409

Feedback on Anchr – From business model to user experience

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Anchr as a startup-company has earlier tested their prototypes on international students and collected feedback from them to be used in later prototypes. Rather than presenting a prototype I chose to discuss the general concept of Anchr with a few selected friends with different backgrounds that all fit the demographics of the potential Anchr user. Here’s a a short presentation of the potential customers/friends I discussed the idea with:

Lukas, 24, Engineering Student.

Christian, 24, Business Student.

Adèle, 23, Artist and incoming design student.

Oskar, 24, Management Consultant.

Marcus, 24, Investment Banking Analyst.

How did you find these people?

They are friends of mine. I had lunch/dinner with them on different occasions during the last month or so and, while at it, I took the time to discuss Anchr in an informal setting.

Which feedback did you get from them? 

All of them were really intrigued by the idea of Anchr. Primarily, the idea of being close to augmented reality and having information from several internet information providers in one app were something that all of them seemed to see a need for. However, after that several questions were raised, ranging from the UX to the actual business model. Here are some points that were discussed:

  • What is the appropriate business model?
    • 3 out of 5 were willing to pay a small price for premium features. However, the three that were willing to pay for it wanted to pay around 50 kr maximum as a one time cost. Motivations included that if the price is too high they would rather use multiple apps or search engines rather than Anchr.
    • None of them had any problem with advertisements as long it didn’t distract from the user experience. Instagram and Tinder were brought up as good examples apps with non-distracting ads.
  • What is the user interface?
    • Most of them imagined it to be similar to Google Maps but with more information. Since the UI isn’t set in stone we discussed it further. Lukas brought up the idea of the UI being like reddit, where geographic content nearby gets up/down-voted so you always have a clear view of that’s worth doing.
  • Why has not this been done before?
    • We discussed potential difficulties in collecting information and potential risks with losing access to this information from major information providers.

How do you think how you found these people and who they are influences the feedback you received?

It of course matters a lot. Lukas, Oskar and Markus which all have an engineering background were more tech-oriented in their questions. Moreover, I think that the discussion benefitted from me being friends with them, since it allowed them speak freely and not adjust themselves to any expectations from my part.

Will you change your idea based on their feedback, why, why not?

The general idea remains the same, but there are many things that I take with me in terms of business model feedback and potential risks. Since the idea of Anchr in very inclusive at the moment, I think the biggest challenge that lies ahead is to narrow the scope of the application.

Feedback venture idea: The LED Dress

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  • Nelly.com

Nelly.com is a Swedish leading online fashion business for fashionable and trendy women and men between the ages 18 to 35. Their costumers are very fashion sensible and that’s why I decided to contact them.

  1. How did you find these people?

I sent an email trough their costumer service

  1. Which feedback did you get from them?

Their feedback was very positive. They thought it was a great idea and they added that they have had similar products earlier. They exemplified with a pair of sneakers.  

  1. How did you found the feedback? How will their feedback influence you ?

Unfortunately, they couldn’t answer more detailed due to short of time. Although, they wished us good luck and greeted us back in the future in case of further inquiries and possible collaborations.

  1. Will you change your idea based on their feedback, why, why not?

Since their feedback was utterly positive, we will keep the product as it is.

 

  • Dolce & Gabbana
  1. How did you find these people?

I’ve sent e-mail to their mailbox online but received an answer where they said that they couldn’t answer these kinds of questions.

  1. Which feedback did you get from them?

None.

  1. How did you found the feedback? How will their  feedback influence you ?

Since we didn’t receive any feedback from Dolce & Gabbana, we can’t guess their answer. What we could do is try to reach out to them again through another channel or by using our network to see if anyone knows someone working there.

  1. Will you change your idea based on the feedback, why, why not?

I might see some risk with the market segment of luxury fashion brands because we won’t be the only one trying to contact them or trying to sell products to them. Therefore, we need a great sales team and contacts to succeed!

 

  • Ellinor, 23 year old student, Lund, Sweden
  1. How did you find her?

I sent a personal email because she is in my network.

  1. Which feedback did you get from her?

She was very positive and said that she would definitively wear a dress like this! She imagined herself having a LED dress at parties. Depending on the dress shape, she could imagine wearing it on a costume party or some sort of fancy cocktail party where women wear cocktail dresses. She added that she have a lots of girlfriends who she thinks would like an shining LED dress at parties.

 Moreover, she envisions that celebrities would like to wear this kind of dress at a big gala. I wrote in the email that we will sell to luxury fashion brands and she was very posive about that. She thought it would be smart to add exclusivity to the dress.

  1. How did you found her feedback? How will her  feedback influence you ?

She was super positive and really liked the idea. The thing that she said that she herself could wear this kind of dress was a really good sign.

  1. Will you change your idea based on the feedback, why, why not?

I wouldn’t change our product based on this feedback since she was so positive and even wanted to wear it herself. A better answer is hard to find.

 

  • Vilhelm, 19 year old student, Uppsala, Sweden
  1. How did you find him?

Personal interview, Wednesday 25 of May 2016, Stockholm.

  1. Which feedback did you get from him?

Fun idea and he thinks some party people could wear it. Not as usual clothes though, in that case it would be childrens clothes.

  1. How did you found his feedback? How will his  feedback influence you ?

He is a man who wouldnät wear this kind of clothes himself. Therefore he found it difficult to answer.

  1. Will you change your idea based on the feedback, why, why not?

No, he is not our main costumer and therefore, we would need to speak to the women of his age too first, before we should change anything.

 

  • Marcus, 25 year old, student, Stockholm Sweden
  1. How did you find him?

Personal Interview on Monday 23 of May, 2016, Stockholm.

  1. Which feedback did you get from him?

He thought this was a very interesting idea and venture project. He belived, due to the technology theme at the MET gala this year, that this sort of clothes are very up and coming. http://fortune.com/2016/05/04/met-gala-2016-manus-machina/

  1. How did you found his feedback? How will his feedback influence you ?

He wouldn’t like to wear this sort of clothes himselves but he had knowledge of the fashion industry which makes his feedback valuable.

  1. Will you change your idea based on the feedback, why, why not?

I would not change the idea based on his feedback. He was very positive to the idea and as I just written, had valuable knowledge of the latest fashion.

Pirate Summit 2016 Stockholm

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This Monday I visited the Pirate Summit Stockholm. Pirate summit global is a start-up conference held each year. The participants are carefully selected to increase the value for everyone participating. Everyone you talk to at the summit could give you some sort of value. The Pirate Summit don’t want to take money from the start-up’s that already have short of capital, they want to actually give them something.

The event begun with two speakers; one from Northcap and one from 500Startups, which both gave advice on how to run a start-up. The first speaker, from Northcap, said that there is four types of pitches: Technology, Traction, Vision and Team, where most pitches are either Vision and Team because they are the simplest to preform. The Traction pitch is the one you should give to investors. What’s interesting is that many believe that they make the technology pitch, although, according to the speaker, there are fewer technology pitches than one think. The second speaker, from 500Startups, talked about the Nordic market as their next focus and gave advice on what they look for in a pitch. It was three main focuses:

  1. Live products (MVP or more, not only in the idea stage)
  2. Growth data from at least a fem months (3-4 months at least)
  3. Revenue à the start-up should make revenue or have a clear path on how and when to make revenue.

After these two presentations, it was time for the pitch competition. Very exciting! Seven start-ups pitched and the rules were as follows: 3 minutes pitch and 2 minutes Q&A from investors. So it was very real, although I think that the investors questions in general where too kind, they could have been tougher.

Two pitches won and the price was to go to Pirate Summit Global in September this year. The two who won was iControl and MiK. I had some problem understanding the product of iControl, even though the pitcher was good. But it hade something to do with production site and their product was an app that would decrease their time for reporting. Their slogan was “never write a report again”. I really liked the idea behind MiK, which is a platform for home-chefs to connect with hungry people via an app. Their business model is to take a service fee on each payment. I actually downloaded the app at the meeting because their pitch made me curious.

In general, all the pitches begun with stating “the problem” and then going directly to “the solution” which was their product. Only a few showed their business model and revenue stream because they ran out of time. I would definitively suggest those who didn’t have enough time to practice more and knowing the time limit.

It was a great meeting which I could imagine myself participating in again.

You find a link to my tweet here: