Monthly Archives: September 2016

Wednesday I went to an event called “Doing Good Better: An event with Will MacAskill”. Nearly 190 people attended this event quite interesting.

Will MacAskill is an Associate Professor in philosophy at Lincoln college in Oxford.

He cofounded two non-profits: “80 000 hours” –which provides research and advice on how to make a difference through your career-, and “Giving what you can” –encouraging people to commit to give at least 10% of their income to the most effective charities-.

These organisations helped to spark the effective altruism.

During his talk he tried to explain us how to make the most difference with the time and money at hand.

He shows us some social programs –like the Play pump, or Scared straight which is a program for juvenile delinquency in which they give a tour in prison to show how the life is hard in there….but this program is actually leading to more crimes, rapes …than before- that deviated from their main goal.

After that he explained us a simple way to help people all around the world without much effort, for example using his non-profit organization “Giving what you can”.

You can read more on his book Doing Good Better – Effective altruism and How you can Make a Difference-.

Attending payed off! With our project group (Frederik, Wesley, Safia, Nadia and I) we attended a lecture organised by the Nobel Nightcap (SNNC) on innovation. Håkan Borg and Daniel Carlsson told us about KTH innovation, a university based organisation that provides early start up coaching entirely for free. KTH recognises the fact that employees and students are in a valuable position to make new discoveries and doesn’t want to capitalise on that. The opposite is true: in order to stimulate future development based on these insights, they allow the inventors to retain their intellectual property. This agreement is called the Professors’ Privilege. And because there is this desire of KTH associates to further develop their ideas, there is also the free coaching service by KTH innovation that helps making these ideas reality. No equity, just good promotion for the support and quality that KTH provides.

On a different note: after the lecture I grasped my opportunity to speak to Håkan (who has experience as a IP lawyer) about how to further develop CityLights. He told me that KTH innovation is there for the very young ideas like these to help figure out whether there is a market for them and if so help them on the way to success. They have the experience in house to help you (in a bit of a soft money way) to realise the future you are dreaming of. An arrangement I feel I could only dream of ;)! If you’d also be interested to find out more on this, check out their website: KTH innovation.

There is an event in Istanbul, Turkey from the 5^th to the 12^th of January 2017 where you can improve your skills, learning all the tactics relevant to start-ups.

I think it is a great opportunity for travelling, learning more about start-ups, meeting new people and having fun with new friends from all over Europe!

Read more about this event on the website page: https://www.best.eu.org/event/details.jsp?activity=g5tb3td

Who is organizing this event?

BEST, Board of European Students of Technology. It is a non-profit and non-political organization which provide exchange possibilities for students all over Europe.

BEST organizes different activities where students of technology from member universities get the chance to complement their fields of study, their international experience, set up contacts, improve their English level and have fun.

How much does it cost?

It only costs your travel expenses to go to Istanbul + 32 euros. This fee of 32 euros includes accommodation (The Hub Hostel), food and activities.

BEST is trying to get as much money as possibly by co-operating with several organizations like universities and companies. That’s why BEST’s events are a great way to travel for low cost!

How can you apply?

Apply following the link on the event page website before the 9^th of October! A motivation letter is required.

There are more events in other cities which are covering many different technology fields if you want to have a look at them as well: https://www.best.eu.org/courses/list.jsp

Don’t forget the deadline: 9^th of October!

I am part of BEST Stockholm so feel free to ask me more information if you are interested 🙂

So last week I went and met Simon that works on the start up SPARTA and, just like the old warriors of Sparta, the goal is to create the worlds strongest arme. SPARTA’s idea is to educate and train companies sales team to enhance their sales numbers.

One interesting thing Simon said was his take on students desire to work for big companies. For example when Simon graduated the School of Economics for a couple of years ago all his classmates wanted to work for big known companies such as Google, Boston Consulting Group, Apple etc. He says that this is the reason for why it is hard for a start up to be able to hire attractive students.

I will help him by posting here to tell you guys that they are currently hiring so if you have a great love for Start ups and want to work for them you should talk to me in class. SPARTA needs programmers and also salesmen today! I will also post SPARTA by posting in the Industrial management and economy network of Sweden a job offer that Simon will write to me – I will help them find work force.

read more on www.spartasales.com

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of attending an inspirational talk organised by KTH innovation. They had invited Fredrik Wester who is the CEO of Paradox Interactive as the speaker for the evening. He was to share about his entrepreneurial journey of building a company from scratch. When I first arrived the room was full and you could feel the excitement in the air. This might be due to the fact that KTH is full of nerds who are gamers.

 The talk started with the CEO talking about the history of the company.  Paradox Interactive was founded in 1998 and is based in Stockholm. It is a video game publisher and is well known for historical strategy games computer games. They are well known worldwide for games like Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron. If you don’t know about these two games, then you are definitely not a Gamer nor a nerd ;).

The CEO went on to talk about why he went into entrepreneurship and why he encourages us to join the entrepreneurial game. He talked about many the pros and cons of starting a business and how rewarding it can be if you manage to succeed. He mentioned that as an entrepreneur you have the freedom something that you can’t have if you work for a company. You also get to select your team which is key to success. You pick the people you feel you can work with efficiently and produce results. He also mentioned that the Entrepreneur owns the risk of the company. This is important as you know your strength and weaknesses.

He went further into philosophy of a business. The culture you set in the business is very important. As the leader you have to behave in the right way to foster a good culture in the company. He mentioned that flexibility and efficiency in a new venture is key. You have to learn to adapt to the market fast. In his view a business plan is the most important than the technology or solution you provide. He took an example in his company and said he puts 100% in business and 50% in developing because cash flow for the company is very important for the smooth running of the business. He also mentioned that actions are more important than ideas. If you have a good idea and do nothing, then its worthless

He proceeded to talk about leadership in a company. One of my favourite quotes from the talk was when he said that “ you as the entrepreneur are the biggest bottleneck of your organisation. You build the atmosphere and you have to lead from the front’’. He said also leadership is defined by results and not attributes. Your Rank in the organisations does not confer privilege or power but imposes responsibility. The higher the rank the more the responsibility.

At the end of the talk we had a mingle session and unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity of talking to him because of many people who wanted to do the same. I went home thinking about 3 things, your actions, business model and leadership is key for a start-up.

I met this interesting woman today. We got into the topic of what we did for a living I asked what her job was. She uttered with pride “I am an Entrepreneur.”

To me this answer was unfinished, as it did not answer my question of what she did for work. She however seemed to be so strongly identified with being an entrepreneur that she did not feel a need to explain herself further. She was “an entrepreneur”, to her that was self-explanatory, but to me it was not obvious what she meant by that. It got me thinking of some kind of definition, what is an entrepreneur?

The definition of an entrepreneur varies from person to person. Paula Fernandes expresses in her article in Business News Daily that “most people would agree that an entrepreneur is a person who has started his or her own business. But that basic definition barely scratches the surface.” (Source 1).

In her quest for a definition Fernandes has asked what an entrepreneur is to 15 company founders and business leaders. One answer by the CEO of Thrive15 was that “An entrepreneur is someone who seeks to profitably solve a problem that the world has, in exchange for enough monetary compensation to achieve their dreams.” (Source 1).

Another response from the co-founder and CEO of Seventeen is that an entrepreneur is someone with “the mind-set that allows you to see opportunity everywhere.” (Source 1).

A more extreme definition is that “entrepreneurship is a lifestyle, in that being an entrepreneur is ingrained in one’s identity. [It] is the culmination of a certain set of characteristics: determination, creativity, the capacity to risk, leadership and enthusiasm.” (Source 1).

Ken Krogue also tries to answer what an entrepreneur is in his article at Forbes Magazine (Source 2). Krogue writes that an entrepreneur is a both a leader and a manager, a statesman and a politician, and is someone who constantly strives for not only understanding things but also actually going to the source in order to learn them.

In an article in The Economist the definition of an entrepreneur is said to be split into two different distinctive views “The first is the popular view: that entrepreneurs are people who run their own companies, the self-employed or small-business people. The second is Joseph Schumpeter’s view that entrepreneurs are innovators: people who come up with ideas and embody those ideas in high-growth companies.” (Source 3)

Furthermore, in an article in Inc., the founder of The Marketing Donut has the following definition “An entrepreneur is someone who, rather than working 8 hours a day for someone else, would prefer to work 18 hours a day for [him or herself].” (Source 4).

Is an entrepreneur; someone who works more than most people, is it a business version of a Renaissance man, or someone who simply runs a business? Well, that all depends on your definition of an entrepreneur.

What is an entrepreneur to you?

Source 1: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7275-entrepreneurship-defined.html#sthash.eeZ87YEB.dpuf

Source 2: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenkrogue/2013/07/03/what-is-an-entrepreneur/#271f37cb5586

Source 3: http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2014/02/our-schumpeter-columnist

Source 4: http://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/so-what-is-an-entrepreneur-anyway.html

Image source: http://www.statuswhatsapp.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/yourstory-what-is-an-entrepreneur-1.jpg

I decided to make a post a the essence of entrepreneurship, things that we just find awesome! So there are some students from my home university in Delft, the Netherlands, who formed a startup and I believe this is one is seriously taking off. So there their simple idea is this: You go to a festival and have a lot of fun for a weekend an very hung over you start packing on Sunday. The smelly, gross, possibly torn tent you bought for a couple kroners at biltema you just leave behind as you can’t be bothered bringing at back. This situation sketch you can see below if you don’t believe people are doing this. So instead you also could have bought a tent from Kartent. This tent is made from completely recycled cardboard and fits 2 people. It even is rain-resistant for up to 48 hours!

I like the idea that you even don’t have to bring it along with you as you can order it in advance with your festival ticket and, depending on the festival, they are in between 30 and 45 euro’s! If you are not as convinced that this is a pretty awesome business idea let the fact’s speak for themselves. They started brainstorming last year and in their pilot season they sold at 10 different festivals, all very big and prestigious. Also Kartent is available in the Netherlands, France, Spain, germany and the UK.

I just want to wish all the best to them and I love what you are doing. Hopefully they keep going and we can expect to sleep in a Kartent the next time you go to a festival here in Sweden.

http://kartent.com/