Monthly Archives: September 2017

I have found this article (“Tai Lopez Shares 7 Steps to Launch a Business With No Money or Experience”) very interesting. First because I think almost everyone (if not everyone) taking this course is in a moment where money and experience are not abundant. You can get some tips that, as a potential entrepreneur you should remember before starting a new venture. I am also glad to see that many of the ideas match with what we have heard throughout these weeks of course. By the end of the article you can also find a link to Tai Lopez’s personal website where he shares a video about how to start a business in one to eight weeks and many posts and tips for entrepreneurs.

From the article I have mentioned, I would highlight the first step – “Find an idea that works for you” – as I have not found yet an idea that works for me. We all have heard this tip: “Do what you love and you will succeed”. As I do not agree completely with that statement, I like how the article explains the difference between hobbies and a business. It is true that you must like your job -it is necessary but not enough- if you want to succeed you need to focus on what you are good at and build the business around your strengths. It is also true that you can find a partner that is good at what you love, that way he could collaborate with the skills and you could put the passion. I strongly recommend you read the article and take a look at Tai’s personal website. Moreover, you can find a great variety of entrepreneurial articles in the website I found the article mentioned.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/298645

Estanis

Monday the 25th of September Josefien and I attended the start-up event: GDPR & Software Quality. So what is GDPR? And what is the link with start-ups?

GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation and is designed by the European Commission in 2016. GDPR aims to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, protect and empower all EU citizens data privacy and it reshapes the way about how companies use and approach personal data. The GDPR replaces the old Data Protection Directive out of 1995. The GDPR enters into force in May 2018. By then all companies, which process or use data from European citizens for their business should comply to this rule.
So it is about the protection of personal data, what actually is personal data? To name some examples: photos, email addresses, bank details, computer IP addresses, etc… All in all, data that can directly or indirectly identify a person.

Nowadays we live in a world where data becomes more and more important. More and more companies rely on the use of data for their businesses. It is easy to understand that the GDPR rule has a dramatic impact on the business world today. All companies need to adapt to make sure that they comply with the GDPR rule. For example, personal data such as a phone number, cannot be transferred from one company to another without informing the owner. Have you ever wondered how recruiting bureau’s get to know your phone number?

So, this brings me to start-ups. A lot of start-ups, especially technical start-ups which use big data for their business, need to know what is allowed within the GDPR rule. On the one hand, when start-ups know what they can do within this new piece of legislation it can give them a competitive advantage among others. On the other hand, due to this GDPR rule new niche businesses emerge. Start-ups can use this niche to specialize in data protection and provide advice to clients.

I learned that the use of data under the GDPR rule will change. Remarkably their is not much media attention for this topic, but I expect that this will increase as soon as the deadline of May 2018 is coming closer. The majority of companies is simply not ready for the GDPR rule. So start-ups that specialize in data protection should use this opportunity to provide consultancy to boost their business.

Thank for reading,

Menno

I got inspired by a friend to try out Matsmart and I really like it! It feels good to buy groceries that otherwise would be considered as waste. Their idea is to buy products from producers that normally would have been thrown out due to some minor error, for example that the expiry date is short.

It is really easy to buy from matsmart, you just go into their webpage and click on whatever you want to buy. When you then go to pay you can see how much you have saved compared to if you had bought it in a normal store.

I definitely recomend others to try out Matsmart!

This course made me question why social media is important in entrepreneurship. To find more information about this topic I searched for an article which confirms this statement. The article ‘social networks and entrepreneurship’ by Greve and Salaff (2003) gave me a new point of view about the use of social media in entrepreneurship. The article stated that social relations play an important role in establishing a firm. They defined 3 phases (phase 1: motivation, phase 2: planning, phase 3a: establishment phase 3b taking over a firm) in which different kind of social media is necessary. They also investigated the difference between different countries and the use of social media. However, this had no influence on the results. Somehow, I thought this would be a difference.  They also stated that in phase 1 the social network is smaller than in phase 2 and that that phase 1 spend the least amount of time developing social networks. Phase 2 spends the most time developing networks.  They concluded that entrepreneurs who consider starting a firm want a protected environment to discuss their ideas. Therefore, entrepreneurs in Phase limit their discussions to their closest relations. However, the increased number of activities in Phase 2 make the social network increase. At that crucial point, efforts at building and maintaining contacts are highest and they spend a lot of time investing in the social network. In Phase 3, entrepreneurs reduce the size of their social networks to important, helpful members, and spend less time networking. I thought it was quite interesting to see the influence of social media in the different phases of establishing an entrepreneurship. It triggered me to continue searching for more information about using social network in entrepreneurship

SE Forum is a forum for social entrepreneurs where the participants in the program are founders of business that address social and environmental issues. I got the opportunity to listen to a few of the participant’s pitches and come with question and feedback (if any). Nina Othman, Tendekayi Katsiga, Samuel Malinga, Habiba Ali and Maria Mushtaq are a few of the pitches that I got to listen to. They come all over the world with businesses that are so inspiring.

One story was very personal and it got stuck with me. Maria Mushtaq lost her brother due to sickness and lack of healthcare and since that has made it her life goal to help other people in similar situations. She started her company, HealthConnect in 2016. HealthConnect is a tele-medicine platform, with the goal to improve healthcare accessibility. If you live in Sweden, you have probably heard of KRY. This business is quite similar to it. I think it is amazing that someone like Maria has this passion and is doing everything she can to make it succeed. For her, coming to Sweden must be great because she can meet people in the field and gain a lot of knowledge. Especially since this has been done here.

I appreciated all their pitches and it was really interesting to here about entrepreneurship and startups from other parts of the world. Businesses that has been in Sweden for decades, has just started in other countries. If interested in learning more about these startups, check se-forum.se!

I recently bought food online with home delivery. It was a bit expensive for my taste, although very convenient. I began to wonder whether there was a way to find the cheapest online store for food. Then I found Matspar.se. It is a fresh startup that compares the total price (including delivery cost) of your grocery shopping basket in different online stores. When done comparing prices you will be redirected to the desired online store’s webpage for checkout.

I find this a very interesting and potential great tool for consumers to lower their grocery expenditures. Check out their webpage at: https://www.matspar.se.

Please tell your friends about this and let me know your thoughts about it.

Regards Erik Wedin

Folowing Houda´s advice i went to the event she shared in her post . The event was held in SUP 46 (Regeringsgatan 65) which actually is one of the most important start up hub in stockholm. The place was really nice and people were working meanwhile the event was run. The event aimed entrepreneurs, so presentations were about places to settle in Stockholm and capital investment. Overall, I found the information exposed helpful, that’s why I would like to share it with you guys!!
First talk was about SEED Forum which is a not-for-profit organization that is giving global companies seeking capital an opportunity to pitch their investment proposal concepts to investors by facilitating global, national and local investor matchmaking forums. The speech was interesting with some examples (http://www.seedforum.org/).
The next SEED FORUM global meeting will be the 23rd of November in Stockholm (http://www.seedforum.org/calendar).
Right after people from start up hubs talked about different spaces in Stockholm to start working like IMPACT HUB ( http://www.impacthub.net/) or SUP46 ( http://sup46.com/).

The most attractive argument they were selling from this spaces was that by working there you are given the opportunity to work beside people with different projects who have or already had the same questions as you, so you can share information and be helped in different stages of your bussines.

Félix Campos.