Tag Archives: Dreamgineering

Diversity is the key.

At the first class on 1/9 Serdar tell me this thought when I was about to form a team with some friends from Asia. Then I join Dreamgineering which is the best group in the class! Our group members are from five different countries: Sweden, Spain, Taiwan, United State and Germany. It’s great to work and discuss with them, and I learned a lot from each of them. Because of the different background, we can always come up with something interesting and creative by brainstorming.

You are not selling. You want them to buy!

It’s important to find a pain, especially the pain, discomfort, or dissatisfaction that you have, and solve it. Not to think about “selling, selling, selling” all day. So don’t focus too much on how to make money and focus instead more on solving their needs and pains.

Networking!

We can’t put too much emphasis on the importance of networking. Personal social network is very valuable to people, especially for entrepreneurs. Sometimes it can do things that money can’t. More, it’s skillful to help others get connection, just like last time what Serdar did to let two acquaintances get connected in the Fika. I thinks it’s goof that this course encourage us to meet other people.

The world is big, go explore!

We were encouraged to attend startup activities in Stockholm For these few months, I have been to 4 activities :

1. ”Entrepreneurship on Campus” held by Stockholm Innovation & Growth (STING)

2. Cultue Festival about startup in Vaxholm – NyföretagarCentrum.

3. Stockholm Startup Weekend Bootcamp

4. Entrepreneur Creation in Royal Coin Cabinet

I met different awesome people, learn to brand new thoughts and listen to many different stories. I didn’t notice that the world is such a big and interesting full with amazing people and beautiful things.

And the last thing I want to mention is that the student-teacher interactions in Sweden is very friendly. That really surprises me. As an international student from Taiwan, I know it’s not easy for students and teacher to have such intimate and good interactions. But in this course, we have a teacher who ask us to have coffee or lunch together, answer our questions patiently after and during class, and voluntarily offer time four discussion. Thank you Serdar, a friend-like teacher!

// Danny Huang

#Dreamgineering – we make dreams come true.

As the course is about to come to an end I would like to wrap up what I am taking away from this course and what I have learned. After reading some of the blogs listed in the reading list I decided to make it a 10-things-to-learn in an Entrepreneurship course list.

1. Everybody can be an Entrepreneur: No matter how old you are, no matter how young you are or in what life situation you find yourself in, there is always a way to create, design, develop, invent something new and bring it to market. All you need is a lot of passion, patience and persistency (maybe you could call this the 3P-Model for Entrepreneurship 😉 )
2. The only thing that is important are your customers. They know what they need, what they want and what they will pay for. So only focus on their feedback and get it as soon and as often as possible. Greetings exam question 12 today…
3. It is all about socialising: When you want to be an entrepreneur you have to establish a close personal network, talk to people in oder to get new ideas and see what relationships there exist between different fields.
4. The small things work best: I know this is a good line to be riddiculed for but I will deal with that. When you are an Entrepreneur you have about one minute to capture the attention of a possible investors, customers or co-founders. In these situation always the short, simple statements stick with you, no matter if they are mantras or tag lines.
5. The world is full of awesome ideas and people. We have met so many awesome People that you can learn from and marvel. Karin Nilsdotter (man I would like to go to space), Gregg Vanourek (Triple Crown was maybe the most memorable guest lecture) and Erich Joachimsthaler (he just knew what he was doing) are just some.
6. You are just a great team away from success. Maybe the second most important thing after finding and listening to customers is Assembling a great team. Unless you are Steve Jobs you can’t think of everything and do everything on your own. Let someone help you; only make sure it is the right person.
7. Nothing is godgiven, you can learn everything. You do not have any great ideas? You do not know anything about creating a business?  You are not good at networking? Who cares? Nobody was born perfect. Just make an effort and improve. But I guess that is true for everything in life.
8. Just do it.  Nike is right. If you have an idea and you feel really passionate about it. Just start and get going. Everything else will fall into place.
9. You are not on your own. There are so many opportunities, People or companies out there that will help you with the development of your idea , provide office space, provide personal consultation and so much more.
10.  I guess in the end you just say thank you for the course.

#Dreamgineerin – where dreams become engineered

It’s hard to believe that his course is about to wrap up. Just wanted to give some closing feedback and reflect on the last couple of weeks.

I can definitely say that Serdar, you brought in some great speakers that really connected with us aspiring entrepreneurs. Also, the personal stories that you shared both in and out of class really hit home. I hate to say this, but I think our conversations outside of and after class have made more of an impact on me than your lectures. And thank you start for making us blog and establish online presence because that has been something that several folks have urged me to do and I can see the potentials of it now. The next step for us all is to start our own websites.

I have to admit – my expectations coming into this class were high. I was hoping for more practicality and doing. I was hoping for more “entrepreneurial experience.” But I have realized that that’s what courses like “Execution – Running Your Own Company” and “Ideation” are for. Although I was not quite satisfied with the actual substance of this course, I have begun to realize (especially as I am skimming back through the readings) that what this class has truly taught me is two things: passion and execution.

Nothing will just fall out of the sky as much as you would like it to happen. They just won’t. An idea really is useless until you execute. Talk is cheap. Really. And to have idea without all your heart and soul fully in it will most likely never make it.

To keep it short, it is time to go out, try things, and execute. Even if one fails, there is much to be learned. And so what, sometimes failure is the greatest teacher. Let’s go make things happen!

Subtraction is one of the four approaches to product ideas. But after listing the essential elements of the product, it’s not so easy to find out which elements should be removed to make a good product.

How about removing almost every key elements of the product?Here comes NoPhone!

It’s common to see friends or family sitting in a fancy restaurant waiting for dinner to be served, but they barely talk to each other. They are too busy swiping their smartphones and sending messages to people in their social network.

Nowadays, many people are addicted to their smartphones and will be very insecure without seeing them; some even have “Nomophobia ” which means they will be in great fear of being out of mobile phone contact. Therefore, probably a non-phone can cure people for their addiction of smartphone and force them to stay connected with the real world.

Here are some interesting testimonials on the website that Serdar showed us today:(https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nophone-usa/nophone-0)

“I used to sleep with my phone in my hand, but my night terrors would cause me to hurl it across the room in an unconscious panic. With the NoPhone, I can still enjoy the comfort of holding a phone in my sleep, without waking up to a shattered screen. Thanks, NoPhone.” -David H 

“With the NoPhone, my eye contact skills have improved 73%.” -Whitney R 

“Because of the NoPhone, I haven’t drunk texted my ex boyfriend in one whole week.” -Craig G

This phone has no basic phone functions, no camera, no Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity and so on. You don’t need to upgrade it from time to time, and it won’t break your heart when you accidently drop it on the floor. However, it encourages people to pay more attention on their direct environment and forces people to socialize with others. So, it actually has some surprising functions.

Subtraction is one good way for idea generation. But who will come up with the bold move of removing all the key elements to make a useful product?

Think outside the box, imagining the wildest thing. Sometimes you may come up with great ideas!

//Danny Huang     #Dreamgineering

While talking to Serdar last week I was reminded that one tasks of the course was to get and give feedback to others. This includes those  who may be in another group than oneself, so that one can profit from one another. Following that thought I decided to post my idea for a new businees here and hope to receive as much feedback, comments, suggestions, critique as possible. As we learned from Karin Nilsdotter it can be very beneficial to cooperate and learn even from your competitors, although that is not the way I see the participants of this course. To present my idea I thought I would follow the assignments we had during this course.

The idea sketch is as follows:

• What is the venture? Describe the product(s) or service(s).

The idea is to open a supermarket that offers all products other supermarkets offer but without disposable paper or plastic packaging, thus addressing the problem of waste disposal before it arises. You could call it “pre-cycling”. Goods are kept in “bulk bins” from where they can be put into (glass) containers. So e.g. the noodles that are usually either packed in a plastic bag or in a cardboard box will be kept in these “bulk bins” out of which you take them and put them directly in your own tupperware or glass container. So that all the waste that is produced just to allow you to take predefined portions of a certain food will be removed. Additionally it will promote local products from around Stockholm or at least Sweden whenever that is possible.

• How is it related to your field of specialisation? Explain briefly.

I am studying Energy and Resource Management. Implementing this idea allows us to save energy currently used to dispose of waste and valuable resources used for packaging.

• What is the customer pain/problem (or delight) you will address?

Swedish people are portrayed to be very eco-conscious. Nevertheless we rely too much on packages to fulfil basic needs endangering the environment. The problem of waste disposal is becoming more and more evident and ways to tackle it are desperately needed.

• What is the target market? Be clear and focused. Identify specific customer segments.

The customers will be well-situated, eco-conscious inhabitants of Stockholm, possibly in Östermalm. Previous customers of the Farmer’s market, coop and people who want organic food will be the target market. It will also appeal to patriotic Swedish people who want to support the local farmers and economy. The age group will probably be over 30.

• Name the three most important competing or substitute products or services.

1. Innovative, new ways of waste disposal.
2. Established supermarkets that copy the concept as part of their venture.
3. Farmer’s markets where local food is offered.

• How is your venture better than its top competitors and substitutes?

1. What is most important is that it is more eco-friendly than other supermarkets and supports the local farmers and industry. It combines the convenience of supermarkets with fresh, package-free products from farmer’s markets. Also, waste disposal is redundant if one does not produce waste.
• How will the venture generate revenue? Be specific.
  1. The way to generate revenue will in essence be the same as in every other supermarket but since new contracts will have to be drafted with producers and suppliers, and since mainly local products shall be sold the prices will be little higher than in other supermarkets. An additional way is through offering recyclable glasses and bags for sale or rent to carry the goods home in case of a spontaneous purchase that did not allow for bringing personal containers. Government subsidies are also imaginable although subordinate.

• What are the three biggest risks for the venture?

1. People are not willing to change their shopping behaviour.
2. As found in literature: lack of focus by the founders or an insufficient business plan.
3. The willingness to pay higher prices to help preserve the environment or in other words the “eco-friendliness” of the Swedish people is not enough for positive revenue.

After a screening from Yuwei – thank you very much again 🙂 – it was possible to get a more comprehensive overview of the situation and I identified some major points that need to be addressed. The new perspective I got was as follows:

Based on the screening it is safe to say that the overall potential of the product is relatively good. However, there could be a potential convenience problem. It may be that there are better-off alternatives to carry the goods home i.e. reused textile-plastic-hybrids. Further research needs to go into that direction.

In general more product evaluation is needed as a next step, including establishing a contact network with the right supermarkets, distributors and experts on the area for more thorough and useful feedback on how to develop the product further. The upside is that increased eco-friendliness in the supermarket industry/sector is definitely needed and there hasn’t been enough initiatives to do so, so far.

A crucial deficit of the business is my lack of experience and of a network in that area. Therefore it is of the utmost importance to address that, get in contact with experienced people and establish partnerships maybe even cooperate with one of the big players like Coop and in the worst case settling for opening a side brand. However the potential to assemble a team is there. Definitely time and research need to go into that.

Additionally another issue is as always the money. As a next step a business and a revenue model need to be set up. It should then be possible to find potential investors, however the lack of network and experience is problematic since the needed amount is relatively high.

To sum up the potential is there, but work and time is needed to first and foremost establish a network and gather an experienced and motivated team and doing research as the key milestones and then go on with developing a business and revenue model followed by finding suppliers, a location, marketing and actually building and opening the supermarket.

Thanks to feedback from Axel I gained new insights into the venture. A thing that should be investigated into is the possibility of using bio-packaging. An idea of how to do this can be found here:

http://www.trueactivist.com/16-year-old-invents-sustainable-bio-plastic-from-banana-peels/

I attend to upgrade the progress of the idea here as it hopefully will evolve due to input from other course members. I hope to receive some feedback through this post and in turn will be happy to provide feedback to others who post there ideas here on this blog.

I look forward to hearing from you and thank you very much for your help.

#Dreamgineering

We had a special guest in  our class– Karin Nilsdotter! She is the CEO of Space Travel Alliance and Spaceport Sweden.

Being a pioneer of commercial human spaceflight and people’s gateway to the mysterious space, Spaceport Sweden has already pushed the limit above the sky!

“Why do people want to explore space?” asked by Karin in class.

“Space is a platform for innovation.”

“Because people are curious, they want to find something new.”

“In order to find more resource”

“Our planet is about to fall apart…”

All of them are right. And from astropreneur’s point of view, another important reason to explore the space is that the dreams of space-exploring make all the other business ventures seem very microscopic by comparison. So that’s why many people are obsessed with sky.

There is a lot of development in space but not so much innovation. The thing that Spaceport Sweden is doing right now is quite an innovation. The world does need something new right now. Furthermore, it arised people’s attention in space industry. For example, KTH has just set their space Centre recently for space research and technology.

And because of the inspiring speech, many people stayed in class and asked Karin some questions.

“Do we need knowledge about the space to be in a part like Spaceport Sweden?”

“No. I think being an astropreneur or entrepreneur is about having the drive of passion about what you do. And it’s about what you ally with. ”

“The most important thing is that being passionate about what you do and to have courage to do it. It’s hard work; if you don’t love what you do, you won’t have the perseverance.”

Done a lot of sports in her life,Karin said that  running a start-up is like running a marathon. You need to practice. You need to get out even though it’s raining. Sometimes you need to race because you have competitors right behind you; but you also need to work together with your competitors because there is a pushing point and you have to support each other.

I truly learned many things and be motivated by the speech!

Everything starts with the first little step. So, Don’t be afraid of failure.

Probably our next adventure starts here!

//Danny Huang     #Dreamgineering