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Dreamgineering was in an exhibition about Entrepreneur Creation in Royal Coin Cabinet yesterday!

The exhibition takes a new approach on entrepreneurship and how entrepreneurs are involved in changing and affecting our lives. We can meet creative people and entrepreneurs from 400 years to today in the exhibition. Some cases really inspired us by their success, setbacks, endless perseverance and sense of timing.

Here are some interesting points in the exhibition:

Try to have two strings on the bow

Many entrepreneurs just come up with a new idea and they stick with it throughout their entire career. It’s lot more easily for them to fail since they put all the eggs in one basket. Try to be the ones who keep coming up with new thoughts, starting multiple businesses or buying up existing companies. These people are known as serial entrepreneurs.

Cutting-edge Ideas & Timing

The particular time when a new idea is launched is decisive to its success. (I can’t agree with the saying “timing is everything” more, especially after the assignment Idea Screening.)  Owing to the fact that the ideas are often at the forefront, and this means that those ideas sometimes challenge laws and take substantial risk. But if ones can conquer the difficulties after several attempts and make it economically viable, it’s most likely for them to be very successful.

Intrapreneurship

Intrapreneurs are the employees in the company who work with creative projects of their choice as part of their job. They are just like the entrepreneurs in the organizations. Sometimes it’s a good thing to have an intrapreneurship in a company since they can profit the company. But sometimes the Intrapreneurs will start their own business and leave the original company. A classic case for intrapreneurship is that the founders of Adobe, Charles Geschke and John Warnock were employees of Xerox before.

It was good to meet a lot of entrepreneurs throughout the history and know different perspectives of entrepreneurship. All in all, nothing is easy, but everything is possible! In every case, key words are innovation, collaboration, creativity and curiosity.

Find more in Peter’s post!

#Dreamgineering

Yesterday, I (and Danny) got to attend the Stockholm Startup Weekend Bootcamp hosted by Stockholm Startup Weekend at the venue for Young Innovation HUB. It was basically a workshop held to prepare all participants of the coming Startup Weekend. The theme of the bootcamp this time was focus on Product Design, or design in particular.

After having a lecture about the importance of a good business model for the success of your business idea, I found it very useful to (6 hours later) learn that a good product design and the way you want to convey your idea/product/service to others is very important as well. I think you have to have both: a solid business model and a good presentation so that you gain your public attraction. And then the best way to sustain that is through substance, which would your business model.

Anyhow, with that being said… The event consisted of several speakers who focused on the theme of product deisgn. One of the speakers was Erik Ceder, who works at Veryday, which is a people-and end-user driven desing company that has had large corporate customer like Spotify, Toyota, IKEA and so on (the list was endless, phew). It is actually one of the top 5 design consultancies in the world! Furthermore, Ceder has also won the Red Dot Award for Product Design, which is basically equivalent  to the oscars in the digital design world. Pretty cool 🙂

The speakers gave us some useful tips in how to make your product i.e. app, webdesign etc. appealing and easy to grasp for your customers, or to the audience just in general. They 3 main tips were:

1) Simplify it/Less is More (even though you get lots of ideas for your product/service you need to scale you down layout to simplicity for others to easily understand and see a red thread)

2) Bring it to life/Branding (your product must have character and personality to create a credibility with your customers)

3) Fake It ’til You Make It (really spend time on developing your business plan)

Something else that I learned, and something the speakers were very good at pointing out was that Design is really about Conversion, meaning that it is in the end about changing behaviors (of users) and making usage more simple. One pretty interesting tip was that you should do the so-called “squint test, meaning that you should stand 3 meters away from you webpage or app to see what your customers would notice first. Then you should ask yourself if you like what you see  😎

All in all, I believe that design/product design is a crucial part in developing your idea/product/service. It is a way to convey a message, a chance to showcase your stuff to your customers and instill a feeling or create a connection in and with them, especially when a lot of today’s innovation are digital – several business ideas that I have seen for the past few weeks have been based on mobile apps – we surely are going more and more digital!

However, a good busines splan and model is just as important. So I think both must go equally well hand-in-hand. So watch for my next post where I will go deeper into business plan/model generation! Also, read Danny’s post too to get more perspectives! 🙂

Yesterday, I attended the open house event at Student Inc with Raquel, Lenny and Peter from the awesome team Dreamgineering. My Klint, the at Student Inc. manager, gave us a very informative and  insightful tour of Studen Inc and the startups that they have helped and are helping along the way.

As Raquel and Lenny probably has informed you in their posts http://intopreneur.com/?post_format=link and http://intopreneur.com/?p=173, Student Inc is a KTH organziation that supports Technical startups by KTH students, not through investing in them but helping them find investors.

To sumarize and not to repeat too much of what my aweosme teammates have already told you: around approximately 10 am My gave us a tour/introduction of the timeline for startups that Student Inc helps and it includes 3 phases: Initiation, Development and Phase Out with the third phase being that you can pretty much stand completely on your own (see picture below). We were also introduced of all the very exicitng business ideas that were happening. The creativity on that timeline seemed endless! 🙂

Some interesting things that My reminded us about Entrepreneurship were that as a startup, you have to earn your investors (i.e. laying a good groundwork and building a solid business model etc.), and also that passion for what it is that you do is very important (some thing I talked about in my previous post).  As there will be ups and downs,  only a passion for what you do will “get you through” it ( as well as positive customer feedbacks – getting recognition and appreciation for your work in any area is always a fantastic feeling that fuels you up with energ).  So basically, you have to be very into your idea, what you do and what value it brings to your surroundings to get through the downs and also keep on getting yourself through the many challenges and the huge amount of hard work (especially finding investors) that startups embody. But ups are obviously very easy to sail by in whatever you choose to do, but the downs? Trickier. Much trickier.

On top of this, My also pointed out that Persistence is crucial as well. And seeing the 3 phases the startups on Student Inc’s timeline have to go through, it surely is. However, all successful startups such as Spotify, Apple, Facebook started out being small. It is through hard work and being tenacious that got them to where they are. It sounds obvious but I can really imagine that when you have a business idea that is new to the world and without any funding and with the insecurity around it all, letting it go does seem tempting.

Anyways, I am excited to start working on Phase 1 of my idea for the course and trying out all the things that I have learned to far. My will also come with some useful feedback to the whole team, and who knows, maybe my idea (or another one) will be launched into the real world one day 😀

/Yuwei, team Dreamgineering

Today we visited the Student Inc. Programme which is financed by KTH Innovation as part of the online & offline assignment for the KTH Entrepreneurship course. Student Inc. is an organization that helps start-ups and young entrepreneurs through the first phases of their journey towards building their own company.

When you want to apply to the programme there are a few requirements each group has to fulfill. First of all and most importantly the majority of the start-up team have to be students at KTH and the idea has to be “technical”. Additionally other criteria have to be met, e.g. that the idea has to be innovative, a lot of research must be done before beeing accepted, etc. After meetings with business coaches in order to discuss, develop and improve initial ideas the teams that are accepted go through 3 phases.

In the first phase, called “Initiation” the entrepreneurs are supposed work on their ideas, do further research, develop the product and after 3 months do a pitch to the business coaches in order to move on to the second phase.

In the second phase, “Development”, the aim is to actually launch the product/enterprise and bring it to market during approximately six months before moving on to the last phase after another pitch .

The third phase, “Phase out”, helps the entrepreneurs to prepare to stand on their own feet, so to speak, and being able to continue their journey by themselves.

During our visit we heard a lot about different ideas and the different stages the entrepreneurs find themselves in. To maybe highlight one of the  organizations which have already left Student Inc. I would like to mention Help to Help, a NGO that gathers money through crowdfunding in order to pay tuition fees for children in developing countries, an idea which in my opinion is very inspiring and noteworthy.

What Student Inc. provides for the students is guidance through business coaches and ongoing meetings in order to discuss the progress of the idea, offices to work in and for special, promising teams even a network of high-profile investors.

Since time was running out in the end we were not able to pitch our ideas to My Klint, the Manager of Student Inc., but agreed upon sending our individual ideas to her and then receiving initial feedback from in return. So during the next week we will start introducing our ideas on this blog and keep you updated on constructive feedback and how that will affect our developing process.

To leave you with there were some things My told us that are essential when it comes to Entrepreneurship. First of all when in doubt about which idea you should pursue: always follow your passion. Second of all: you need a lot of persistence when you want to be en entrepreneur since you will always start broke and will inevitably face many ups and downs on the way. But nevertheless the rewards you get, when for example your first customer likes your idea or you sell the first exemplar of your product, are worth all the pain you have endure on the way.

The Student Inc. building

Dreamgineering at Student Inc.

#Dreamgineering

I had the privilege to take part in the inaugural Nordic Life Science Innovation Challenge (http://www.biopeople.dk/index.php?id=819) this past weekend from 5 September to September 7. I found out about the opportunity on the KTH innovation website. Ironically, the majority of the event took place in building Q, where our exercises take place.

Half the folks flew in from Copenhagen and most were well into their graduate degrees or were involved with their own start ups already. It was quite the experience to network with these individual from many walks of life with impressive track records. I was put into a group that consisted of a Dane, a Belarusian, and a German (yes, quite the diversity).

I was expecting more of an event with training on pitching an idea, but ultimately it was a case competition centered on the biotech industry. The 6 or so ideas we as a group could choose from were given to us, some more open-ended than others. I didn’t have the background as the others did on biotech and life sciences but I sought to input as much of my perspective as I could throughout Saturday and Sunday. Nonetheless, my biggest takeaway was the impressive collaboration and mix of varying viewpoints that drew together to come up with a 5-minute pitch to a jury of established entrepreneurs with only 10 hours of work.

Considering that this was the first time this event was held, I was and still am impressed by the quality of it, the presenters that came to speak, and most importantly, the diversity that was represented. I was told that this is something that will take place on an annual basis together with the Nordic Life Science Days in Stockholm. If anything, this is a great networking opportunity with individuals that have tremendous entrepreneurial spirit. I hope to participate in it again and I highly recommend it to those that will be here in the coming years!

And I will leave you all with a couple of pictures of the participants and the coordinators of the event:

#Dreamgineering

What should we do if we come up with an awesome idea or we find some pain points to solve in school?

Knight (1921) once said that ”entrepreneur is someone who calculates and takes risk and manage uncertainties.” Entrepreneurs are often described as risk takers; unfortunately, many of them will fail eventually. Therefore, it will be great if there is someone or some organization helping the student –entrepreneurs get their startups going.

Being at KTH for a month, I truly think KTH is a school that is very friendly for the entrepreneurs. You can find out that there are a lot of courses related to Entrepreneurship of the website, such as the one we are taking right now (the best one!). And I can feel the atmosphere of encouraging entrepreneurship at campus. A lot of activities about Entrepreneurship are held in the school. For example, Stockholm Innovation & Growth (STING), which is an organization supported over 130 startups over more than 10 years, had an activity ”Entrepreneurship on Campus” on 28th August. They invited us to an inspiring presentation of the startup scene at KTH.

In addition, there is an organization called “Student Inc.”, KTH Student Incubator. It supports students at KTH with their potential projects and helps students get their startups going and make some progress towards commercialization, especially in technology based projects.

This is the Facebook page of KTH Student Incubator.

https://www.facebook.com/KTHStudentIncubator?fref=ts

There are a lot of useful information and activities about start-up or how to get involved in entrepreneurship.

What’s more, they have start-up pubs a few times every semester. It’s a pub where students can present their ideas of a product or business to others. Last one was on 2nd September. Not sure when the next one is, but check the page now and then and hope they have one soon.

KTH Innovation, In collaboration with Excitera, operate the KTH student incubator – Student Inc. together. If you want to know more about Student Inc.:

http://www.kth.se/en/innovation/studentinc/student-inc-ar-kth-s-studentinkubator-1.414438

Being in a such entrepreneur -friendly environment, I truly believe that I will learn a lot and get some brand new thoughts about entrepreneurship in there!

#Danny Huang, #Dreamgineering

The word ‘Entrepreneurship’ has never resonated much with me. I have always pictured myself as that person who goes on to work for big noble firms,  continuing with and improving what others have already started, and finding fullfilment and purposeness through that.. But creating something new and doing startups? Not so much. Although I have a feeling that this course will change my viewpoint…

One negative perception that I’ve had of entrepreneurship is that people go into it almost solely because of the fame and money. However, having read some of this course’s articles (i.e. Thomas Oppong, ‘Don’t Just Start a Business, Solve A Problem’) and after today’s lecture about Idea Generation, I am starting to get a different perception. Sure enough, I still think money accounts for a big part of all the reasons people become entrepreneurs, but I have also come to realize that what many entrepreneurs actually want to do is to make the world a more efficient (and in most cases better) place through solving recurrent problems in various areas. I believe that the best ideas and creations must come from those who foremostly just want to solve a problem, not triggered by any other factors such as money or fame. Because, at the end of the day, doing something out of one’s passion, belief and self-initiated purpose is what creates meaning. And meaning is what can truly create an endless drive that is essential for success.

Another misconception I’ve had about entrepeneurship is that, the idea and the product all have to be really big, or at least become that really quickly. Maybe it’s because that majority of the time, small startups don’t get as much attention as the ones that have become very big and successful. Or that I don’t pay enough attention to them… But after today’s lecture, I strangely got very excited just by knowing that you should/can start small and find a solution to a problem that serves “only” a smaller (core) group of people. It actually makes a lot of sense – one step at a time, right? And you don’t have to go very drastic with the product – small changes and improvements suffice 🙂 Next time, I will no longer be dismissive about ideas that come to my mind. I will get on with it and think, ‘who else can benefit from this idea?’ and ‘how cna I take this one step further?’

So, what’s upcoming now is to generate a good idea sketch. Good to learn that brainstorming from scratch might not really help. However, Idea Generation is just the beginning. I read somehwere that a sound business plan and execution are just as important, if not more. So, with that said – I am looking forward to the upcoming lectures!

/Yuwei (Yuwzhng), Team Dreamgineering