Author Archives: Celine Ly

Hi classmates, Hi Serdar,

Before flying to Finland and while waiting for my laundry lol, a quick (and certainly my last) post on Intopreneur to give a bit of a feedback for our entrepreneurship course. I have also filled out the form Serdar :).

In overall, I am very happy with the course. I am a chemical sciences engineer and I have been working for multinational companies during my internships. I have always tried to observe and analyse what makes a company successful. I am also passionate about innovation and before this course, I have heard a lot about entrepreneurship but I did not really have any knowledge on it.

As it is my last year before graduation, I think that taking ME2603 was a relevant choice and a perfect timing for it. It is really important for me, before graduation and at my age, to understand better how a company starts from the beginning. It helped me a lot understanding how the company grows and works before being a massive worldwide known group.

It could sound a bit weird but I actually love both : start ups and multinational companies. What I like in multinational companies in that people are gathered around company’s common values and their are all acting in the direction of a common goal. I like the “massive” effect i.e. the number of people in the company makes me feel protected and in a force position on the market. At the same time, I was amazed by the passion and how strong could be an entrepreneur! So many new ideas, so many dreams! Entrepreneurs wish for a better world and want to be part of the adventure.

Today, I don’t feel ready to start my own company. I truly feel the pain of our customers/consumers and I am completely convinced that innovation is crucial to the progress of mankind but I don’t feel ready to “sacrifice” all my resources (life, knowledge, money, energy) for a very blurry venture project. I don’t have “the idea” yet : maybe i will never have it but or maybe one day I will feel ready for it/sick of working for someone? The perfect scenario for me would be to find THE company where innovation is a cornerstone and where i can bring my ‘move to the world’s progress’ without being ‘alone’ in the venture : can I call myself an intrapreneur?

Anyway, I have learnt a lot about entrepreneurship and innovation and I truly think that this course is just a start. I was not aware of how many events i could actually attend to network, learn and develop my soft/oral skills! In my professional life, I am quite used to read articles but I have never blogged before this course. I have improved a lot my critical judgement skill. Take home message: ME2603 was just the course introducing me to all the resources offered to me! I need to keep on the good work now and as a future graduated engineer passionate about innovation, being updated of what is going on in the market will be integrated in my daily life!

Coursewise, I really appreciate how hard you tried to make the course diverse Serdar. We had interventions from guests, a venture project, the chance to pitch by ourselves, blogging activities and outside events as well : quite a program! I am not used to those kind of courses as I am a scientist but I actually  find it very fun and would love to follow another one like this! You have always tried to make the course interactive, was always in a good mood and very reactive by email/linkedin/face-to-face when we had questions.

As I mentioned  to you, I’d rather like having a unique platform where we can blog/have access to the documents/information/share everything because I find it a bit confusing but as you told us, Bilda was down. Concerning the instructions for the course and especially the assignments, I read the PDF document at the beginning of the course and it is clear. However, It would also be good to have several reminders in class to have enough time to prepare the assignments and not miss the due date/time in case we are forgetting them among all the assignments we have : always appreciated to have a ‘medium’ notice! I really like working in group for the venture project but I felt frustrated not being able to work a few more weeks on it to present something “better” as the course is only one period. Maybe we can reduce the ambition of it? For example, I did not understand the point of writing the 5-page draft document when we handed it the Venture Project video. It gives quite a lot extra work as we need to be concise and complete enough at the same time in 5 pages while writing a 20 pages report. Those are 2 completely different exercises and I did not see the extra value for the reader.

To finish this really long post, I would like to thank you Serdar for you passion and for being a good teacher. I felt very lucky working with my classmates/smart people from so many different backgrounds!

Hope to catch up with you guys soon 🙂

Celine

As we discussed today about the importance of Networking, please find below a short video sharing a couple of tips to network.

In my mind, networking is pretty similar to maintain a romantic relationship : it takes time to build, it’s difficult to get the person’s trust and its needs to be updated and sustained to keep the person’s interest.

We often talk about networking and getting contacts that might be useful to our professional lives. However, the take home message from the video is that networking has to work in 2 directions : you are expecting a lot from your network. Therefore, you need to be able at some point to be the one giving a hand/advice/help someone as well 🙂

Celine

As my classmates, I went last night to Sup46 Happy Hours event co-organize with Atomico!

I was quite surprise with how crowded it was! The event was pretty popular :).

I got the change to mingle, network and meet startups founders in a really informal way.

People were relax, food and drinks were free and little Celine was amaze by how many creative and smart people are!

Would definitely recommend to attend those kind of events!

Picture : Douglas & myself at the event 😀 – same problem with the pic rotation but it appears right when looking at intopreneur on my phone.

Hi folks,

After the seminar we had with Pernilla Rydmark about crowdfunding, I find a new way to bring money to entrepreneurs that we can all contribute in.

We are all searching stuff on the internet are we ? 99% of us are using Google which even gives birth to the expression « googling».

Do you know that via advertisments one single person is giving away 30 euros/year to Google ? As Serdar said today, Google is making money on adverts but what if YOU can choose where this money is going to ?

It is now possible via Lilo ! Lilo is a French search engine allowing you to choose to which causes you would like to give your money to. Lilo looks pretty similar to Google and is equally performant. Everytime you are searching for something via Lilo, you are accumulating points (called drops) that could then translate into money you can give for the charity organisation or business you want.

In their video presentation (in French unfortunately, I have written to the founders to get a English version of it but it still in preparation – more than happy to translate it if needed though), Lilo states that this could :

• Increase by 30% the research budget for cancer
• Help planting 10 000 trees
• Help entrepeneurs getting money to innovate

So what are we waiting ? Let’s give it a try to Lilo ! 🙂

I have been trying to use Lilo for a week now. I have accumulated quite a lot ‘drops’ and felt very happy being able to choose where it goes : I have chosen to give it to a charity organisation for children in Cambodia.

I feedback to them mostly on the layout of their search engine in order to make it more smooth and friendly. It is a bit confusing at first because we are all used to Google’s template. The main drawbacks of Lilo is that they think French – even in their demo presentation… It would make more sense for me to have done something in English to expand it out of France.

As discussed today in the lecture, we can wonder if It was a deliberate choice from the entrepreneurs in order first to understand their customers on a ‘small customer segment’ – I will send an email to them and see what they say about it!

http://www.uselilo.org

Hi Folks,

It has been a tough week and we all feel a bit lazy and tired at the end of the day to do some more work for our next lecture.

However, without having to read lots of literature on it, let’s get a feeling of what is the Business Model Canvas thanks to this 2 minutes video!

Enjoy 🙂

Celine

Hi All,

As part of our Venture Project, my mates and myself are developing Perfectly Fit Clothes Inc.
Perfectly Fit Clothes Inc is a platform connecting people who wants perfectly fit clothes by a full 3D body scan measurement.
A Revolutionary way to get the perfect clothes for you that you could never get somewhere else!

Could you kindly answer this survey please?
This would be very helpful and will only take you 2 minutes, I promise!

Survey Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1EgepHnitHdSbkTafpld7cuk0LuNZPCqZKOQU5cCjcgI/viewform?
usp=send_form

Please feel free to share it as well!
Cheers,

Celine, Amir, Douglas and Tim

 

 

Hi folks,

As part of our assignments, we need to help one or more startup by trying their products/services and feedback on it. The first startup I have been focusing on is Snapchat.

Snapchat is pretty well known by everybody know. For people unaware of it,  Snapchat is an application used to send pictures to our contacts with a set time limit for how long the recipients can view the Snaps. The application was released 4 years ago. As most of the people, I started to use Snapchat 2 years ago ish.

However, a new function has been released on the application quite recently and I have just started to use it a couple of weeks ago : the Snapchat channels. If you swipe two times to the right in the application, you will have access to 14 different channels.

The Snapchat channels are offering very short videos, pictures and tips on various subjects. The channels are 5 minutes long maximum and change every 24 hours. As part of my interests, I have tried the following channels :

• Tastemade : this is a cooking/baking channel. I can discover new recipes via 1-2 minutes videos on a specific country. For example, yesterday it was Russia. They are also sharing mini-articles that you can read like ‘7 things you did not know about Russia’. I have learnt a lot of things about different countries those last couple of weeks!
• Food Network : Cooking/baking channel again. Pretty different from Tastemade because they are not focused on a specific country but just share random recipes. A bit more articles than videos.
• Cosmopolitans : The gossip press – if you want to be aware day to day of what is happening in famous people’s lives!
• Mashable : the tech channel! They are sharing everyday a nice tech article, highlighting one new app to try out and often offer as well their feedback of a new technology. For instance, it was the new 3D touch or the live video on the Iphone 6S the last 2 days.

My feedback on it : I completely love it! I think Snapchat succeeds in understanding the need of the young generation to get information the kind of information they do want, very rapidly/shortly and when they want it. The fact that you can choose the channel you wanna watch is awesome. Also, if there is anything you are not interested in within the channel, you can just skip it by snapping left – that easy! This is innovation for me in the sense that Snapchat already has a very good idea with the time-set pictures but now try to improve their service by offering the channels now. The subjects are made by real professionals, the image quality/video is awesomely recorded. This is defenitely something that comes into my daily habits now – instead of reading lots of articles for hours or watching TV on a specific time for the news, I can get information pretty easily via Snapchat whenever I want to.

If I had to send them a ‘bad’ feedback, I would maybe try to extend the service to new types of channels (language, culture) that are a bit lacking at the moment. Also, I would try to find a way to be able to share the interestings snaps I have seen in my story or to link it to my facebook. We can only snap it to a specific list of contacts for now and sometimes I would love to share it to all my contacts – which is not possible for the moment.

Give it a try – I am sure you guys will find the right channel for you and enjoy this new way of getting information!

Thanks for reading,

Celine

 

 

Hi all,

Yesterday, I went to the Sup46 FemTech event. It was the first time that I was attending this kind of event and I wanted to share my feelings with you guys.

First thing first, I was quite surprised with the whole event organisation. Quite fancy and professional but pretty casual at the same time: I guess this is the good atmosphere they wanted to give us to make us feel comfortable. Free pop corn and drinks were offered to us so as well. During 30 minutes, I had the chance to put in practice my introduction pitch with quite a lot of female entrepreneurs, listen back to their presentations and just network! This comforts me in the idea that Stockholm seems to be a great place to start a company in ! There are so many new ideas, so many ways to improve the world and the new entrepreneurs generation seems to be very excited about it.

Then, during 45 minutes we had the chance to listen to Adiba Barney, CEO of SVForum. SVForum is a platform to connect innovators, entrepreneurs and business partners within the Silicon Valley (USA). Founded in 1983, SV Forum is organising 150 events a year and a lot of workshops to allow people growing their idea and improving their entrepreneur skills in a technology incubator.

 

Some “AHA” moments I wanted to share as well :

1. It often takes 6 to 12 months to get investors giving you money
2. A fearless attitude from the young generation has been observed the last couple of years
3. Sweden is in the Top 5 in Equality ranking vs USA in position 26
4. Woman co-founders companies are returning 35% more in investment, generate 12% more revenue and spend 1/3 less than male co-founders companies!

I really enjoy Adiba’s interview. She is very good at sharing her story and attracting your attention without showing off. She was very close to us, very accessible and pretty nice as well. Among all her advice I wanted to share some take home messages.

At the question “What should you do before starting a company?“, Adiba highlights 3 key points:

• Knowing why you are doing it : building a company requires a lot of passion and a lot of energy. If you are only doing it for money, it is probably not going to work. Being sure why you are willing to put yourself in such an adventure will help you focus on a main goal during your journey
• Knowing what kind of company you want : is it a lifestyle company? a tech company? People in the Silicon Valley are insane and pretty open to everything but very  professional at the same time. Know your market, your competitors landscape or in other words be an expert in your field! Preparation is the key to defend your idea. They are expecting a lot from entrepreneurs even if they look very friendly and nice to you, they are actually judging your potential and your idea while you are talking to them! Do not underestimate Americans.
• Who do I want to do it with ? Investors are often expecting a 1 or 2 co-founders with you. Building a company by your own is not well seen. On the other side, having a too crowded starting team is not helping neither. If you decide to build a company with your best friend(s), make sure you are still doing all the official business papers. You never know if you are going to hate them in a few months! Also, try not associate with people who are exactly the same as you: diversity is a strength!

At the question “What are the key qualities to be a successful global company?“,  Adiba shares her thoughts:

• Having a dynamic team – obviously
• Act and react properly : Adiba highlights the number of entrepreneurs who are not able to react properly to investors or even coworkers feedback. A good entrepreneur needs to take into account good and bad feedbacks- this is how we are progressing. Otherwise, you are just going to loose credibility and trust!

Adiba is a very young business woman I admire for her professional orator skills but also for the events she has been through in her life : a civil war, 2 breast cancers and now a incurable cancer coming back in stage 4. Despite this, she was very warm, smiling and close to us.

A Q&A session followed her interview and 30 more minutes to network with the audience.

I really enjoy this first experience within the entrepreneurs “community” and will shortly try to attend some more events like this!

Any questions, please feel free to give me a shout!

Celine

Could not find a way to post it on Linkedin or on Catrin blogpost … sorry!

Look at how cute is Fredrik in front of our paper towel!

Nice article that I wanted to share with you all.

Also related to one of my previous post about ‘what make an entrepreneur start in a specific country more than an other?’

http://uk.businessinsider.com/ap-why-europe-isnt-creating-any-googles-or-facebooks-2015-9?r=US&IR=T

Celine