Richard | Intopreneur

03Nov 2016

Reflecting on the effects this course has had on me

123 When I started this course I had no clue what to expect. To be completely honest, I basically ended up taking this course because I had a clash in courses which meant I had to find another one. A friend of mine then recommended this course and mentioned that it was a little bit different from other KTH courses. However, as the first class started I got to see why it was a good choice as well as I quickly realized how much more there is to know about entrepreneurship and everything around it.

Serdar has taught me how to look at myself from another person’s perspective in many cases, mostly through how I am viewed during presentations. He has also taught me to see things from another perspective. It has been quite a journey for me, to get out of my comfort zone and step into the world of the idea generation. Studying mechanical engineering I normally focus on the technological side of an idea, not the entrepreneurial side of it all as I have been doing in this course. Though, putting myself out there and challenge myself has been a bit tricky in my past, I have been pushed even further than I had expected of myself which means that I have exceeded my expectations. So kudos to Serdar!

But explicitly, what are the main learning outcomes from the course?

Pitching an idea The Elevator pitch step taught me how to make business idea concrete and appealing for others in the span of just a couple of minutes. This was something new for me and I believe this will be useful in my future career. It is crucial to be able to catch someone’s attention and make others understand why what you are saying or proposing is relevant for them. The Elevator pitch step of the course has helped me understand that and gave me tools in order to do so.
The meaning of Entrepreneurship As we needed to blog about entrepreneurship I started researching the topic reading current articles and looking at entrepreneurship websites. One of those blog posts was What is an entrepreneur? I also realized that I became more observant of articles and posts related to the subject on the internet scrolling through my Facebook for example. Writing the posts, attending the lectures and doing the project gave me further knowledge. I also gained personal insights into the subject, apart from the actual knowledge.
Running a company Having to work in a small group both to sell coffee and work on our made me understand what it is like to run a company. There is a lot to think about and a lot of coordination to be done. This made me both see the charm in being an entrepreur and the value of being employed by a company. Also through playing the “marketplace live” simulation game, a lot of knowledge and terms of how to run a business and compete in a market has been a tremendous amount of help for me.
Going from idea to reality The task of having an idea and actually putting it into reality has become more realistic. The lecture on prototyping and the whole project was what taught me that. I realize that if one has an idea it is not impossible to go through with it if one really wants to do so. Finding and trying out start ups see Lendify – the service that makes you rich $$$ and My experience with Instabridge and attending the start up events taught me how many start ups there are out there and how many great ideas there are that potentially could bloom into great things.
How to attract investors Attending the start up events I learnt both how to attract investors and the importance in doing so. Having investors is often necessary to fulfill an idea, to going from idea to reality. I learnt that the idea can be great but if it is presented poorly it will not matter. More about this in these posts 19@19 startup event with SUP46 and STHLM TECH Meetup.

Thanks again everyone!

26Oct 2016

Feedback from venture idea – The sound hub

by Richard ⋅ Leave a Comment

The idea of the sound hub is that it allows you to play music from more than one Bluetooth speaker at the time. The purpose was to market it as a more affordable type of device that could target mainly students. Therefore I spoke to five different people who studies or have studied in their past. As I know a lot of people that are studying, the main source of information are from my friends, but I also spoke to other people through connections of my friends. However, in order to spread the type of source I chose people studying different programs at different schools.

To summarize what the interviewees said about the idea, most of them had not thought about anything like it before. They believed that in order to get better sound you would need better speakers, and not more of them. But after realizing what the idea meant, (that you could connect several speakers at the same time) the thought was that you would be able to get better sound easier and at the same time make it more convenient. However, there were some concerns about how well the device would function, especially relating synchronization issues. By having such a device, it would also require several Bluetooth speakers which is not that common to have. None of the interviewees multiple Bluetooth speakers. This would result in that the usage of this product would only be at occasions when people are gathered (e.g. parties).

To clarify, the idea of the sound hub is good. However, in order to attract a bigger range of people you would be required to visualize the idea and show that it works and how it works. And most importantly, show different scenarios where the sound hub would be nice to have hence it now only fits a quite specific need. Most of my interviewees did not really have a need for it, but perhaps the issue is that they just don’t see the potential.

22Oct 2016

Lendify – the service that makes you rich $$$

by Richard ⋅ 5 Comments ⋅ Video

As I was looking though a list of different Swedish start-ups I found lots of interesting ideas that had been brought to reality. One startup that caught my eye was Lendify. I had heard about the company before but had not visited their website or used their service.

Lendify is a lending platform where people can borrow money directly from other people. The platform hence lets people borrow money and lend money from each other – without the involvement of banks or credit card companies. The traditional banking costs are cut out which enables Lendify to provide great rates for borrowers and attractive returns for the investors. A movie of how the service works is shown below.

To me this is interesting because even if I don’t have a lot of money at the moment as a student, I know that the rate at the bank is bad. Investing in something like this with a high interest therefore sounded great.

The first page of the website one had to choose between applying to borrowing money or choosing to lend money. Once I clicked my way to lending out money the new page was very informative with lots of information about the rates, laws and rules which made me a bit scared. It felt l was committing to something big and that I was going to risk a lot. But at the same time it felt serious.

I decided to logon as a user and lend a bit of money. Beside the informative and serious yet scary impression the service gave it was built well and I had a positive experience with the service. I hope that I will retrieve some interest on the money that I lent to someone. If not, I at least hope someone is enjoying my money right now…
However, after browsing a bit further on their site, I realized they had a complaint form ready for you to fill in. I wonder if that means that they get a lot of complaints because people are unsatisfied with their service.

I sent a summary of my experiences with this service to their email “hello@lendify.se”

You should definitely try it out, who doesn’t want some more money in their bank account!

20Oct 2016

Stockholm: Europe´s Start-Up Superstar

by Richard ⋅ 41 Comments ⋅ Aside

Stockholm is Europe’s Start-Up Superstar (Source 5)

The start-up scene in Stockholm is not that interesting I thought to myself a couple of months back. I thought of innovation and entrepreneurship as something that is big in the Silicon Valley and in other places far from here, far away from me. But when I enrolled to this course and started talking to people about entrepreneurship I realized a lot of people have both ideas, the mindset and the connections to become entrepreneurs. My view started to change. I thought to myself, either the entrepreneurship level per capita is high in Sweden or I am randomly surrounded by many entrepreneurial people. I quickly searched for an answer and it turns out that Stockholm is the second largest prolific tech hub in the world, after the Silicon Valley (Source 1).

The start-up scene in Stockholm (Source 6).

Thinking about it I realized that the city does have an entrepreneurial spirit and a lot of innovative companies such as Spotify, Skype, iZettle, Soundcloud and Klarna. WIRED writes that “Stockholm has produced more billion-dollar unicorn startups per capita than any other city in Europe”. (Source 2) Start-up Europe club writes “Stockholm is one of the most booming entrepreneurial cities in Europe and the tech industry finds it really easy to find talent and potential in Sweden’s capital. Around Stockholm, startup hubs, activities, spaces and accelerators are now emerging, matching innovative companies with big industries’ need for innovation and new talents”. (Source 3)

Stockholm is such a small city; how can it be so high in start-ups? To me it is mind-blowing that Sweden, a country of 9.8 million people, has become the poster child of European innovation. The article in The Telegraph however explains that it is not despite of the small population of Sweden but because of it that innovation has bloomed in the country. Swedish companies have to think outside of their home markets in order to grow. That means that companies think globally much faster than companies in countries with larger populations. Sweden has a long history of being exporters creating globally-renowned brands leading to a better economy and a strong economical- and technical foundation for innovation. Johan Attby is quoted in the article saying that pre-Skype time Sweden wasn’t known for anything besides Abba and that “It’s totally different today. There’s more capital and better investors. It is now super credible being from Stockholm”. (Source 1)

Startup Café by SUP46 at Regeringsgatan 65 (Source 7).

Alison Coleman also wrote in her article that the reason Stockholm is the most vibrant start-up cities in the world is because “Swedish people embrace entrepreneurship. We don’t mind testing ideas out and giving them a go”. (Source 4) There is a Swedish mindset in Stockholm that seems to foster innovation as it is a driving force behind public policies such as paternity leave laws, equality incentives and readily-available affordable childcare which allow for a high quality of life and in turn thrives entrepreneurship.

In The Telegraph article mentioned another quote is that “Success breeds success”. Thinking about that, I started to wonder, does success breed innovation and entrepreneurship and does possibly also entrepreneurship simply breed entrepreneurship and is that why Stockholm is the startup city that it is.

Thinking about if entrepreneurship breeds entrepreneurship (Source 6).

Source 1: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/11689464/How-Sweden-became-the-startup-capital-of-Europe.html

Source 2: http://www.wired.co.uk/article/european-startups-2016-stockholm

Source 3: http://startupeuropeclub.eu/stockholm/

Source 4: https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/the-worlds-best-start-up-hubs-stockholm-sweden

Source 5: http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2013/12/in_other_start-up_cities_stock.html

Source 6: http://theresegedda.com/category/startup/

Source 7: http://sup46.com/startup-cafe-sup46/

14Oct 2016

My experience with Instabridge

by Richard ⋅ 4 Comments

There are many start-ups from Stockholm. I decided to try the Instabridge app, a app that allows the users to join and connect to Wifi communities and hotspots without having to use a password. The app is connected to millions of Wifi spots and is available on both Android and Apple platforms.

The reason that I wanted to try the service provided by Instabridge was because I had not heard about the app before but liked the description when I read about it in a list of different Swedish start-up companies. I thought, why have I not heard about this before.

I went to App Store to download Instabridge. It was interesting because when I was going to download the app I saw that there were not any reviews or ratings shown. Normally that makes me question the app and think it is a bad one since the more used apps always have reviews and ratings visible. It made me think that it can’t be that popular yet. Anyway, I downloaded the app and tried it out.

The Instabridge service was really easy to use and I was surprised that it worked. I am glad someone has come up with this app and that it was so well done. It even had functions that I did not expect or that I would think of. One could click on different Wifi spots for example and then see how far away the hotspot is in minutes of walking. The speed of the Wifi spot is also specified. There was also a way to filter the Wifi spots that are shown on your map by choosing between different options as shown in the picture. Such as choosing only open ones, that are fast and in a restaurant.

As I was so surprised by the quality and the userfriendliness of the app I decided to send them some positive feedback in App Store. The only downside was that one had to go out of the app to “settings” and then manually choose the Wifi found in the Instabridge app. But I will definitely keep this app on my phone and use when traveling outside of Sweden to save some money on my mobile phone bill.

Continue surfing!

10Oct 2016

STHLM TECH Meetup

by Richard ⋅ Leave a Comment

Today I’ve been at the STHLM TECH meetup event which was held at Hilton hotel, Slussen.

A lot of people attending the event.

It was a very different kind of event compared to the last time i was at a startup event which was interesting to see. That’s why i wanted to share my thoughts of the event.

The event was held by Mr Tyler Crowley, who is the founder and organizer of the event. Initially he introduced the event, but quite early welcomed two investors that had been invited as special guests (H&M and Nordic Makers).

H&M making their presentation.

They got to present their companies, what they do and what interests they had in joining the startup scene. They both had the same general idea that they wanted to find new creative people alongside with their ideas which they could invest in and in the end become mutually beneficial.
But to exemplify, H&M were extra interested in finding some kind of material that could replace the most common material used out there today (cotton) as well as to learn how to produce their products more efficiently.

After some other investors also had the chance to present themselves, three different startups that were invited got the chance to pitch their idea. At any point in time, the invited investors that were invited up on the scene could interrupt the pitch to give any kind of feedback.

The three different ideas were:

Questions on Wikipedia
Where the idea was based on an app where you would use the extent of Wikipedias knowledge in order to quiz yourself and learn more in a fun way.
Foodmarket online
Where you would use hashtags (e.g. #cheese, #soup, #vegitarian) as filters in order to see where your food that you would filter could be found. Either restaurants, foodstores or local people selling food in any way.
An app to find office space
An app design to provide a service that grant a suitable office space anywhere. This app could provide spaces in restaurants, office buildings, cafes etc. The possibilities were endless it seemed…

Pitcher performing their ideas to the investors (and audience).

All of the pitches got a lot of criticism. Mostly constructive feedback, but also comments in order to entertain the audience. It was really amusing due to the fact that I would have similar thoughts about their way of presenting.

There were three things they all had problems with which was:

Too long pitch
Way too complicated slides
Did not show the product/solution quickly enough

All of this resulted in that the audience and investors were left confused even though the majority of the audience thought that the ideas had potential.

I got to speak a few guests at the event. I asked a guy named Eric, who was into the app development business, what he thought about the pitches. He could actually relate to the difficulty of knowing how to perform in front of a big crowd with an idea that you’ve been working on for quite some time. I debated the main problems of the pitchers and thought that it was somewhat obvious. It might be due to the fact that the Entrepreneurship course have given me a new view, but a lot also comes from a long background of studies.

I would like to end by saying:
Nobody isn’t really interested in the idea until they can see what the actual product looks like and what the possibilities are.

26Sep 2016

What is an entrepreneur?

by Richard ⋅ 5 Comments

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

20Sep 2016

19@19 startup event with SUP46

by Richard ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅ Image

Hi everybody!

Last night I was attending 19@19 for the first time. The name comes from the idea of having it at 19:00 the 19th every month. So this is an ongoing event that frequently allows people with a common interest, entrepreneurship. During the events they invite different guest speakers to speak about their visions as well as allowing you to mingle and interact with new people.

During this event the guest speaker, Per Clingweld, who is an innovator and value based leader, currently working at “Nova” and “Just Arrived”.
He spoke about ideas and their importance, people and the purpose of having a good team and the evolution of technology and what kind of effect that has had on people and their innovations. He also talked about how to take an idea from just the idea, to actually fulfilling the idea. With various examples, quotes and polls he showed that it’s not just the idea that is important in succeeding as an entrepreneur. It’s also a matter of executing it correctly. As someone mentioned during the event, “It’s 10% idea, and 90% execution”, which to me sounds true.

Per mentioned a truck manufacturer that managed to make $680 million with a 20%+ profit in just six months with a team of 80 people. The core of this team were members of the google car project and took the idea further to implement a similar idea in a more industrial perspective. So they developed the self driving truck. And this proves that with the right people, you are able to produce tremendous results by executing it in the proper way.

But remember, you should not sit on an idea for too long. Go out there, interact with new people in order to find the people that can help you execute your idea in the perfect way. So prepare yourself and go to the next startup meeting at 19@19.

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