Testing a Startup product : KARMA Rescue Food

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Hi all,
I wanted to share with you a new product that was created by a startup and that i tested last week. It is an app called “KARMA” available on GooglePlay and AppleStore. It is a digital platform for reducing food waste.Instead of throwing away food, Karma offers restaurants and grocery stores to sell their soon-to-be expiring food at discounted prices. You can buy food directly through the app and receives high quality food for less. Therefore, everybody wins and for us as students, it is a good opportunity to make some savings and at the same time get nice food from restaurants and cafes. There is more than 400 registered restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries and cafes.
It is all about timing and also geographic proximity.There is a map so it is easy to find food near you, or near the place where you’re going to.
You can find various type of food : meals,sweets,bread. Sometimes the price can be half of the original price or even less, so don’t miss this kind of opportunity. For your information, you can pay directly on the app. Also, you can follow your favorite places and get notified when there is food you can rescue. You have your own profile where you can see how much food you saved in total and how much C02 emissions you reduced.

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I believe their idea is great since thay have managed to create a simple and innovative solution on one of the biggest environmental problems in the world which is food waste. I am very sensitive to this subjet since i am studying sustainable energy and environment and i have done many research on this subject. Globally we waste 1.3 bn tonnes of food every year of a value of 750 billion USD. In Sweden alone we throw away 500,000 tonnes of food per year.
If you need more information, don’t hesitate to comment or contact me.

And keep in mind that no one can do everything, but together we can do a lot.
Thanks for reading and sharing.

Anouar Mabrouki

 

Startup event: “How to succeed” (HeyWork,ServiceFinder & Google)

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This week, i went to a very intersting start-up event and i wanted to share with you my experience and my learnings.

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This event was called “How to succeed” and it was organized by “HeyWork”, a new startup that developed a marketplace that connects people who need somewhere to work with hosts that grants access to their homes during office hours. The founder of HeyWork “Joachim Wernersson” performed the first pitch of the night. He explained how he came up with this idea when he decided to become solo-entrepreneur one year ago and when he was feeling very lonely. Being alone was difficult and there was no social place where he could go , work and meet people.No coworking space was available at an affordable price and he came up with the idea of an airbnb for work during daytime. You can go and check their user-friendly website : https://heywork.se/

The second pitch was performed by Aleksandar Goga, one of the founder of ServiceFinder(https://ServiceFinder.se) which helps thousands of consumers find the right supplier for anything at anytime. It was motivational and engaging speech. He told us about all the difficulties and challenges he met during his life as an entrepreneur . For example after 3 years of hard work on his startup, he lost all the data because his backup system was not working well. He also said that when you are creating a new startup, every first try you make is often wrong and you have to try again, make mistakes and learn.
He strongly believes that pressure makes diamonds. He had debts, relationship problems, was lying to his relatives, but kept focus on his work and on his dream.
According to him, there are 3 important steps that can always work for anything you want to achieve in your life :
– Have a clear vision vision of what you want to do and start being crazy about it
– Set clear goals : take a piece of paper and a pen and write them down. Don’t forget to update them many times.
– Work harder then ever. Hard work is the key to achieve success.

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The third pitch was performed by Hugo Galvenius, an Analytical consultant for Google. His speech was very interesting because he shared with us many tools that Google offers and that can be really useful for people developing a new startup. He showed us how to use the following tools:

–For anyone developing or working in a Startup: https://startup.google.com/ (service and support for new startups)

–For insight and analytics, there is Google Trends: https://trends.google.es/trends/ (in order to search trends around the world)

–To market your product, you can use Adwords : https://adwords.google.com/home/

–To implement machine learning : Cloud Machine Learning APIs available on https://console.cloud.google.com/start

The last pitch was performed by Joachim, the CEO of Heywork and he focused on the importance of having the right people around you. According to him there are 5 important things to take in consideration in order to have the right people around you : Learn, Critique,Benchmark, Momentum, Encourage.
He ended his speech by saying that the low points in a startup are just unbelievably low and that’s why you always have to stay focus on your goals and keep motivated especially during the hardest times.

All these speeches were very interesting and inspiring. I learned a lot and i am looking forward to the next start-up event i will go to.

Thanks for reading.

Anouar Mabrouki

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How to let Recruiters know on Linkedin that You are open to new job opportunities

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I am writing about this topic since i am currently looking for an internship for the next spring and i was thinking it can be useful for you and your friends to know how to let rectruiters know on Linkedin that you are open to new job opportunities.

One basic way to let recruiters know that you are open to new opportunities is through the “Headline” section of your LinkedIn profile. This section is usually reserved for your professional headline, but you can also use this section to notify employers that you are looking for work. You can specify the field you want to work in, the position you are looking , the length if it is an internship for example and also the region you are searching in.

But what i think is the most effective way to find a job opportunity is the new setting that LinkedIn recently introduced within their Jobs section that allows you to convey your interest in new job opportunities to recruiters on LinkedIn. You can navigate to this setting by clicking on Jobs > Update Preferences > Scroll down to: Let Recruiters Know You Are Open.

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You can specify the types of companies and roles you are most interested in. By setting this option on, you are potentially opening your profile to more views by Recruiters. This is also a good feature because it can be used by people who are already working in a compaNy but want to find new opportunities without worrying about their employer finding out.

But i strongly believe that you can not only rely on this to find a new job on Linkedin, and that’s why i’m sharing with you the following advices :

  • Build a complete and professional Linkedin profile
  • Add a profile picture that aligns with your role as a professional (professional clothing). It has to be good quality and includes you only.
  •  Share your current position, current school and also list all your relevant previous experiences. Write a small summary about each experience to let recruiters know what you did,and what skills you got from it. Also, try to optimize your headline, summary, and experiences with relevant keywords.
  • Highlight your skills and main achievements
  • Ask former employers or coworkers to post a comment about you on your profile.
  •  Write An engaging summary containing your email address. Use this summary to talk about your next challenges,your dreams and show your motivation to work in a particular field. You can also use this section to clarify your work history, if your careerpath has not been linear.
  •  Develop a strong network on Linkedin : over 300/400 you start to be open to networking, and start to be visible.

With all these tips, i hope you will find the job of your dreams.
Good luck everyone.

Thanks for reading and sharing.

Anouar Mabrouki