FuckUp Morning Stockholm III

This morning, I attended a start-up event called Fuck Up Morning Stockholm III. At first, I was surprised by the choice of name for the event but later I found out that it was named like that because the road to become an entrepreneur is never a smooth journey; there are full of obstacles and failures, or you can call them ‘fucked up’ moments. This event was getting increasingly popular and it is the third time of having such talk. For today’s talk, there are 3 guest speakers invited to share their experiences:

1. Andreas Vural – Happy Plugs

When he first started the Happy Plugs, he just wanted to solve the problem of tangled ear-phones. He then searched for the perfect material and eventually built Happy Plugs. A few key take-aways from his entrepreneurship journey:

• Do not be afraid to start your business because of financial issues. There are always sources of fundings to look for if you indeed want to look for it.
• In order to expand globally, you first need to establish your brand in a single country. After it is successful in one country, you can leverage on that and try to expand your brand.

After that he ended his presentation with an inspiring quote “Try and fail but never fail to try”.

2. Emilia De Poret – Singer, Author and Entrepreneur

The second guest speaker was a very passionate woman who has went through several obstacles in her life but managed to turn over a new leaf. The first stumbling block that she encountered was when she was 23 years old when she was fired from her recording company. At that point, she felt that she was a complete failure and she locked herself in her room for almost 2 weeks. Since that day on, she made a promise to herself that she wanted to be in control of herself; she did not want to be hired by anyone and that’s how she becomes an entrepreneur. If she had not experienced being fired, she would not be the successful woman she is today. The following is a few tips that she shared with the audiences:

• In life, you are presented with a lot of opportunities but you need to learn how to prioritize and learn to say no. By saying no, it does not mean that you are rejecting the opportunity, but it means that you are making yourself to commit to an opportunity.
• When you feel like you are at the lowest point of your life, you need to gather your strength and pull yourself out of the pithole. Believe that you can do it and keep trying again.
• To find a suitable partner for your start-up, sometimes you don’t need to look too far away. It can be strangers in the plane, your familyyou’re your relatives. Go out and connect to people more.

3. Peder- Tech enthusiast, Boka bord

Since his study at Uppsala University, he knew that he was really interested in technology field. He began working at Nord Net, a Swedish online trading application. He shared a few lessons that he learnt based on his experiences:

• Do not ever attempt to do a lot of things at the same time. Focus on one and make it happen. He made the mistake of doing at least 7 things at the same time and resulted into lack of focus.
• Rather than focusing on trying to get investors, try to utilize bootstrapping and focus more on building your idea and product.

He ended his presentation by giving us a quote that we must remind ourselves constantly: “Believe that you yourself are capable of doing so much more than you think.”