Is your team working hard but running blind? Sami Linnanvuo, CEO & Co-founder of Screenful Oy, and his team found the solution that keeps teams constantly informed of their progress. Screenful is still in a progress of finding the best Product Market Fit and is about to scale. Describe Screenful in under 50 words. Screenful develops business dashboards that help companies to track and optimize their operations. A key part of the concept is the introduction of large touch enabled screens as a new medium for sharing information in a modern office space. We call them Information Radiators since they "radiate" relevant information for the people working in that space, or for those passing by. Tell us the Screenful story. How and why was this project born? Screenful was born out of frustration with the current business intelligence tools on the market. In today's fast paced business, tracking your key metrics is essential as it enables you to foresee possible issues so that you can take action proactively, rather than do firefighting later. However, BI projects are notoriously expensive and the results are often poor due to the complexity of integrations and the lack of UX skills in the dashboard design. We wanted to make life easier for our customers by doing all this work for them and creating set dashboards that are both actionable and beautiful to look at. Since we've automated the whole process of setting up the dashboards, we can have new customers up & running in a matter of days or weeks rather than months as in traditional BI. How do you see the future of Screenful in 5 years? Well, that seems like an eternity in the life of a startup where lots of new things are happening every week. I'd expect that in 5 years we've made our name known internationally and we have operations outside Finland. By that time I hope that the hardware has evolved as well, making it possible to realize the whole product vision we have. We believe that in 5 years, large touch screens will be commonplace in offices and Screenful will be the leading vendor providing content to those screens. Could you share with us how you validated your product? We followed the lean startup principles, and validated our hypotheses through customer interviews before committing to actually build the product. The learning we got from those interviews led to our first pivot, which wasn't so much about changing the core product offering, but about finding the right target audience. There was no way we could have figured that out without discussing with potential customers early on. We're still applying these tactics whenever planning new features. We are not ashamed of using "slideware" in our product demonstrations. If it turns out that there's no demand for the shiny new feature that we're about to build, we can just abandon it without much time invested. What one piece of advice would you like to give to those who want to transform an idea into a business? Think of ways to do validation early on before committing resources on actual implementation. In most cases the product that you plan to build can be emulated with something much simpler, e.g. using mockups instead of real UI, replacing automation with manual steps etc. Seek for feedback and talk to potential customers. Keep your eyes and ears open, and don't fall in love with your initial ideas. Screenful was founded in 2013. What are the main challenges faced so far? When you start a new business you start from zero. You have no team, no product, no customers. Typically, at this stage you have no access to investors' money either. So what you need to do is to acquire a team who's willing to work without salary to get the demo ready, so you can start approaching customers and investors. There's no manual for these very early steps - you just have to be creative and sort it out somehow. Perhaps the biggest challenge is to stay optimistic even though all odds are against you. It's all about selling your ideas - to your spouse, your team members, your investors, your customers. If you don't believe your ideas yourself, then you can't sell it to others so you first need to sell it yourself! What are you most excited at the moment? I'm ultimately a product guy so I'm constantly excited to see our product vision becoming a reality day by day. Also, seeing that our team dynamics work and we're getting things done without glitches makes me believe that we're ready for whatever challenges we might face down the road. Startup Ecosystem in Helsinki is doing pretty well and it is becoming into a hot spot in Europe Startup Scene. What kind of services are you receiving from them? What do you miss? We have indeed very active startup ecosystem in Helsinki nowadays. We have some great events, meetups and all sorts of coaching programs for growth startups. It's not always been like that and I recall the times not so many years ago when none of this activity existed. We're finally even seeing some co-working spaces popping up, which we've lacked so far, as evidenced by the army of people working with their laptops in cafes. I'm looking forward to see those empty office spaces or warehouses converted into modern co-working spaces as they've done London and other major startup capitals. Tristan Kromer, as a Lean Startup Coach and advisor based in San Francisco, has a unique obsession: help product teams go faster. He has been doing this during the last five years working with product teams and innovation leaders to apply lean startup principles to teams and innovation ecosystems. Enjoy the interview we made him and discover his great entrepreneurial thinking and mindset. Brief description about your background, experience, journey... I've spent ten years in the music industry, five in IT security, and the last five years in startups. I spend about 50% of my time working with early stage startups and the other 50% professionally helping enterprises and accelerator programs develop their innovation ecosystems. Imagine an entrepreneur with no experience but with a great idea and right attitude. Which would be your first three advices? 1) Your product idea is probably wrong. Focus on your vision instead. Find someone you really want to help. Someone in pain. That's your vision. Helping someone and solving a real problem. 2) Find team members with complementary skill sets who are able to challenge your perspective and add their own. 3) Go talk to customers. How to find a good mentor for your startup? Look for someone who doesn't give you their opinion but instead challenges you with questions that makes you think. You are running different initiatives. Have you got any mentor? If so, who is he/she and why did you choose him/her? My team is my mentor. The customer is my mentor. My friends are my mentors. I rely on other people to challenge my perspective. People like Sean Murphy, Spike Morelli, Laura Klein, Nick Noreña, Zac Halbert, Janice Fraser. People who are willing to question me or tell me I'm wrong. There's a common buzzing in most of startups communities: Lean Startup vs Business Plan. What do you think about that? The battle is over. The business plan lost. Some people just haven't noticed yet. Which is the biggest barrier to implement Lean Startup in a company? It varies by company. Some don't put together cross functional teams to get out of silo based, waterfall development. Some don't know how to evaluate early stage startups on the appropriate metrics such as iteration velocity or actionable metrics. Some simply don't know how to put together innovative teams. The scrappy people who break the rules and get angry when they see problems are often viewed as troublemakers and isolated. In Silicon Valley, we celebrate those people. From accelerators perspective, What do you think about ...?
Accelerators shouldn't sit around playing hypothetical scenarios and critiquing business ideas. They should be sending entrepreneur's out into the world to figure out for themselves what's a good idea by getting data for real customers. The only thing that an accelerator might be able to do from an armchair is help identify which are the riskiest parts of the business that the entrepreneur can then investigate.
Startups should talk to customers. Accelerators should train startups to talk to customers. They shouldn't be in the room when that happens. They shouldn't be responsible to find the customers
In terms of Validated learning from customers. What did you learn from music industry that you can apply now to startup scene? The team dynamics are identical. It's a group of creative people with different skill sets who have to come together and play in harmony (and sometime disharmony when appropriate.) They are creating something new out of thin air. Being able to understand who works well with who and how to get people to perform at their best is very challenging. I don't think I'll ever master it, but I'm getting a bit better. Which was your biggest mistake launching a startup? Not knowing how to code. I've since corrected that error. It's a basic literacy like reading and writing. Everyone needs to know at least the basics but preferably should be able to launch a basic prototype within 24 hours. There's so much great open source software out there that there is no excuse to not being able to cobble together an MVP. Which is the most challenging project that you have now? Recruiting and managing an all volunteer force for Lean Startup Circle. I haven't figured out how to scale that as an operation. We now have a very consistent group in San Francisco that shows up month to month to put on events but to get people showing up weekly or even daily to put in a few hours to build up the organization globally...that's a trick I haven't figured out yet. Are you a consultant or an entrepreneur?
- Learn more about Growth Academy Online Training & Certification Programs Download our startup booklet and watch our videos to learn more about our framework to help startups to grow without "reinventing the wheel" and without wasting lot of time trying to connect the dots. The framework is based on the startup development phases and aims to remove the highest universal risks on the startup journey. If you are an entrepreneur like me, I don’t need to tell you that there are characteristics that will help you out as a leader, for example, needing less sleep than the average person and being able to read people as if they are sitting across the table from you in a poker game. There are many resources for this kind of advice once you get your business moving. But what should you keep in mind when you are just building your business and its most important asset — its culture — from day one?
To help inspire you, I’ve collected four top insights for creating a winning culture from top business experts and added in my own experience with my company Vuclip and previous ventures. 1. Create a Meaningful Mission Make sure everybody in the company has great opportunities, has a meaningful impact and are contributing to the good of society – Larry Page, Google co-Founder I agree wholeheartedly. The best way to achieve meaningful impact is to focus on a mission that is close to your heart. The best companies inspire people by giving them an opportunity to do work that they believe in and enjoy. For example, I could not imagine doing anything else other than building a business that is fostering innovation at the intersection of the media and mobile technology worlds. And in turn, the company has attracted like-minded creative, vibrant employees that inspire me on a daily basis. Find that cause that inspires you and is the spirit of your business. 2. Honor Merit Over Tenure & Ideas Over Hierarchy “When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”— Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric. Enlightened leadership teams ask employees to contribute ideas because they recognize managers and executives don’t have all the answers. I believe in encouraging debate and action on ideas. By way of example, at my company we have a standing weekly “Concept-Accept” forum where anyone in the company can have an audience of all our executives. Typically there are multiple ideas presented each week and there is healthy debate and discussion on these ideas. Following that discussion, a concept is either green lighted to move to validation and productization or sent back to the drawing board for additional work. Many of our successful product capabilities have been built from ideas originating in these meetings. This fosters innovation and allows anyone and everyone to voice their ideas freely and be heard. 3. Inspire Authenticity ”Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet — thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing — consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust.” —Lance Secretan, leadership theorist and former CEO of a Fortune 100 company. A business and its leaders need to inspire people to be their true selves. I’ve observed that there is often a dichotomy between how people present themselves at work and their personal lives. And this is not a good use of energy. Employees should be focused on the business, outsmarting the competition, managing time well and collaborating with others, not on an inward battle. If you build an environment where people can have fun and connect with their creative instincts, you not only are empowering them to do their best, but in turn they are inspiring everyone around them. Ultimately, this makes for an exceptional company culture. 4. Embrace Risk “In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” – Mark Zuckerberg, chairman and chief executive of Facebook The status quo is no place for an adventurous, exciting, inspiring start-up with its eye on the prize. Here’s a personal example. When we were just getting Vuclip off the ground, not many saw the value in starting a company addressing the needs of emerging markets, the fragmentation of the mobile space was daunting, mobile networks in places like India vary with regards to reliability, not to mention that YouTube was already dominating the video market. We had a lot going against us. But the management team was excited by this challenge. We developed unique technology that no one else could build and went after this opportunity with everything we had. Today, we are thrilled that this risk paid off and so are the 120 million users that use Vuclip per month. My point is certainly not to brag. We’ve had just as many detours as we’ve had direct hits and we continue to learn from both. I wanted to illustrate that resting comfortably is not interesting and will likely not inspire your employees or customers for very long, so try something new, fun and exciting! In summary, if you can please indulge me just one more quote, I wanted to share one from Jack Dorsey Co-Founder of Twitter. He said — actually he tweeted – “success is never accidental.” And I agree. I believe amazing businesses arise from exceptional work cultures. If your business is a house, I see culture as the foundation. If your house is well built on top of a solid foundation of a meaningful mission, creativity, authenticity and smart risk, then the maintenance of that home is seamless. And being inside of it day after day is a joy. And if you are competitive like I am, then you can be satisfied you have the best house on the block. _________________________________________________________________________________________ This is an edited version of an post originally posted at yourstory.com, by Nickhil Jakatdar, a successful serial entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley. His latest venture, Vuclip is the world’s largest independent mobile video company with over 120 million users globally, with over 20 million users from India. You are free to re-edit and repost this in your own blog or other use under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License terms, by giving credit with a link to www.startupcommons.org and the original post. Startups need to be extra careful, even with the most minute things, because in this phase of the business, the process and the systems in place aren’t as optimized as they should be. Although there are a number of things that can go wrong in a startup business, we’ll talk about the 7 most common mistakes that new business owners make that are detrimental to a startup’s success.
1) Accepting Too Much Responsibility. If you have tons of responsibilities and are doing too much manual work, then chances are that you probably aren’t running your business. You’re just doing manual work. You need to remember that more than anything else, your key role as a business owner is to delegate and capitalize on the strengths of your workers. Doing everything by yourself won’t just burn you out fast, it’ll also lower your business’s overall productivity. 2) Not Having An Online Presence. If you think that having a brick and mortar store and advertising your business via traditional means is enough (TV, radios, etc.), then you’re in for a huge surprise. Considering how technology and the Internet age is on the rise, having an online presence can be the sole difference between success and failure. There are several website builder services on the web like Wix or IM Creator that allow you to make a professional looking website for free. It’s because of this that business owners and regular people are able to have their own online real estate. If your company doesn’t have an online presence, then you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities. 3) Not Collecting Feedback From Customers. A good way to determine whether you’re making the right business decisions is to ask for your customers’ feedback. It’s a good reflection of how your business is viewed by your customers and can be used as an invaluable tool when it comes to upgrading/improving your products. 4) Being Unresponsive To Your Employee’s Needs. If you have your employees’ backs, there’s no reason why they won’t have yours. Making sure that your employees’ needs are met is critical if you want to make sure that they give you 100% of their focus. The more they are bothered by a lot of things, the more mistakes they’re likely to make, which can end up costing your company. 5) Give Up Vacation. Being burned out is an all too familiar problem for CEOs and business owners. And because they are burned out, they tend to make the wrong decisions and are easily frustrated and angered. When the people at the management level are burned out, they usually become a source of negative energy in the office, making the environment very hostile. It’s important to take a break, relax, and come back to work refreshed and energized than to wear yourself out but working nonstop. 6) Making Decisions Without Enough Data. Data is what helps you make well informed decisions, whether in your business or your personal life. The more data you have, the higher your chances are of succeeding and attaining the goal that you set out when you made that business decision. Making an important decision without the appropriate use of data is pretty much like gambling. It can be likened to you doing a toss coin to determine whether it’s a yes or no for your business. This clearly isn’t the way to go. Because if it’s that easy, then everyone can venture into business since everyone can toss a coin. 7) Selling Your Product’s Features and Not The Benefits. What makes your customers want your product isn’t the features of the product, it’s the benefit that they’ll get from having or using your product. It’s very important to emphasize this matter to your employees, as well as your sales team, if you want to increase your sales. An effective piece of advice that you can follow when selling is to paint a mental picture to your customer where they’re already experiencing the benefit of having your product. __________________________________________________________________________________________ This is an edited version of an post originally posted at yourstory.com, by Murray Newlands, YourStory's US Correspondent and Deputy Editor at Search Engine Journal. Consultant. You are free to re-edit and repost this in your own blog or other use under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License terms, by giving credit with a link to www.startupcommons.org and the original post. How many times did you run out of battery in your mobile device when it was most needed? Mario Aguilera, founder of Tespack found the solution to this issue during his years in the army and now his startup is about to scale. Describe Tespack in under 50 words Tespack is a technology company providing wearable solutions for green energy and mobile data, with its first line of products being innovative Smartpacks. We combine renewable energy with everyday items to improve and bring freedom to the lives of consumers and show that solar energy is sufficient, fun and easy. Tell us the Tespack story. How and why was this project born? Mario Aguilera, the founder and the brains behind Tespack Ltd., used to be the co-director at an electronic designing company called Electriel that specialized in energy regulators. After leaving Electriel, he designed the Tespack concept from scratch; the designs and practicality are all the result of his input and work. The name Tespack was chosen in honour of legendary inventor Nikola Tesla. Growing up in the army in Bolivia and belonging to a special forces unit in South America, Mario understood the importance of having portable electricity when on deployment. Staying true to his values, Mario decided to use solar energy to reduce the user’s carbon footprint. Using his military background, he designed a series of smartpacks that are practical, durable, stylish and appealing to a wide array of markets. Tespack entered the market in June of 2013 and was met with immense excitement. Wearable solutions are getting crazy right now. How do you see the future of Tespack with Internet of Things? Tespack differentiates itself from most wearable solutions, as it works for and with all other wearables as a mobile energy provider, aiming to become the premier mobile energy brand. Could you share with us how you validated your product? We opened the version of our website early June 2013 to a huge number of visitors. With a prototype done, we iterated the design based on demand and feedback, and launched the 7-design product line at Outdoor trade show in Germany, the largest of its kind in Europe. Sales, partnership queries, feedback and general interest at the event allowed us to move forward to mass production. You are pretty active in entrepreneurs/startups events. I saw your team in action in last Pitch Helsinki 2013 and Mobile World Congress 2014. What one piece of advice would you like to give to those who pitch in these events? Practice your pitch, know your numbers, study the companies and investors that are going to be present, and first of all, see if the event is going to be worth your time and money, or are there superior ways to use them for the benefit of your business. You are about to scale Tespack. Which are your main challenges in this phase? Scaling, especially a physical product line, in the pace we want to do it, demands more capital. We can deliver big quantities, continue to develop our product line, and currently we are looking to find the right investors for the field and the company. Startup Ecosystem in Helsinki is doing pretty well and it is becoming into a hot spot in Europe Startup Scene. What kind of services are you receiving from them? What do you miss? We are working with EnterpriseHelsinki’s NewCo Factory and particularly with Jaana Pylvänen, who have from the beginning provided us with premises, networking possibilities, and many other services and vital support. We’re also supported by certain government agencies, Tekes, Finnvera and AVEK. If you could come back to the past, what would you do differently in your startup? Choose carefully the people in your team. Under no circumstances should you bring in people that are not talented, who do not care, or whom you can’t trust 100%. A company of talented people together can create synergy that is essential in moving quickly, yet surely. Your big mistake? As an entrepreneur in a startup, big mistakes can prove to be crucially valuable, and I humbly await the big one, which will ultimately allow us to grow to unearthly dimensions. Why should I buy your product? Convince me in under 100 words Think of the times you have run out of battery in your mobile devices, and hoped to find an electricity outlet nearby. Now think of the moment you need to leave that spot, but your battery says 9%, and you will probably have to survive with it for the rest of the day. Now, imagine you’re a Tespack owner… You will never run out of mobile energy again. Based on Nest New York’s and our own market research we have proven our products to be the lightest, most efficient, extremely durable, stylish and affordable for either city or outdoor usage. Many a time, entrepreneurs, in their rush to see their ideas take form, miss out on getting their legal affairs in order. Look at it as a necessary evil, if you will, but there are certain agreements that an entrepreneur simply must not ignore. 1) Founder Agreements Depending on the choice of entity, and without prejudice to the camaderie among the founders, it is essential to execute a founder’s agreement. If the chosen form of the entity is a partnership, ensure that your partnership agreement is in place. This contract sets out in clear terms the understanding that the partners must have in order to run the desired business. Typically the clauses include the capital invested by the founders, owner of the intellectual property and whether it may be licensed, terms relating to issue of shares at a later point in time, exit clauses, and other specifics that can clear any potential ambiguity. While it’s all good to say that an oral agreement is more than enough and business is based on mutual trust, some entrepreneurs have learnt the importance of this document the hard way. It is not unheard of that companies close operations and write away an idea forever because of founder disputes on IP or because of differences on how an exit opportunity must be valued. 2) Charter Documents Charter documents include the Memorandum of Association (MoA) and the Articles of Association (AoA) that contain the basic information regarding the Company. The MoA contains information relating to incorporation details, share capital, members’ liability, etc. The AoA contains the regulations governing the management of the Company like information regarding general meetings, Board of Directors, proceedings by the Board and details on voting rights. . 3) Trademark License Agreements Such an agreement is necessary for a company and its founders so that the company owns a trademark (or has filed an application with the trademark registry). This contract sets down the rightful owner of the IP, his protected rights and the rights that will be offered to the user of the brand. An agreement of this kind is useful for start-up companies dealing with products and services (restaurants, food business, clothes, etc) as they look to build a brand. In some cases, an entrepreneur may opt for the franchisee route to market his products or services in which case the considerations are different from vanilla company brand owners.. 4) Employment Agreement It is necessary to establish the rights and obligations of employees and this can have varied benefits. If the company is working in an area that uses heavy IP or human resources, it is crucial to include IP protection clauses, non-compete and non-solicit clauses in the employment agreements. At a later date, it assists an entrepreneur in that he is not entangled in an IP theft or competitors poaching his talent. Note, even if the founder is appointed as a managing director (MD), it is good to have an agreement in place. The new Companies Act provides that the terms and conditions of appointing an MD must be stated in the board /shareholder resolution itself. Compliances with newer laws such as prevention of sexual harassment at the work place, trading in securities, prevention of corrupt practices and so on make this exercise of compliance a good corporate habit. 5) Share Subscription This agreement sets out the details regarding the ownership of shares, and the resulting representation rights of each of the shareholders along with the terms and conditions in the event of a future exit or sale of shares. This lists out the conditions required in the event of termination, the obligations of an investors and other shareholders at the time of raising a round of capital and at the time of exit during a capital event. ,.It is the document that binds all activities inter-se shareholders and governs the shareholder rights in a play of capital. The practices and considerations in negotiating and finalizing this document is an art as well as a craft that is becoming very sophisticated and requires due consideration from the Founders . This is an edited version of an post originally posted at yourstory.com, by Harini Subramani, a Consultant at J. Sagar Associates. You are free to re-edit and repost this in your own blog or other use under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License terms, by giving credit with a link to www.startupcommons.org and the original post.
History has been written. Narendra Modi has led BJP right into the Indian Parliament; this time as a ruling party with a clear cut majority. I analysed what lessons startups can learn from his way of doing things. Here are eight steps to learn from Narendra Modi’s way to grow your startup business into a great company. Lets Begin Step 1) Know the pain existing in the market. Every idea begins with a problem it is trying to solve. In India’s case, it was the poor governance, corruption, and slow development. People had had enough of it. Rising unemployment and red-tapism had sapped people’s energy and drained their money. Big-companies didn’t want to move here due to political instability and the government dragging its feet on crucial issues. Anna’s movement has already shown Indians the true face of the government. Narendra Modi has crafted all his promotional pitches and activities around these problems and promised people to deliver solutions for them. Take away: “Have deep understanding of your market, understand the problems and craft your product/service according to it.” Step 2) Set up credibility Building a great company is a marathon, not a sprint. Many founders try to scale the untested solution, even when the processes and plans are not at place. The best approach for scaling is building credibility in the existing market; it may be small, but it matters. People will recognise you by what you have already done, and then only listen to you. Modi already has set a great example of planned governance in Gujarat, the star state of India. He has a long record of being a volunteer in different activities, since his childhood. The RSS also helped him in building a strong image. He also was a star performer in the eyes of industrialists due to his development record Gujarat thus big corporate houses backed his funding. The paid promotion came afterwards. Take away: “Start small, but start now. May be your initial footprint will be smaller but it will help you understand the market well, and will set up your credibility in the next markets, a been there and done it approach.” Step 3) Assemble a great team A company is an abstraction of a people working together. The team behind Modi’s win deserves an equal appreciation. The BJP has made a great team, including experienced leaders like Rajnath Singh, Dr.Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj, and Arun Jaitley to name a few. They all were assigned specific roles, where they gave their best. All were engaged in multiple rallies, meeting round the clock and didn’t rest even after the last turn of polls. All the candidates of the party played their roles in getting the 272 (majority) mark. Take-away: “A team can make or break a company because the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The first step to business is selling your dream to your team, if they aren’t convinced, your customers definitely will not.” Step 4) Be the Face We mark Virgin Group by Sir Richard Branson, Facebook by Mark ZuckerBurg and so on. Be the face for your startup, and represent it to the public at large. While the Congress party did not declare any PM candidate, people had already guessed who it would be. Being bold matters, the first step the BJP did was to choose a PM candidate. It was a tense period for the party, and most of the times we try to avoid such situations. But the BJP took it boldly and made Narendra Modi the face of BJP for 2014 general election although it resulted in internet conflicts, and Nitish Kumar withdrawing his support. We all now know how important and powerful the decision was. Take-away: “Be a leader, or find someone, have a uniform tone, take the ultimate responsibility, be the face for people; people are interested in stories.” Step 5) Start Early Don’t wait for the perfect climate, just go and break things. The BJP had started its election campaigns long ago, Modi appeared in numerous places giving speeches about his dreams for India and Indians. He started using social media as early as 2009, which gave him a clear cut advantage in later stages. When you start early, you learn a lot in the go, the stakes are small. Mark started Facebook within a month of getting the idea. The first version was crappy, but what it is today is definitely a revolution. Take-away: “Start from where you are; don’t wait. The perfect climate is an imaginary event.” Step 6) Utilize all media “Abki Baar Modi Sarkaar.” This slogan has reached every nook and corner of the country. Modi utilized all channels for marketing, whether they were internet based like content creation, tweets, social media, you tube videos etc. or paid like newspaper, TV ads (even in cricket world-cup, the famous 20 second ads), distributing merchandise to local people and business, and reaching them via non-traditional methods like ‘Chai pe charcha’. Take away: “Find all the media channels you can to promote your startup, meet more people, choose free marketing channels in the beginning, and remember No Press is bad press.” Step 7) Develop Evangelists not just Supporters I am sure your Facebook wall and twitter feed are filled by posts from Modi fans in the past one year. Create a brand people love to share, create a viral loop, the ultimate goal of a marketer is to send his message beyond his first set of audience. Modi successfully did it; his messages were floated all around social media in no time. All his supporters praised his views and ideas, and shared them with their peers. It made sure that if Modi could not directly reach so many people, his message was sent to them via his supporters. Take-away: “Build a brand people want to talk about, you can also artificially inject viral loop in your product/service (remember Dropbox’s famous referral program?)” Step 8) Be an Executer This is the key. No matter how great your plan is, how cool your team is, everything will go down the drain if you aren’t a good executer. Each and every thing in BJP’s election campaign was well planned in advance. They had employed different in-house and external agencies for maintaining the campaign. Modi himself did many rallies on a single day, at the age which is set as a date of retirement by our government. He appeared in TV interviews, and yes everything appeared planned, and was executed well on time. The operations are the core of any business and should be taken care with the ultimate responsibility. Jeff Bezos planned and executed Amazon in Indian market so well that it has started capturing major market share within a year of its launch in India. Take-away: “No one remembers a great marketing plan which never crossed the boundaries of a paper or a board room, you have to come out and execute, may be you will fail, but you will learn to grow.” This is an edited version of an post originally posted at yourstory.com, by Ankit, a 21 year old Student-Entrepreneur from Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (IIITM), Gwalior. You can get in touch with him here. You are free to re-edit and repost this in your own blog or other use under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License terms, by giving credit with a link to www.startupcommons.org and the original post.
After more than fifteen years selling to Latin American markets, including five years living in Canada, Myriam Lazarte began organizing LatAm Conference StartUps as part of a successful startup ecosystem. Her job is not just about translating words or language. It’s about translating culture: business attitudes, customs, ways of thinking. Thanks for joining us Miryam. Could you start by telling us why you took the challenge of launching the LatAm Startup Conference? Because a wave of startups is coming in Latin America, and I want to see them succeed. They don't have to move to North America to go global -- not unless they want to. LatAm is booming right now and I want to see Canadian investors come down and realize they've got to write some cheques if they want to take advantage of this wave. What outcomes do you expect for this first edition of LatAm Startups Conference? We will measure the success of this Conference by how many startups get the funding they need to scale and go global. I know that you appreciate so much how Canada is developing its startup ecosystem. Are you thinking of copy this model into Latam? If so, why do you think it will get success? Every country must innovate its own startup model based on local conditions. It would be foolish to try to impose a foreign model in LatAm -- it wouldn't work. That said, there is a great deal LatAm startups can learn from successful Canadian entrepreneurs and investors. The LatAm Startups Conference will feature two days of talks by Canadian thought leaders in this area. It's an opportunity for startups to learn more about how to scale their businesses. It's also an opportunity for North American VC and angel investors to discover what great investment opportunities LatAm now offers. For startups specifically, what would you say are the biggest strengths of Latam? Technology is increasingly democratic and global. The cost of entry to write code, to prototype the next breakthrough in green-tech, or clean-tech, or bio-tech, is much, much cheaper than it was even five years ago. LatAm inventors, coders, tinkers, and entrepreneurs can now create startups with relatively little seed capital. World-changing ideas will come from Latin America. I tell investors: Get a head start and discover LatAm now before everyone else does. In what areas would you say Latam is well developed?
Latin America is booming. The region is playing catch-up with the developed world, but it won't be more than 5-10 years before the major players in LatAm take their seats at the table with Europe and North America. VC and angel investors curious about this phenomenon should consider attending the LatAm Startups Conference. Where is the highest growth expected in the nearby future? Software. Green-tech. Clean-tech. Bio-tech. What are some of the major organizations driving the startup community Startup Chile, of course. Startup Brasil. Also privately-funded incubators/accelerators like NXTP Labs in Argentina. Wayra, too. For whom does Latam offer great opportunities at the moment? Latin America is producing tons of great startups, world-changing innovations that go nowhere fast because they lack the capital to do so. Angel investors would be well-advised to add a LatAm startup or two to their portfolio. Are there any people / skills specifically that are wanted in Latam? Capital! Bring us your tired, your weary, your dollars. We will put them to good use, and give you great ROI in return! If there was one thing you could say to entrepreneurs from other corners of the world, what would it be? You don't have to be based in Silicon Valley to succeed. NewCo Factory, the public accelerator from city of Helsinki, is one year old and we wanted to talk with them to review what has been an intense year full of activities and challenges. Due to their amazing results, NewCo Factory is amongst nominees for "Best Service Provider" category by Nordic Startup Awards, an event to recognize and celebrate the startup ecosystems based in the Nordic region. This time we talked with Jaana Pylvänen, a startup advisor in NewCo Factory. Her strengths are in building professional, committed teams which have clear strategy and capability to test the innovative concepts with customers. Jaana has Master of Econ. and she has long career in Nokia Networks as recognized innovation driver and execution focused project leader in all the continents. Jaana has also experience in running design oriented business in three continents and passion for digital marketing. What is NewCo Factory and Why did you start NewCo Factory? NewCo Factory accelerates growth business in Helsinki. It is a public service with intention to increase entrepreneurship to new audiences, such as people with lot of international business experience and university education. There is a growing need to get advice and coaching on your business ideas, team building and commitment as well as for MVP validation in the market. This development phase of a startup contains a lot of risk, which leads to lack of private interest from financing and/or advising. 32 startups in your Acceleration Program, 5 foreign startup companies moved to Helsinki, 100+ persons work in NewCo Factory startups, 70 persons work in co-working space, 111 startup events organised – 1020 persons attended, 95 persons coached for sales or investor pitching, 650 person profiles in Statup Commons web community, Startups raised early stage funding 1,7+ Meur, NewCo Startups finalists in many European statup comptitions (code_n, Apps4Europe, Red Herring TOP 100 Europe etc). Amazing metrics after one year of hard work: very active community, attracting international people, job creation, etc. Which is your secret? We are target focused, execution driven and willing to make a difference. Our people are professional, with long career in international business. It does not bother us if all the pilots do not succeed, it is better to try and see, what is working and then scale that. It is also beneficial, that we do not have much money, so it means we have to concentrate on actions we can do ourselves. All activities and materials are only in English, which enables people with very little or no knowledge of Finnish to join us. What methodology are you presently using to support startups? We are still on piloting phase, but our idea is to utilize lean type of methodology, where startup should test they business scenarios with customers. We are focusing on the strengths of the startups teams and developing the team as committed and professional as possible, not forgetting the agile methods. What stage do you look for companies at? We are looking for the startups, which have committed teams with competencies in producing the MVP within the team, i.e. in Phase 0 in Startup development phases. The company does not have to be registered yet, but we require a shareholder agreement between the corefounders. You are part of a great startup ecosystem in Helsinki. What makes it unique? Helsinki and metropolitan area is very small in size of geography and population. We cannot compete internally, but we rather focus on networking, partnering and helping the others to succeed. It is vital for an ecosystem to work. If you give, you will receive. What advice would you give to entrepreneurs considering an accelerator? Test your first ideas with potential customers several times, before you start to build our product. Typically entrepreneurs are building the solutions for themselves, but real, paying customers might have different problems, which require a solution. It might take a lot of time to understand the need for the pivot, if you build your product on one customer only. Accelerator can help you with building your solution, work in organized way, help you with pitching, and funding. Is there a “bubble” of startup accelerators? I think that accelerators are the schools for entrepreneurship, can we have a bubble of that? There's a clear shift towards crowdfunding in startup scene. What are you doing to adapt it in NewCo Factory? We are considering crowdfunding with each of our customers separately. The readiness of the team, solution and funding for that particular industry need to be carefully considered as well as with all the other funding options. Apart from the move towards industry specific (‘vertical’) accelerators, do you see any other big trends? There is big trend to fish for the best startups from the accelerators to the neighbor cities and countries and utilize public funding as a bate for the reasoning. Which is the best accelerator in the world? That depends on what you are looking for, but we can be very proud of our accelerators in Helsinki. Southern of Europe is in luck what comes to startups. Spain Startup Summit is coming again with a different name “Spain Startup. The South Summit” but with the big conviction of attracting the best talent from Mediterranean and, for first time in this edition, Latin America in order they meet the leading investors and most innovative companies from around the world. We are used to hearing that great startups in Europe come from nordic countries, United Kingdom or Germany and the thing is that Spain Startup organization is discovering amazing startups in countries such as Portugal or Spain, where the need to create growth economic is really important to overcome the current crisis: “It is amazing the quality of startups here in Marbella and how Lisbon Startup Ecosystem is growing” said Alex Barrera, co-founder & editor of Tech.eu, who is presenting South Summit event in different places with Sofia Benjumea, co-founder of Spain Startup Summit. Last edition took place in Madrid on 9-11th October with a great impact in terms of attendants (4000), companies participating (+30), investors (more than 350 from 17 countries) and big corporations and now Spain Startup. The South Summit has just launched a new competition again in Madrid on 8-10th October where they expect to improve the latest results and consolidate their position as the leading startup conference in the South of Europe. The application process is open and the registration will be open until the 18th of June. We at Startup Commons are really happy to see how initiatives like Spain Startup share with us the same startup ecosystem approach, building a platform to make more effective and easier connections and access to global resources, regardless of where you are. |
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