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. Daniel Arroyo is very clear. Only through entrepreneurship has managed to enjoy what he really likes. In his case, from San Diego building software for the startup 3DaGoGo, a marketplace in commitment stage for proven to print 3D designs. Daniel occasionally blogs at danielarroyo.net. Describe 3DaGoGo in under 50 words 3DaGoGo simplifies the complex world of 3D printing software into a simple 1-click-print experience, making it easy for anyone to print an object on a 3D printer from any computer or mobile device. Tell us the 3DaGoGo story. How and why was this project born? 3DaGoGo was born out of frustration when Drew (our CEO) wanted to create a customizable medical device using 3D Printing technology. We saw both the potential and challenges of this amazing technology and started working on solving the problem of failed prints by creating a marketplace of “proven-to-print” designs. It soon became clear to us that the problem had to be tackled at its core: The overly complicated software chain used to get a design into the printer. We are now part of the Betaspring technology accelerator building a software platform that simplifies this software from over 120 settings into 3 (printer, material & quality) and allows 1-click-printing over the internet with a beautiful user interface. Everybody is crazy with 3D. How does 3DaGoDo see 3D revolution? Where do you see many opportunities for startups? Disney expects a 3D Printer in every home in about 10 years. We believe it should be sooner. While not everything will be manufactured at home, we see a future where a big portion of the things we use are going to come to us in the form of digital files that can be brought to life by a 3D printer. A world in which making items that are highly customized is only a few clicks away. Toys and replacement parts will be available for sale in online storefronts for under $5 in digital format and with options to customize them. While it is still a bit early to start building solutions for the general consumer in this space, the infrastructure land grab has already started. We see huge opportunities for innovative startups with middleware or infrastructure software in marketplaces, 3D file creation tools, 3D design processing and validation as well as printer drivers. The hardware opportunities abound as well. These machines should be made simpler to use with less maintenance, more durability and better resolution. There are plenty of innovation to be made in these areas. Also bringing other 3D printing technologies like powder-based printers to the under $1,000 is something we’re looking forward to as well. What is the most challenging part of building 3DaGoGo? We are working with highly sophisticated and complicated software while at the same time offering an extremely simple user interface. Making it simple for the user, always means making it 3 times harder for us. There are plenty of product discussions where the easiest way out would be to just make it a little harder for the user so that we can build faster and with less complications. We strive to avoid making these trade-offs and in almost every case choose to make harder on ourselves instead. What technologies have you used to build 3DaGoDo? What was technically the most challenging part of developing 3DaGoGo? It’s a broad range as we use a few open source projects as a base for our efforts. Most of our web and api server code is written in PHP accelerated by the Phalcon framework. We provide slicing capabilities using Slic3r which uses Perl. Our printer controller interface is built in Python since OctoPrint used that and we’re based on it. Thus far the most technically challenging part has been to make Slic3r reliably and scalably run in the cloud. This was a software program made to run on a computer and making it run on a sever that can process 1000s of requests was not an easy task. Are you receiving the support of any mentor for your startup? If so, how is the relationship with him/her? We are part of Betaspring, a technology accelerator in the US and have also graduated from SpringBoard Connect. We are receiving plenty of mentorship along the way. In some cases advice is contradictory with our views or with other mentors. It’s the job of the team to take ALL advice into consideration, carefully think about it and respectfully discard what doesn’t make sense in the context of the team’s values and beliefs. In addition we’re in a complex and relatively unknown space, so often the advice is related to parallel industries or analogs and have to “translated” into our situation. We have found great mentors and advisors that believe in our vision and the potential of our industry. The challenge is to narrow down the list of mentors and advisors to those that would enjoy and benefit from the relationship as much as we do. What kind of partnerships are you achieving or building? We’re working on partnerships with 3D Printer manufacturers. We see ourselves as the solution that would allow them to grow out of the current early adopter, super-hacker types that enjoy tinkering with open source software. The next wave of consumers that just want to experience this technology is patiently waiting for our solution. They don’t have the time or interest to spend whole weekend trying to figure out how to successfully print one object. We want printer manufactures to focus on solving the hardware problems of 3D Printers while we help them delight their customers with software that is easy, beautiful and intuitive. In addition, we’re forging deep relationships with the current open source community that has developed most of the software used today. We ourselves complementing their mission by adding a layer of simplicity to their offerings so that they can reach a previously unimaginable number of people. You are based in San Diego, California. What’s the startup ecosystem like there? It’s not Silicon Valley (nor does it need to be) but it’s growing and very vibrant. There are many new startups popping up in the downtown district. I have been involved in San Diego startups since early 2011 and I have seen tremendous growth. The entrepreneurial network is amazing, full of people willing to help, meet and discuss their ideas. However, the overall business community is still dominated by big corporation (mainly biotech) and capital is hard to come by. If you could come back to the past, what would you do differently in your startup? We’re still early and while we have done some mistakes, I don’t think that I would really would have wanted to do anything different as they have all taught us something and taken us to where we are. If anything, I wish we had started earlier, but that will always be the case. Your big mistake? 3DaGoGo has yet to make it (and I’m sure it will). Nothing thus far as been a catastrophic mistake. Personally, I wish I had started working in startups way earlier than I did. I have always been an entrepreneur though it took me a while to fully realize it. While going to college in Spain, I made software for Real Estate Agents, a web platform for movie theaters and accounting software as freelance. I then took an 11 year detour into the world of big tech corporations (Nokia, Qualcomm) only to return to what makes me happy in 2011. What one piece of advice would you like to give to those who want to transform an idea into a business? Start today, not tomorrow or next week. TODAY! Start by telling everybody about your idea. Recruit cofounders, mentors and advisors. The more people you tell, the more real it becomes. Never forget that ideas don’t make a business, execution does. The sooner you get to the execution part, the sooner you’ll know if you idea is any good. The 12th annual Innovation Africa Digital Summit (IADS) held recently in Gambia in western Africa highlighted the growth of ICT infrastructure and innovative services in the region. Gambia has the highest teledensity in Africa, and despite its small size, punches above its weight when it comes to ambitions and targets. Industry and government agencies indicated at the conference that the country plans to become an ICT hub in the next 3-5 years. According to a recent Media Monitor International report, Gambia displays a great enthusiasm towards entrepreneurship, as reflected in its investment in youth, competitions and awards for entrepreneurs. The Children and Community Initiative for Development (CAID) and Africa Youth Panel (AYP) have rolled out a range of capacity building initiatives for youth. The Gambia Investment Export and Promotion Agency (GIEPA) conducts an annual Business Plan Competition for MSMEs. The ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment has also launched an innovation grant as part of the Social Development Fund, to commercialise local projects. An estimated two-thirds of Gambia’s economy is powered by MSMEs. MNCs such as Intel and Microsoft have announced initiatives to invest in local startups in Africa. The companies are promoting local app development as well, considering that much of Africa is a ‘mobile first’ economy when it comes to ICTs. Gambian ICT entrepreneurs such as Muhammed Jah have been covered prominently in local and international media such as the BBC. Jah is the founder of QuantumNet, an ICT company with over 300 employees, and was recently estimated to worth around $156 million. Momodou Drammeh, enterprise director at GIEPA, explains that Gambia is one of the safest countries in Africa, a melting pot of eight different ethnic groups, competitive in its labour force, stable in economy, and speaks English as an official language. Gambia’s membership to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) trading bloc ensures market access to over 300 million people. International players are also active in Gambia’s entrepreneur movement. Africa Startup, based out of Norway, has launched two projects in Gambia: MyFarm (a one-hectare farm-based educational centre focusing on ‘seed to business’ agri-activities) and MyFarm Produce (to promote better packaging of agricultural produce). Gambia is already a cultural hub with a unique blend of local and international music, with a range of fresh talent also using digital media for music discovery and promotion. Notable musicians include Jaliba Kuyateh, Foday Musa Suso, Tabou Diop, Jalimadi, Pa Bobo Jobarteh and The Kaira Band, to name just a few Read the whole article on yourstory.com This is an edited version of an post originally posted at yourstory.com, by Madanmohan Rao. 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.
Smart cities are the big bet of the future and startups as Gestion Nueve (G9) are trying to become a reality. Juanjo Martin is the founder of Gestión Nueve, a startup in the scaling phase that know what it is to sell its services to cities. 1. Describe G9 in under 50 words G9 is a startup which goal is building a triangle which connects users, city services providers and payments in an urban environment. We put our focus in creating great value for both the users and, of course, our clients (the service providers). Tell us the G9 story. How and why was this project born? G9 has just become 3 years old. It was born in April 2011 after a failed project, on which we made nearly every possible mistake in the process of forging a business from an idea. I spent a couple months analyzing our mistakes and I got quite a few lessons learned. That greatly helped me to keep focus when starting the G9 idea. I wanted to explore a few ideas focused on easing the city-citizens relations and sat down with a couple of developers involved in that previous failed project. We narrowed the focus and built a proof of concept (MVP). We took it to Telefonica Movilforum program and they invited as to become partners of the program at no cost. We found our first early adopter customer, SMASSA, signed a contract and started building the first version of the service. Ten months after the project started, our first service was put into production. Why is G9 going to get success in the field of Smart City? What are you doing different from your competitors? I think that the main difference is that we clearly know WHY we are doing what we do. There are many other solutions out there trying to solve the same or similar problems, build by the services operators themselves, traditional systems integrators and generalist IT consultants. We think these solutions don't solve the problems they try to solve because they focus only on part of the problem. Either they only create value for the provider or the user. Sometimes even to none of them. Since the very beginning we always thought our service has to create value for the service provider, enabling new services, reducing costs and creating a new channels with their customers. And at the same time provide the users a solution that really eases the service usage and let them take informed and instant service usage decisions. We put a great effort in understanding the whole service life cycle and the users interaction with it. What is the most challenging part of building G9? For sure, finding the right people. I've been involved in the foundation of quite a few business projects in the last 15 years, but this is the first adventure I started just on my own. In the beginning financial resources are scarce and my best bet to get people on board, once I found the right ones, was being able to convert my vision into a shared vision. I admit that during this journey I was quite lucky and, although there were really hard (even harsh) moments, now we have the best team I have ever been part of. I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to Eduardo, Alejandro Vera, Ismael and Alejandro Gómez, David, Sergio and specially to Daniel and Higinio (they both are on this since the very beginning), for being such great travel companions and for being so patient with me. What kind of partnerships are you achieving? At the beginning getting heard and achieving some trust was really frustrating. We were (and are) very ambitious with what we want to create and it was difficult to make established actors understand that there is a better way to do some of the things they do. Making them believe that we were able to help on that was hard. Now we are getting traction and we have deals on place or being negotiated with players on every process or area involved in our product: urban services providers (both public and private ones), credit/debit card processors and financial institutions, city planning consulting companies, which will help on developing the service pouring their knowledge on it, Telefónica as a strategic partner, system manufacturers and integrators… After three years pushing we start being taken seriously by players. We will keep pushing hard as we believe our services provides value to all of them. After 3 years, you are about to scale doing bootstrapping. How did you get it? When I started G9 the previous failure was recent (and I had not fully recovered self confidence). I didn't wanted to involve external capital or strangers until I had some level of validation. We started doing some consultancy and used that revenue to build the foundations of G9. With those resources we built the first MVP, presented the idea to SMASSA (Málaga Parking and Services Local Company) and Telefónica and they immediately agreed to sign a contract with us which helped us a lot to build the first version of the service. After that, I got in touch with a few people and raised some seed capital and partners on board. Overall, the company financial resources are sourced from bootstrapping by nearly a 90%. The hardest part of bootstrapping is choosing the right works to do. Those which provides both financial revenue and strategic resources to the project. Sometimes it was hard to say "No" to certain proposals, specially when we were financially constrained, but it’s very easy to lose focus if you don’t choose the right path. Where do you see G9 in 5 years? Think about what happens when you switch the light on. Something that looks so simple works because there's a huge structure and armies of people taking care of electricity to arrive to our houses. We want to do something similar with the cities services. I really believe that we will be involved in many different urban services, making their usage as easy as switching the light on. Probably users won’t know we are there, but we will be an invaluable part of making their lives easier. G9 will be a place where people will love what they do and we will all have a shared vision. That was the main idea when I founded G9. Now I think that idea has become our dream. Your startup is located in Marbella (Spain), a paradise to live but with a lack of entrepreneurial ecosystem. How are you coping with that? What do you miss in south of Spain? Building a project in Marbella has a big plus. The weather, the city and the people is awesome. Our offices are 5 minutes to the beach and you can see how that changes the way the team think, acts, create… It adds salt and pepper to everything we create. On the other hand, as you say, there’s a great lack of an entrepreneurial ecosystem. That really raises the difficulty of building a startup. It’s difficult to find the right people, the right resources, the right investors. It's difficult to find people to share your ideas with and exchange opinions. There’s a lack of value creation culture. Things have changed in the last 3 or 4 last years, and will keep changing the next years. I hope people responsible of pushing for that don’t forget that building an ecosystem goes beyond creating accelerators and incubators and that quality should prevail over quantity. Your involvement with the startup ecosystem is awesome. You are always willing to help entrepreneurs. What moves you to do this? Since I started my first company 15 years ago I’ve run into every possible problem and did every possible mistake you could imagine. And those mistakes come at a high personal cost. In Spain we are not educated in failure and failing can be a big sin. I want to put my bit in changing that. I believe my experience can help others in having higher chances of success and in case they fail, do it in an orderly way. Your big mistake? Not measuring the risks of failure correctly. Many times, we are so in love of the ideas, projects or products we develop that we forget that we can fail. Failure is a keystone in the learning process. But, if you are not ready to fail, even a small mistake can transform a whole project into an epic fail. What one piece of advice would you like to give to those who want to transform an idea into a business? Always question yourself. Find the real reason for doing everything you do and always keep and eye in the mid and long term. This is the claim of Alexis Christodoulou, cofounder of Locish with Grigoris Zontanos. Locish is a Greek promising startup that is also set in San Francisco showing a clear service in a big and rapidly growing target market. Now, it can and wants to scale to the establishing. Describe Locish in under 50 words Locish is a Q&A mobile app enabling users to ask like-minded people for real-time recommendations on new places to eat, drink, and have fun. Each response is specific to the user’s individual inquiry and matched to their personal preferences. Describe yourself in one sentence Entrepreneur at heart, creative by nature, engineer by choice, eternally humble and always driven by the motto “do, learn, repeat”. Tell us the Locish story. How and why was this project born? Everything happened on a road trip from Vienna to Budapest, when my co-founder and I found it impossible to discover the city’s hidden gems despite the gadgets and apps we had available. All information was either outdated, in the local language, or very touristy. Frustrated, we were trying to find somewhere to go when the idea struck us. We needed an app that enabled travelers to ask locals for tips on where to go, helping them experience a new city with an insider’s perspective – avoiding tourist traps. And so it all started. We agreed that upon our return back home we would start developing the app, and so we did. Once we’d made a start everything happened very fast. Within the first 6 months we managed to secure 60K euros in funding from Jeremie Openfund II, and soon after we launched the app in Athens (Greece), New York, and San Francisco. We got valuable feedback from our users. Following a more recent cash injection of $820,000 from venture capitalists, we’re now relaunching the app; overhauling its functionality, and creating a brand new look and feel. We made a bit of a pivot in the sense that the app is no longer solely aiming at helping travelers. We now more open, social, and interactive, and the app’s aimed at anyone in search of place to go and enjoy a meal or have fun. What are you doing different from your competitors? We believe that the generic ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to online recommendation systems is well and truly broken, because they do not acknowledge the individual needs of each user. This is what we want to change with Locish. We use a smart algorithm to match users based on their interests and tastes, enabling them to get real-time recommendations from like-minded people who are not in their extended social network. Most apps rely on their users’ friends and acquaintances. To us, this is not important. We believe that the best people to get recommendations from are those who have the same tastes as you. But we’re not just a Q&A application, we believe in having context among our community (read our blog post here for more). What technologies have you used to build Locish? What was technically the most challenging part of developing Locish? Our app is native iOS and Android written in Objective-c and Java. Our backend is build with raw PHP on nginx web server connecting to a MySQL database. All these are running on AWS instances, as also our static files are stored on Amazon S3. We are currently looking to the scenario of moving from PHP to Hack & HHVM, the new language and VM recently announced by Facebook, since it's much more promising for performance issues. As for the greatest challenge we have come across this is the real-time matching. When someone asks a question, Locish finds all the right/like-minded people, who score above a pre-defined threshold, and routes the question to them. This score is generated by our matching algorithm in real-time that is based on a very smart and complex design as it has to effectively route the hundreds of concurrent questions. You have completed a pre-seed funding round that closed at 60K euros and you recently closed your seed funding round at $820K. Which were the main three factors to achieve it? We found fundraising a tough and demanding process, but also a very rewarding one when successfully completed. As soon as investors agree to meet with you it means that you’ve already attracted their attention, so it’s important to make sure that you capitalize on the opportunity. As they invest their valuable time in you, in our experience, you need to make sure that you are very well prepared, confident about your product, have a clear vision about what you want to achieve, and can demonstrate great determination in achieving your goals. What’s the startup ecosystem like in Greece? The Greek startup ecosystem encourages a new way of doing things, which is considerably different to the traditional one. People get together talk business and are much more open and humble. They have meaningful interactions; exchange information, share experiences, seek feedback and learn from each others’ success and failure. Competitors help one another – encouraging healthy competition with the sole objective of growing by improving the quality of their products and meeting their customers’ needs more efficiently. And this is already showing results. The Greek startup community, although relatively new and small, is growing at a very fast pace – success stories include Bug Sense, Taxibeat, and Workable, to name a few. I would say that the Greek startup scene is very promising, a sign of change and a great example of how things should be happening in the business world. If you could come back to the past, what would you do differently in your startup? I wish I’d read a bit more before executing the app – I could have saved some valuable time. There’s so much information out related to startups – ‘dos and don’ts’ case studies, technical advice, tips on how to do things differently and more. This is a lesson learned and now that I have realized the importance of it I read as much as possible, which has made me considerably more efficient in many ways. Your big mistake? It may sound weird, but I wish I had pushed myself to make more mistakes. I am convinced that without making mistakes you cannot learn new things and this eventually makes you stagnate. “Do, Learn, Repeat” is a very wise quote, which has been driving my attitude from the day I came across it. The more things you try, the more mistakes you make, and the stronger you get. This is part of the magic of a startup. You should not be scared of failure, but you should be able to get back on your feet soon after, stronger than before. A mistake should help you learn something new, so it has to be seen as a source of knowledge that will make you better. What one piece of advice would you like to give to those who want to transform an idea into a business? Be a doer. Don’t stay at home making plans eternally. Success comes only after we get our hands dirty by trying things for real. So I would say get out and start building your dream with actions and it will take shape much quicker than you expect it to. Try different things, experiment as much as possible, be humble and try to learn something new every day. I am not implying that there should be no preparation, but this is not the most important part when building your own startup. What are you most excited about at the moment? With no second thought, I would say the forthcoming re-launch of Locish in New York City, San Francisco, and Athens (Greece) in mid May. Following the cash injection of $820,000 we are all now working to overhaul the app’s functionality and create a brand new look and feel for Locish; getting ready to offer our users a great experience. In the meantime, we invite you to submit your email address on our new redesigned website at www.locish.com and be among the first to experience the all-new Locish as soon as it launches. Andrés Sánchez dreamed concerts live music, like football, would eventually be enjoyed with friends in the living room or favorite pub. And a year ago I think Living Indie to make that dream from London, with a partner in Galicia, Jorge Fernandez, and one in Málaga, Alfonso Fiz. Since then this startup have offered 15 concerts in Spain and London, with over 30,000 views and a community of 5,000 users. A work that caught the attention of Wayra, Telefonica Accelerator, which selected for Living Indie Academy of startups in London earlier this year to start their acceleration process. It's the time of #validation to be able to move into scaling. How would you define Living Indie? We are an online streaming platform offering a new way to experience and enjoy live music. We aim to be the Netflix of live concerts. Tell us the Living Indie story. How and why was this project born? The origins of Living Indie stem from when I was doing an MBA at Cranfield School of Management. Before the MBA I used to run a small music festival called JamonPop with some good friends, so during the MBA I started working on an idea that would offer something new and exciting that also incorporated the current mega-trends in music consumption, live concerts, streaming and video. During this time some classmates helped me shape the idea and build an initial business plan. At the end of the MBA I decided to follow up with the idea. Jorge Fernandez, an ex-colleague and programmer, joined the project. We launched in April 2013 and in May an old friend of mine, Alfonso, joined the project too. One of my fellow MBA students, Niels Footman, got progressively more involved and recently became a partner too. What are you doing different from your competitors? We think that the simplicity of the idea is one of its great strengths. Unlike some other startups, who may at first find it hard to convey clearly exactly what it is they offer, everyone gets us straight away. Regarding the competitors, while they all offer fantastic stuff, we provide, via our own portal, a new, more socially oriented way to experience live music. We have quite a specific niche, targeting high-quality, cultish or up-and-coming bands that can't usually get this kind of exposure, and we offer our users a curated way of discovering the latest trends in contemporary music. Our ultimate aim is to become the Netflix of live concerts, and we feel there is no one delivering this at the moment. What kind of partnerships are you achieving? We are working with all the parts of the music industry, from the labels, to the promoters, from the venues to the media and we also partner with brands interested in music. It’s a quite complex environment and we think we offer a win-win approach for all the parts involved What are you most excited about at the moment? The potential of the UK market is amazing, it’s a hard one but we’re finding our way. We are really excited about broadcasting live what is happening here in London. This is the hottest spot in music in the world together with New York and we want to offer to the music fans the possibility to follow the new sounds and cool bands that are playing here and that are defining the music of the future. Recently, you have become part of the accelerator Wayra in Uk. Which were the main factors to achieve it? I’d say that is the idea but more importantly how you’re executing it and the team you build. Apart from that you’ve to be really careful with the application, provide good research data, make it really professional and spend time to impress the jury. Also at the end the pitch is crucial, so you better get ready. Which are your main challenges in this phase? We are all small startups so the challengue is to provide a service that provide a valuable experience and generate buzz to get to be known. How can the Internet help the music industry? Well, it’s long time that is helping to musicians to spread their works but as always big corporation try to get the most of it and squeeze the artists. I’d say that for the user this revolution has been great but it has blown away the music industry. Right now we are setting the roots of the future industry, there are many opportunities but also many competitors and it will never be the same. It’s a much more complex market and to monetize is not easy at all. You are based in Spain and England. What’s the startup ecosystem like there in each country and what differences have you noticed? I know the UK scene quite well but not that much the Spanish one. Before coming to UK I was not that involved in the startup scene but we could do a parallelism with the music industry. Here in London the scene is like 5 times bigger so there are more opportunity and at the same the competition is harder. Anyway the economic situation in Spain has raised the entrepreneurship spirit what is really good. Creativity is a part of the Spanish people so hopefully great ideas will come up from there. What one piece of advice would you like to give to those who want to transform an idea into a business? If you are in the early stage, you need to do lots of research. You may think your idea is unique but it’s not. Identify the size of the market, is it growing exponentially?, what are you going to do differently from any other player? And by the way, how are you going to make money? From Alicante to Helsinki. This is the travel of Alejandro Santacreu since he finished studying a grade of technical bachelor at High School in Alicante until he started working in Puzzlephone in Helsinki. A startup which, since its #ideation in 2012 have advanced to Phase -1, the #concepting with a clear and meaningful target on direction for the next 3 years and with milestones on how to get there. How would you describe Puzzephone? Puzzlephone reduces #ewaste improves #repairability and #obsolescence and represents a new way of engineering and manufacturing. You come from an entrepreneurial family. What did you learn from your parents in that sense? Be cautious (father), the Evil in the details (father) and nobody is indispensable (mother). What were you doing before Puzzlephone? I was and I am studying at Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Espoo, Helsinki. Before that I was working as Product Manager of mobile internet devices at Energy Sistem, an Spanish consumer electronics brand. Mobile phones market is a hard game. Also, you are going in the opposite direction. What is your ace in the hole? We are aligned with the incoming new ways of manufacturing and new emerging and game-changing technologies that will move the value, at least part of it, from the traditional big brands to a more organic ecosystem of developers openly linked to their suppliers and partners and less dependant on IPR. Where do you see Puzzlephone in 5 years? As a forerunner and at the same time an inevitable consequence of the early days of this new Industrial Revolution that we are living, sometimes without even notice it. What technologies are you using to build first prototypes? What is technically the most challenging part of building Puzzlephone? The main spatial and mechanical aspects are being developed with quick 3D sketching software like SketchUp, then our Industrial Engineer “industrialized” (in our internal slang) the concept introducing all the necessary aspects for 3D printing or CNC milling such as tolerances, mechanical interference or coatings thickness at the same time our “artistic” partners (like the Finnish Design Studio Siltanen & Sandberg or our marketing supporters from Kinetic Pixel, a Finnish/Spanish company located nearby, in Helsinki) work on those concepts from a purely creative point of view, unconstrained by technical limitations. At that phase they use classical and well known profesional solutions for 3D rendering, video-editing and so forth. Finally we will reach, hopefully soon, a third phase where engineering and art will meet and decide how to combine both approaches in a balanced way and always keeping in mind the core principles of Puzzlephone which are: upgradable, repairable and reliable. The biggest technical challenge is to solve the disconnection between hardware and firmware, the lack of a "Wintel standard" is harming the UX in terms of usability and security. and it is also increasing the obsolesce of the devices by making its effective after-sales support almost impossible. To fix that requires to convince some big players that it will be good for them too, but that’s connected with a new paradigm in the actual business model that, at some point, requires nothing less and nothing more that the willing of making the things better. What kind of supports/partnerships are you achieving? Finland public entities has provide great support in the form of both financial and networking. Starting with the Laurea Entrepreneurship Society and Laurea University of Applied Sciences, the great people from the Cambridge Judge Business School and the amazing Venture Camp intensive training program. Special thanks to Alan Barrell, Jack Lang and to our mentor Steve Mallinson. The people from Otaniemi, a Finnish office for the development of local business in Espoo area and the NewCo Factory, a business acceleration service launched by the City of Helsinki quiet recently. The University of Aalto has been also supportive by providing their legal advisory services. What are some of the challenges you face as founder on a day to day basis? Finding the so called "smart money”. We do not simply need investment, we need the right investor. Ecological factors have been always there but the technological marketeers have just started to experienced how this trend is slowly becoming part of the purchase decisión. We are still far away from that but getting there, we are witnessing the arise of the “Ethical Customer” as a consequence on how the critical point reached by the IT technologies (fast, relatively cheap and ubiquity) are making us aware on the importance of the processes behind our consumer behaviours, so just by saying: “I want to make a better device which lasts longer and it is easy to repair and so forth” it is not enough right now. At the same time new paradigms delivered by new technologies are always hard to scope and locate in the big picture and any proposal based on how are those going to behave is usually take with a huge dose of skepticism. You are based in Finland. What’s the startup ecosystem like there? There are lots of small and medium software startups but just a pretty reduced bunch of hardware pioneers, the days of massive outsourcing maybe are fading out but the re-location wave has barely hit the Finnish shores… by now ;) Can you convince the reader to buy Puzzlephone in under 100 words? How often do we place our phones on the table? Phones are our virtual and physical connection with the world and the people. It represents the things we care about. Are we all the same? Do we all have and share the same tastes? And at the same time: Do we all care about the world and the people? Are you aware of the value of your own personal statements? Then we have something in common. Your big mistake? Mistakes are what they are until we find some value on them. I am a rational believer of the “all is for good” so there are a lot of mistakes in my backlog but I am positive about finding, sooner or later, a useful meaning for them. Africa Startup Ecosystem in on fire thanks to Pivot East, one of the most prestigious mobile startup competitions and conferences held annually since 2011. PIVOT East aims to catalyze the growth of mobile startups, so as to amplify and consolidate the gains of East Africa’s Mobile developer and entrepreneurship ecosystem. The PIVOT EAST competition is a six month long program of targeted educational workshops for mobile entrepreneurs and business advisory session and It culminates in the top 25 mobile startups pitching to investors and partners at a finalists conference. The competition has five categories with each having five finalists pitching to a rich audience of Investors, Development Partners, Government Representatives, Telecoms Operators and other key industry players from East Africa and beyond. The categories include:
The 2013 competition attracted 130 startups applications from Across East Africa, with 88 applications from Kenya, 30 from Uganda, 10 from Tanzania, one from Rwanda and one from Ethiopia in the Finance, Entertainment, Society, Utility and Enterprise categories. Five category winners were announces, one from each category during the gala dinner. Expectations for this year are very high and that’s the reason why they have partnered with 8 tech hubs from across the region who will play a key role in Mobilizing startups and developers in its communities to submit entries to the PIVOT East startups platform and conduct outreaches and workshops on our behalf.The hubs include Outbox (Uganda), Hive Colab (Uganda), KINU (Tanzania), Buni (Tanzania), kLab (Rwanda), iceaddis (Ethiopia), iBiz Africa (Kenya) and C4DLab (Kenya). The call for applications for Pivot East 2014 Competition has been opened up until 11th April 2014 where 25 finalists in the competition will receive training, coaching and mentorship on how to arrive at repeatable and scalable business models. The finalists will also receive training and coaching on how to pitch to investor. Stay tuned to the whole competition and discover amazing startups in Nairobi. We are also preparing a next interview with the Producer for Pivot East 2013, Moses Kemibaro and an informal talk with one of the participating startups last year. |
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