Previously known as “Good Morning” but now renamed “Start-up Day,” the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship organizes this one-day event where it gathers entrepreneurs with and without experience as well as attracting various investors, students, and motivational speakers—all on three different scenes.
Being curious and looking for new opportunities, contacts, and of course inspiration, I decided to visit the event once again. I attended it four years ago and still remember the summing-up speech by Magnus Lindkvist.
“Start-ups I believe in”
This year the event took place 26 th of April 2014 at Munchenbryggeriet. I was a bit disappointed with the Start-Up Day event. In fact the only speech “Start-ups I believe in”that I feel worth mentioning came from Hampus Jakobsson—a truly inspirational and successful entrepreneur as well as a happy father of three. Hampus is theco-founder and CEO at Brisk.io—a project that is currently operating under the Creandum family*.
Earlier in his career when he was co-founder of a software licensing company known as The Astonishing Tribe, he was responsible for shipping over 500 million electronic devices and employing over 180 employees. His portfolio of clients included big names like Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Google, and Disney—all before being acquired by RIM/Blackberry. (Follow the link to watch the video of his speech).
So here were some useful tips that Hampus put across to the entrepreneurs just starting out, or at least thinking about it.
- Solve the REAL problem. You need to remember that your product or service will solve the real problem in its self. Do not spend your valuable time trying to solve the lame ones. Talk to people and really listen to them – what is “their” problem?
- Search for knowledge – never hesitate to ask for help! Never stop learning new things. Never be afraid to start over and ask for advice.
- Create the TEAM.
T-e-a-m!
Dream Team investors are looking for, according to Hampus, designers, coders and sales managers. These three people can change the world. However, keep in mind that you need to:
- Find people you enjoy working with and make sure they enjoy working with you. Keep the team feeling positive with each other and be certain to talk and discuss problems as they arise. There is always room for improvement.
- Find people who can “get shit done.”
- Maintain your team’s focus on the customer so they truly are aware of potential concerns any customer may have. Act fast and get feedback ASAP. Never hesitate to ask:
– What is the biggest pain for your customer right now?
– Why do things not work? Why do they work?
– What are all the surrounding circumstances?
In the end of the speech Hampus provided the audience with his Twitter account (@hajak), encouraging everybody to ask him for help. Those who did not follow through with his request failed.
I didn’t ask so naturally I failed! But….
“I will not fuck it up again, Mum”— thought I as Bridget Jones from The Edge of Reasons.
P.S.
In the end of the lecture, Hampus gave some very interesting advice—every day before going to bed write down three things that made you happy today. “This,” he said, “will make you a much better entrepreneur and a happier person.”
*Creandum is a leading early stage venture capital firm based in the Nordic region with current investment strategies in Tictail, Vivino, Spotify, and many more to come.