“Part of the entrepreneurial thing is there are lots of ways to die.” Reid Hoffmann

The last topic we covered in our startup course: "How to be a great founder?"

Compared to the lecture from Reid Hoffmann taught in Stanford a year ago, Bala chose a slightly different approach - more philosophical.

We talked about several leaders, for instance Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela etc. and what they have in common with founders. There are a few skills that become apparent if we look at these people. All of these skill sets (listed below) are important to run a successful business or be a great leader. As ReidHoffmann mentioned, 

“…you’re not good at all these things. You can’t do it alone.”

As a founder who leads his company, you have to focus on the short term and the long term, take risks on the one hand and minimize them on the other and be flexible and persistent.

Leaders and great founders have the ability to focus on a pattern that does not include an OR. You are not looking for a fifty-fifty balance between the extremes, it is about having a stable vision that drives you even if you act in an uncertain environment. 

Again, the founding team is one of the most important inputs on “How to be a great founder”. No one will ever be a perfectionist in these skill sets, however, as a team with balanced skills you might get close to perfect.

“If you have wealth, it is your duty to help those who don’t.”

Manoj Bhargava, founder of 5-Hour Energy, was one of Bala’s last examples. An incredible story about this successful entrepreneur, he has pledged 99% of his wealth to charity. His current project “Billions in Change” is a leading example for how wealthy people should act. It is about really making a difference rather than just putting money into some sort of charity organisations. Regarding the growing world population and the distribution of wealth, his organization faces three major initiatives: WATER, ENERGY & HEALTH! How is he going to do that?

That should be an inspiration for every entrepreneur to keep going with his venture. Never give up something you believe would make the world a better place! I hope you enjoyed reading my blog so far. My startup course is coming to end with the final pitch this week! I will keep this blog alive, posts are going to follow maybe every two weeks with some diversified input about startups, my entrepreneurial thoughts and things that change the world ;)

Peace! 

„People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it!” Simon Sinek

My semester comes to an end and the final pitch of our project will be in a few days. The topic of our latest lecture in “How to Start a Startup” focused on culture again, but especially on how to hire great team members and how to retain them.
A question most young co-founders ask themselves probably is:

“How do I find and convince good skilled people to work for my startup, especially in the early stage?”

Well, basically there is no answer to this question and no place where these people are waiting to be fetched. Open your eyes and mouth and start talking to your family and friends, use the opportunity of your network to find the right people you are looking for. In my opinion, students should be more encouraged to do an exchange semester and to get involved in associations so that they built up their own network during their time in University. There is no better place on earth that gives students the opportunity to meet people with different backgrounds, skills and career prospects . For instance, our startup-team consists of two computer scientists, an engineer and two business students, five different nationalities and sometimes five different viewing points…

However, that is the challenge we have to face: we learn to communicate with each other to improve not only our product/project but also our personal skills. The lesson learned for me is share your ideas and talk to your fellow students. Do not just connect on Facebook, but be professional and use platforms like LinkedIn as well.

“Why?” 

A main word that Bala mentioned a few times in his talk. I got very much inspired by the TED-Talk of Simon Sinek which my girlfriend recommended to me for my Leadership class.

"...very few people or organizations know why they do what they do. And by "why" I don't mean "to make a profit." That's a result. It's always a result. By "why," I mean: What's your purpose? What's your cause? What's your belief? Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care?"

His viewing point is based on the ‘golden circle’ – it shows simply how successful companies like Apple think, act and communicate all the way through. Actually, it is an approach everyone should use or at least spend some thoughts on. If you get the message from Simon, you know how you will convince the people to work for you and how to retain them.

Culture fits in your company like your personal values in your action. Create an environment in your business that motivates your employees to work for you because it is a great place and they love what the company is doing rather than your incentives.

„Do you know what is so special about this place? Almost the entire country is on Facebook!” Bala Kamallakharan

“How to build products users love – when you don’t have any money!”

&

“Doing things that don’t scale  – while thinking internationally!”

These were the two main statements of our latest lecture. Guest Lecture by Haukur Gudjonsson,

Founder of Bungalo.com and self-proclaimed “Viking Entrepreneur”. 

The startup Bungalo.com is probably one of the best examples when talking about building something from scratch. Haukur launched his company around the same time as Airbnb and both focus on “a house renting platform”. The substantial difference is the valuation which is probably related to the location of the company’s launch. Airbnb was founded in the Valley, full of entrepreneurial knowledge, incubators, high potential growth rates for startups and of course a lot of venture capital. The other one was launched in faraway Iceland, not very famous for its startup scene , barely experienced people in the venture business and not to mention no capital for these crazy ideas.

However, Haukur was smart and travelled to the US and Canada to explore the startup culture and learn about tools he could use. He got support from other experienced entrepreneurs so that he was even more motivated and focused on his project when he returned to Iceland.

“Wherever you see big problems, you’ll find opportunities for companies to improve it!”

Airbnb is a huge competitor, so he set his focus on places Airbnb would not go for. Remote places, bungalows in the middle of nowhere for people who like silence, natural landscape, being away from city life and mainstream places. Locations where you could meet the real locals and enjoy your vacation with family and friends. It took him a couple of years but he was persistent, believed in his startup. He learned programming within 3 months because he could not raise the money for an IT employee or web-designer. He took matters into his hands, started calling owners of a bungalows and asked them to join his project. He used Facebook as a marketing and feedback channel for customers.

He mentioned several times that you actually do not need money to launch your idea.

 “Just do it!”

was the lesson learned again! Grab the chance of the internet to connect with other experienced people, go to meetups  to ask for advice, work in co-working areas to meet other entrepreneurs or go to the Valley if you have the opportunity!

An inspiring lecture by Haukur with just one thing that was thought-provoking. When I asked him whether he would accept a takeover bid of let’s say $3 m he simply said “Yes!”. You probably ask yourself: Why not? Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snapshat, rejected a $3 BILLION offer from Facebook. Think about it and have a look at the interview with Bloomberg ;)

In the second half of the lecture, Bala talked about his vision of Iceland - a unique place on earth where you can test things in a way you could do nowhere else on this planet!

His post and the whole blog gave a new perspective on things by the end of 2011 for many entrepreneurs and interested people. He opened a door for visionaries who saw the future and believed in something. He couldn’t really quantify the outcome of his posts. Of course, he measured click rates and views on his blog. However, he did not get any revenues out of the post but he keeps doing it. His aim is to build sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems in Iceland, providing a platform where people get support in form of mentoring and Venture Capital - simply something people were looking for!

He created a yearly event next to his blog which he describes as “A Woodstock For Startups”! Or in Paul Graham’s words:

“The recipe for great work is: very exactingtaste, plus the ability to gratify it."

“The way to learn how to do it is just to do it” Paul Graham

I worked my way through the first three weeks at the University of Reykjavik and I probably understand much better what studying really means for me now compared to the last 3 semester back at my university in Berlin. 

That doesn’t mean that I wasted any minute in my life or regret (almost) any decision. I will turn 25 next month, I’m in the second year of my Bachelor’s, I took around 1,5 years off before I got to the point to decide to start studying. And that’s what life is about, doing things you’ve never done before, making these unique experiences, building up your own vision of life and setting up all the adjustments to CHANGE the world to a better place.

So far so good, but how does that fit to a startup?

Let’s reflect the last couple of weeks to see what I’ve learned about startups so far and why I chose this obvious quote this time… 

“No school can teach you to be a good CEO.” 

Bala Kamallakharan

Of course a uni can teach you stuff like Management, Leadership or even Marketing and techniques how to become  what you want, but just listening to that doesn’t turn you into a good entrepreneur. What really matters is your enthusiasm, your faith in your idea, because that is what keeps you motivated and convinces investors and founders to join your startup. The 6 counter-intuitive beliefs about startups Bala mentioned, based on Paul Grahams’ talk a year ago in Stanford University, emphasize what I mean:  

#1 Startups are weird , don’t follow your instinct

#2 You don’t need expertise in startups to succeed

#3 Gaming the system in startups doesn’t work

#4 Startups are all-consuming

#5 You can’t tell if you succeed doing a startup

#6 Don’t consciously think of startup ideas to do a startup

Well, my conclusion out of the first part of the lecture and the last couple of weeks is that this fast growing business model is something special. Everybody can do it, but not everybody will do it the right way because there is no right way. There is a little guidance available and there might be a few people who are willing to support and join you. Nevertheless, to draw attention to your idea and your team you have to bring the idea to life and start talking to the people and networking.

“SomethingVentured” - the documentary film about the evolvement of the venture capitalism in the mid-20^th Century was a matching second part of the third lecture. It showed us how everything started. In this highly risky business, the focus is not on the money, it’s rather on whether the entrepreneur is able to lead a startup and reach his vision by using Venture Capitalists as mentors and experts as well as their business networks. For instance, many VCs didn’t see the capability of Apple (or Airbnb and Uber) as a unicorn and neglected to support Apple as a startup in their early ages. Now they are surprised at Apple’s success and regret not having invested in the first place.

Quote of the movie from Nolan Bushnell (founder of Atari) about an investment in Apple:

“He asked me if I would put $50,000 in and he would give me a third of the company. I was so smart, I said no. Big mistake! “ 

So it’s up to you if you wanna call it a mistake or learning for the future.

Like Professor Dave Valliere mentioned in the book "Startup Opportunities":

"... that most VC have a one to ten chance that investments become successful.  But most VC investors are unable to learn from it because they are caught in their own over-confidence."

Again, life is about making these experiences, going a rocky path includes detours towards the summit. This Reykjavik street art I discovered the other day visualizes the long and tough way to the summit very well.

„If you wanna run a startup, run a marathon!“ Bala Kamallakharan

Well, before I will review the last lecture of ‘How to Start a Startup’, I would like to give you the opportunity to gain insight into the presentation and skype interview with Sean Wise from the first lecture.

We started the lecture with the question ‘Why to start a startup?’. To be clear from the outset, this isn’t the best choice for work life balance. A startup means a lot of work, especially for the CEO.

Making money and being your own boss with flexible leisure time sounds good to you? Then forget about the idea of a startup! You have not just a night dream about how to change the future, it also keeps you awake during the night. So start your startup now and make something people love!

The idea of running a marathon is actually absurd . I mean you start with hundreds or even thousands of people at point A and run 42.195 kilometers to point B, what for?

Of course, for some people it’s about the competition: Who’s the first? Who runs the most marathons? And who gets the fame and the honour? For others it’s more about the experience and reaching their personal goal, but many of them run the marathon for the first time and they might get addicted as well.  Furthermore it’s time-consuming and you are a ‘slave’ of your own mind. Nevertheless, that’s also what keeps you motivated, because you wanna get through this challenge.

There we got the commonality with an entrepreneur! On my last post, I already wrote about 2 out of the 4 most important areas to maximize the success of a startup. The third one is EXECUTION! For the marathon runner I would say start running, same for the entrepreneur. But it’s not just about starting, it’s more important how to do it. You’ll never reach point B, the 42 kilometers if you just keep running straight forward. There are two key question you should always ask yourself to follow your strategy: 

“One, can you figure out what to do and two, can you get it done”

 Sam Altman

Regarding "what to do", you should know the execution. But even more interesting is the part "can you get it done". During the lecture we talked quite a while about this topic and Bala figured out two main points: Focus & Intensity!

Focus on your goals: For your job it is the same like when you do sports. You will have to repeat them over and over again, so that they get settled in your and your running buddy's or employee's mind. In addition, a startup is running on an extremely high intensity level during a certain time. If you can’t run on this level, you are not ready for the marathon yet. 

To put it in a nutshell, if your business is not growing it is going to die!

To complete the four areas, the last point is the ‘TEAM’– including investors, founders and employees. Actually the most important question for all 3 categories is:

“Are they smart enough to get things done, so that I would like spend time with these people?”

Sounds pretty easy - I mean would you choose someone being your friend if you even don’t know him/her? Of course not. You would start talking and communicating until you know the person. Same in business - Make sure that you know the people who are willing to join your startup.

“That’s probably why school or uni is one of the best places on earth to find a co-founder!”

Bala Kamallakharan

To sum it up, what I’ve learned so far in 'How to Start a Startup': You’ve got an idea on your mind which keeps you awake during the night? You figured out a product which people will love? You sold your story and your vision to at least two investors who are willing to support your startup and you convinced 2 to 3 co-founders who are able to keep focusing under extreme pressure to reach the goal of your startup? 

“So guess what? Launch your unicorn, because Life isn't a lottery ticket!”

"You can do anything if you have enthusiasm." Henry Ford

How to start a Startup!
That was one of my first courses at the Reykjavik University. Before I'm going to talk about the first lecture I would like to use the opportunity to give you an understanding of why I chose this course.

Let's start with the name 'Startup': you hear this word so many times a day, you find articles about startups in every newspaper and almost every magazine. It seems like everybody is just talking about this type of company, but what makes the startup scene so special and why is there such a big hype about this fast growing business model. Well, to be perfectly honest we had these kinds of rapidly growing 'bubbles' already a few times and the last crash just happened 7 years ago here in Iceland...

But the topic startup keeps on going, year by year. It doesn't matter from which country you are, even smaller countries or developing countries, you will always hear and read something about the startup scene all over the world and even after crises.

So what I'm expecting from the course and our group project for the next upcoming months is: How does a Startup work? Why is not every company supposed to be a startup? How to handle all the business ideas in my mind? How to develop a strategy? How to attract venture capital and get money from other people for my business? And finally how to get 'rich' (on experience of course)?

So quiet a lot of things which are already on my mind, but let's review the first lecture with Bala Kamallakharan.
The course is based on 3 books, which are required for us to read:
1) Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
2) The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
3 ) Startup Opportunities: Know When to Quit Your Day Job

The first book is from Peter Thiel, who is born in Frankfurt -GER- he lives in the US now. Quiet a big name in the startup business, you should probably know him as one of the first investors in facebook, he co-founded PayPal and manages a VC fund now.

The third book was written by Sean Wise, a professor of entrepreneurship. Impressive thing that Bala got him for a skype session during our first lecture for around 45 minutes. He talked about his book, how the entrepreneurship became part of his life and his family and how he deals with that now, he gave us some unique recommendations and we were able to ask a bunch of questions.

Furthermore we talked about the definition of a startup and entrepreneurship, Bala made the lecture interactive and asked many questions about what we already know about startups and gave us the opportunity to help forming the course which makes it even more interesting. We also talked about 2 out of the 4 most important areas, like if you do really well in these chances are good that you will be successful.

The time just flew by and at the end we started finding our groups for the project which is probably going to be an adventure for the next couple of month, but now I'm looking really forward starting my first startup.

#1lecture #HtsaS #RU

http://startupiceland.com/2015/08/21/how-to-start-a-startup-lecture-1/