Upload
starttech-ventures
View
1.326
Download
2
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Citation preview
Materializing Innovation
Startup. Why, How, What?
Startup Courses by PublicFebruary 18th 2014
Dimitris TsigosFounder & CEO
StartTechVentures
[email protected] | http://twitter.com/tsigos | http://www.linkedin.com/in/tsigos
The vtrip journey
2000
Dot-com bubble
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble
The dot-com bubble (also referred to as the Internet bubble and the Information Technology Bubble) was a speculative
bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 (with a climax on March 10, 2000, with the NASDAQ peaking at 5132.52 in intraday trading before closing at 5048.62) during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the Internet sector and related fields. While the latter part was a boom and bust
cycle, the Internet boom is sometimes meant to refer to the steady commercial growth of the Internet with the advent
of the world wide web, as exemplified by the first release of the Mosaic web browser in 1993, and continuing through
the 1990s.
Everything in Greece comes with some delay
dotcom bubble, too!
Academic Environment
• US educated professors– Talking about dotcom bubble– Without knowing it was a bubble
• Atlantis Group– The competitors!
• “Pointer-Soft!”– CS256 “s/w engineering lab”
It all started as a joke
• A very serious one!• We decided to “start a company” in
July 2000– “Milon tis Eridos” café, Heraklion
• The best four programmers at CSD and myself – akritid, hargikas,mvasilak,venturas
Which were our objectives?
• To be our own bosses• To have a stake to the value of our
labor• To have flexible working hours
• Do something interesting• Not taking orders by idiots
Critical Publics
• Email August 2000:– Looking for Python programmers to work
with Zope
• Reply [email protected]– Why you guys want to pay social
security?– Are you interested in outsourcing?
Projects
• www.mod.mil.gr• www.hnms.gr• www.emporiki.gr• www.yme.gov.gr• www.zenon.gr• www.criticalpublics.com• a.s.o.
Products???
• WebSecure™
• VoteSecure™– http://www.springerlink.com/content/
y6cfc0jn4g12k9dc/?MUD=MP
• AuctionSecure™
• Totally unrealistic
Looking for partners
An inspired idea!
• We don’t aim to becoming a 500-persons company
• We dream of starting 10 companies of 50 persons each
Divorces
• December 2002, Critical Publics
• March 2003, Vtrip team– akritid stayed as a freelancer for 6
months– venturas stayed as a permanent
freelancer for 2 years– hargikas stayed as occasional freelancer– mvasilak did not stay at all
“Hey buddy, if you don’t trust your own company why
should we trust it?”Attica Bank business loans
officer
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneurial_ecosystem
“An entrepreneurial ecosystem is a group of non-competing companies, including start-ups, established companies and
one or more coordination entities, which share the same vision, values, culture, strategy and business processes and
decide to form an organization in order to explore economies of scale in business functions such as business
development, financing, market analysis, marketing communications, IT / MIS infrastructure, human capital
management, legal support, financial & accounting management”
© Dimitris Tsigos | Virtual Trip, November 29th 2009
StartTech Incubator
incu
bate
d
star
tups
Incubator - Financing - Business Development - Financial & Account Management - Business Administration - Talent ManagementServices: - Strategy - MIS & IT Infrastructure - Marketing Communications - Legal Advisory - Facilities
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
StartTech Ventures
This journey has resulted to the first prototype implementation of the “Entrepreneurial Ecosystem” concept
coLabWorkspace
Materializing Innovation Group
AntennaOffices
Publisher
DistributorsServices Vendors
M.I. Spain
M.I. Hungary
M.I. Brussels
StartTech Angels
The new hype
Suddenly, everyone is starting up
Why?
• Maximize income, wealth
• Catch the wave (ride the bubble?)
• Create an organization larger than & independent from you
• A way of living
I wanna be cool.
What makes you cool?
To be sexy?
To be successful?
To be the best on earth?
Not really.
Being cool actually is to be
happy.
Who’s the happiest person on earth?
Solon before Croesus
Kleobis & Biton!
The happiest persons on earth
“In the legend, Kleobis and Biton were Argives, the sons of Cydippe, a priestess of Hera. Cydippe was travelling
from Argos to a festival in honor of Argive Hera. The oxen which were to pull her cart were overdue and her sons,
Kleobis and Biton, pulled the cart the entire way (45 stadia, or 8.3 km/5.1 miles). Cydippe was impressed with their
devotion to her and her goddess and she prayed to Hera, asking her to give her children the best gift a god could
give to a mortal. Hera ordained that the brothers would die in their sleep, and after the feast the youths lay down in the
temple of Hera, slept and never woke. Herodotus, who relates the story, says that the citizens of Argos donated a
pair of statues to the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi.”
«Μηδένα προ του τέλους μακάριζε»
Entrepreneurship is about happiness
Why so many people unhappy?
Do we follow the right model?
From Pyramids to Pancakes
• Josephine Green: “From command and control to a truly flat world of collaboration!”
• No we do NOT!
• “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” -Albert Einstein
Are YOU insane?
• If not insane, then we need to follow the pancake model versus the pyramid one
• In other words:– It’s NOT about domination, but it is
about sustainability
Who could be Kleobis and Biton in Greece, today?
YOU!
A very usual misunderstanding
Entrepreneurship Vs Business
Easy Vs Doable
• Is it gonna be easy?
• Absolutely no!
• Is it gonna be fun?
•YES it certainly will!
The ultimate goal
• Entrepreneurship is about being useful to another person. Something so simple that makes you happy.
• It’s simple: Be useful!
• …in an economically sustainable way
What?
• “I want to startup, I just don’t know what to do”
• It doesn’t really matter!
• Prerequisite is simply to like it
Startup Compass
• Think of real problem that many people have
• Find an innovative way to solve it• Get a team that shares the passion to do
it• Making sure that the proposed solution is
sustainable
•As simple as that!
Must-have Vs Nice-to-have
Sustainability is built on a ground of needs, not wishes.
Creative copying
“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least
something different.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Sacred Woodhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot
How?
• Here’s where the great misunderstanding is
• The “garage s/w” model does not really work
• Thin & lean is the way to go
• Management should be in the startup’s DNA
Reasons to fail
• Most of the failed startups lacked management skills and capacity
• Founders should never underestimate the necessity for management skills & processes
• Founders often hesitate to add management skills to the team
The management leap
• Many startups fail to make the leap from 1M to 5M in revenues
• Failure to introduce management structure
• The most difficult change a company has to manage in its early years
A startup is …
• …an innovative, creating, dynamic, aiming-to-grow…
….BUSINESS!
Thus, it should ALWAYS been run as such.
Managing a Startup
• Tools • Techniques• Methodologies• As lean as possible
– ….but not more
Thank you