Ake Edlund from SICS Seed Accelerator (see blog at www.fortune1m.com) presented his thoughts about Startup Life and Seed Accelerators at Startup Sauna Stockholm. In the slides there are more, including how cloud computing is useful for startups. Link to SICS Seed Accelerator is www.sics.se/seedaccelerator

1. Åke Edlund - “multitasker”
2011 Seed Accelerator
Co-founder C!C
KTH-SICS
Founder Cloud Innovation Center
Coach
Cycore
Sony Ericsson EU-Supply
Parallel Systems Ericsson Business Innovation
1993
Uppsala, Rice, Berkeley, Technion
Startups Academia Industry

2. Åke Edlund
Startup Life & Seed Accelerators
SEED ACCELERATOR

3. Part 1/2
Startup Life

4. Preparing this presentation
Something I’d needed when in your age
My view - minimizing copy-paste
Discussion – please do interrupt
Adding realism to your dreams, still
keeping them alive
Inspiration

5. Startups, the theory #1
Get an idea
Find a garage
Create a world leading ….
Get funding
Do an IPO
World domination!

6. Startups, the theory #2
Get an idea
Write a business plan
Get funding
…

7. Startups, the theory #3
Get/steal an idea
Use open source spare parts
Add your own proprietary part
Write a business plan
Get funding
…

8. Startups, the theory #4
Get an idea
Patent it
Wait for someone big to buy you
…

9. Startups, the theory #4b
Get an idea that complements some big players portfolio
Run your business long enough to attract a good user base
Wait some more
Someone might give you a call…

10. Startups, the theory #5
New technology
Build a long range of products around this
Launch them one after another
…. that’s the official story

11. What can we learn from success
stories?
Not much
Inspirational
Some “must haves”

12. Startups, the non-theory, failures
More to learn here!
But who to tell you?

13. Startup failure #1 – too early
Great product, won many prizes
Many years of hard work in garage
Bring in fresh VC capital
CEO and mgmt from world class firm
Defunct pricing model, non-viral
Have to teach the market
Heavy staffing and expansion – burn!
Cash flow….

14. Startup failure #2 – too slow
Even greater product
Still possible to make better
Jumps into an incubator
Fix-fix-fix…. (instead of Ship-fix-…)
Turns more and more into an R&D project
Incubator hires incompetent CEOs…
Times up! Share holders leave.

15. Startup failure #3 – lost control
Great idea
Running fast, quick successful rollout
Huge burnrate, but succeeds in getting huge investments
Great offering of buyout – but, lost control, can’t get a sell
Market dies
Struggle on

16. Startup failure #4 – never started
Decide to combine with consultancy
After some years, you realize you’re nothing
more (or less) than a consultancy firm

17. What to learn from these failures?
Quite much
But, the risks comes in many flavours
#1: Listen to your intuition

18. Before we start
Why startup?
Why me?
Why now?

19. Why startup?
“Whatever you are building, it's about passion, and less
about the money.Your goals should be about changing the
world, or making the world a better place. There are
many people who set out to change the world a better
place and didn't make a lot of money. But there are even
more who set out to make a lot of money, did not make a
lot of money and did not change the world.”
Guy Kawasaki

20. Why startup?
Freedom, kind of …
Creativity
AdVenture, you better like it...

21. Build your team
Friends, or not?
Getting full commitment – fair share
Get advice, but don’t expect too much

22. Build a presence
Web – blog, mail, twitter…
F2F – conferences (outside), …

23. Cost control – consulting
In parallel with building a business
As part of product development
Safer but slower
Cash flow
Reality check
Recruitment

24. Office – do you need one?
Home sweet home, Cafés, Hotel lobbies, …

25. Finding customers
Use your network
Build a presence on the web
Lot of calls, and meetings

26. Meeting customers, closing deals
Negotiation – learn how, practice
Ask, and ask again
Build a relationship
Learn to say ‘no’

27. Endurance - company
Cash flow – again!
Your time – is limited

28. Endurance - you
Burn out
- not a joke
- hard to get back from
- signs – that you won’t listen to

29. Endurance – work hard, but smart
Value your time. Get your sleep. Get time off.

30. Incubators
Do you really need them?
For what?
How good are they?

31. Before buying a .com address
Did you do your homework?
Test it, not only on friends
Do your googeling, but don’t drown
Don’t overdo it!

32. Before buying a .com address
Again: don’t read too much
It is a highly complex problem, too many unknowns.
Get hands-on experience

33. “You miss 100% of the shots you never take.”
Wayne Gretzky (*)
(*)Thanks John Greathouse - http://infochachkie.com/nps/

34. Part 2/2
Seed Accelerators

35. VCs – old school
Are you a x15 startup?
Do you really need them, now?
What will it cost you?
Are they ‘smart money’ or just
money?
And are there any? And if not …..
don’t think business angels are that
much better.

36. New School
Re-think Startups
Re-think Incubators
Re-think VCs

37. The startup world is changing
"Startups can be run so cheaply now
(with open-source software, cloud
computing, and virtual teams spread
across the Web) that many more can
achieve profitability without any VC
cash.”
Paul Graham,Ycombinator

38. The startup world is changing
"Imagine what it would do to the VC
business if the next hot company
didn’t take VC at all. The less venture
capital there is for new startups, the
faster the decoupling will begin.”
Paul Graham,Ycombinator

39. The Innovation Landscape is Changing
Bootstrapping: Cloud Computing, Open
Source, Network, Mobility
Startup:
1. Lower risk
Bootstrapping 2. Quicker to start 1. More Startups
2. More control
More flexible 3. Startup gets further to Startups
with less
Investor: + -
More to evaluate
Lower risk
Less control
Lower investment to more
Harder to get in early
Faster response Missing more

40. Seed Accelerators
Helping many during a short time to get to a good
next step.Very early stage. Technical focus.
Technical entrepreneurs with Network
AND
Often backed by Venture Capital - that get help
with volume and early information and lower risk.
SEED ACCELERATOR

41. March 2010: "Y Combinator Matures" - 1/4 of Startups Funded Before They Finish the Program
October 2010: 1000 sökande
Jan 29, 2011: "Yuri Milner, SV Angel Offer EVERY New Y Combinator Startup $150k"

42. Seed Accelerator challenges
7
3 6
4 5
1 2
1 Applications flow
2 Filtering
3 Deal making - start
4 Match making
5 Value increase
6 Deal making - end, Finding investments for next step
7 “Good ones” - seldom go through these services 42

43. SICS Seed Accelerator
- Creating startups from scratch
- Helping existing startups and innovative companies on clouds!
SEED ACCELERATOR

44. SEED ACCELERATOR

45. Stockholm, examples
of ongoing startups
right now

46. Wrap up
Startup Life and Seed Accelerators
Note: Cloud Computing and Startups slides added for later

47. Summary
We could learn some from the success
stories, but more from the failures.
Many like to give advice, but most of the
mistakes you have to make yourself.

48. Summary
Don't count on getting external
investments.
Don’t think startup, think microstartup

49. Summary
Leverage on all technology and
networking possibly available.
Cloud computing is a good idea for
many microstartups.

50. Summary
Seed Accelerator is a unique starting
point for microstartups close by.

51. Summary – Most important (1/II)
Make sure to follow your heart, listen
to your intuition - it is trying to tell you
something important.

52. Summary – Most important (II/II)
And make sure to have a good life at
the same time, it is possible to combine
with startups.

53. If you have the time – I doubt it…
Write this down:
www.sics.se/seedaccelerator
www.fortune1m.com
edlund@sics.se

54. “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”
Steve Jobs

55. SEED ACCELERATOR
Thanks!
edlund@sics.se
www.sics.se/seedaccelerator
www.fortune1m.com

56. Extra Slides
More topics, about me

57. Part 3/3
Cloud Computing and Startups

58. Where do you have your focus today?

59. To Create New Or Manage Server Room(s)?
Business?

60. When to (maybe) use
Clouds today?
Time limited tasks

61. Pilots

62. Peaks

63. “We are now working on
the new demo ---- but it
will take some time.
(Our main computer has
crashed ... )”
2011....

64. 2002. Stockholm. Startup.
A typical Saturday evening...
- 3 months of buying
- Weeks to get it right
- 1 month of POC
- Years of ownership

65. 2002. Stockholm. Startup.
A typical Saturday evening...
- 3 months of buying
- Weeks to get it right
- 1 month of POC
- Years of ownership

66. Enter the Startups!

67. Startups Cloud
"Startups can be run so cheaply now
(with open-source software, cloud
computing, and virtual teams spread
across the Web) that many more can
achieve profitability without any VC
cash.”
Paul Graham,Y Combinator

68. “Top
5
predic7ons
on
cloud
compu7ng
2010”
1.
Rise
of
standards
2.
First
major
cloud
compu7ng
provider
outages
3.
Microso<
will
be
relevant
in
the
cloud
4.
Rapid
consolida7on
of
exis7ng
providers
5.
Rapid
rise
of
cloud
compu7ng
startups
hGp://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-­‐compu7ng/top-­‐5-­‐cloud-­‐compu7ng-­‐predic7ons-­‐2010-­‐188

69. We’re already there
Every company in Benchmark’s portfolio uses Amazon’s cloud
infrastructure in some way, and about one-third of them
operate entirely on web-based services and infrastructure.
Billing startup Zuora, for example, is doing well despite having
“not a single IT guy, not a one,” Fenton said – and that’s more
meaningful than an analyst’s report.
http://venturebeat.com/2009/06/25/
who-uses-cloud-computing-startups-
do-vcs-dont/

73. More to discuss….
Recruitment – kind of Marketing Nishing – the key to success and partnerships
Novel professional networks – ycombinator Investment cycles, building a step stone to IPO
Pricing – an art form, don’t overcomplicate it Know yourself
Customer demand – do they know best? Pitching
Execute – improve your skills More on VCs
Leadership – work on it, daily Business plans
Time to market – do you want/can you do it? Visions – or mantras, what is most useful, why
Business angels – or devils? at all?
More on Ycombinator – pro and cons
Exits – thinking about it already?
Technology vs Sales – Ship vs Fix

74. SEED ACCELERATOR
!"#$%
!&'(')'$%
Åke
Edlund

75. http://kaljundi.com/2010/12/11/startup-bullshit-bingo