The wonderful world of startups and Aalto Venture Garage as a seed accelator Aalto Venture Garage Ville Simola

My Agenda

Agenda What is a startup? What it takes to build a startup? Aalto Venture Garage as a co- working space and seed accelator

Definitions

Definition #1 “A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets. “ - Wikipedia

Definition #2 “A startup is NOT every new business venture (actually, it is but this is not the way we use the term anymore). It is a new tech venture, internet related mostly, that has the potential of rapid growth through servicing new market segments and/or offering new product/services” - Quote taken from Quora.com

Definition #3 ”A startup is the organization used to search for a scalable business model” – Steve Blank

Some comparisons

Comparison #1 (Steve Blank) Small businesses Business model found Profitable business Existing team Not all the businesses of internet age are ”scalable startups” Scalable startup Designed to grow big Huge uncertainty Typically needs risk capital These companies are the real startups

Comparison #2 (Steve Blank) Traditional accounting Balance sheet Cash flow statement Income statement Startup metrics Customer acquisition costs Customer lifetime value Monthly burn rate

Comparison #3 (Steve Blank) Business plan Static-document ”No business plan survises the first customer contact” Focus on planning not execution Business model Can be iterated quickly Shows how company creates, delivers and captures value Focus on execution and how to make money

The idea

Idea #1 Importance is usually overemphasized

Idea #2 Will pivot during the journey

Idea #3 Is something that should not be hidden

The team

Team #1 Is the most important asset

Team #2 Should combine a different skillset

Team #3 Needs to have high and passionate vision

To be successful?

Success #1 Technology is nice but it’s all about the value

Success #2 Planning is good but execution wins the war

Success #3 Great companies are not born they are built

Success #4 Grow or die!

Recommended readings

Aalto Venture Garage

Background

The start The Garage started with grassroot initiatives by a group of students and entrepeneurs at Aalto University

Why? We saw the need for change in the entrepeneurship ecosystem in Finland. This was the fall of The garage was empty.

Numbers M€ <3 M€ Public Investment on R&D 2010 Licensing Revenue for Research Institutions ~ 83M€ Seed, Startup, Early Growth VC #53/54 Companies seeking for growth (GEM 2009) Private Investment (GEM2009) #51/54 Sub-contractors Resource intensive Fast-growth companies (≈20) Lähteet: GEM 2009 Global Report, Deloitte Technology Fast 50 & Fast 500 EMEA (2009, 2010), FVCA (2010), PwC MoneyTree, NVCA (2010), IVA (2010), Tilastokeskus (2010), Center for Venture Research (2009), Tekes (2009, 2010) 30

Activities

Co-working

Grass root initiatives Pitching events Open Mics Talkoot workshops/ Startup weekends

Grass root initiatives Inspiring speakers Tuli-talks w/ research based start-ups Hackatrons

Enternship 10-week Entrepreneurial internship 1)is aimed for students interested in startups and high growth companies 2)no restrictions when it comes to school or nationality 3)Applications taken in from 4th of March

Startup programs

Summer of Startups 10-week start-up program targeted for students Teams are provided: 1) Coaching, mentoring & keynotes from the best serial entrepreneurs, VCs, PR professionals etc. 2) 24/7 working space 3) Pre-seed funding for the selected team

Startup Sauna More mature start-up program targeted for advanced companies from the Baltic region running 2 times a year Teams are provided: 1) Garage coach network 2) 24/7 working space 3) Office space and trip to Silicon Valley for the three best ones

Some case startups

Key success factors

Key factors #1 Culture of venturing from grass roots: Aaltoes etc. meaning that we have best students and researchers interested to a) start b) work on startups

Key factors #2 Ideas and teams coming not only from Aalto or rest of Finland but from whole Baltics and Nordics: only way to get good enough people and ideas

Key factors #3 experienced serial entrepreneurs with international success and failures as coaches to work with the selected startups from very beginning: our coaches

Key factors #4 Exposure for the best startups to real markets, competitors, investors and specially to culture of doing business: 3- 4 months in the valley, in future Israel and china

SISU (FIN) “Special strength and stubborn determination to continue and overcome in the moment of adversity. It's a combination of stamina, courage, and obstinacy held in reserve for hard times.” Key success factor?

My contacts

Ville Simola aaltovg.com aaltoes.com facebook.com/aaltovg facebook.com/aaltoes