Digital Entrepreneurship Featuring Serge Toarca By AMMANUEL SOLOMON (500537380) Richard laki (500566443) Scott mcgee (500502338)

The following presentation will be beneficial for you if you are looking to do a digital start-up but are new to the digital industry

Introduction – Our mission Our mission is to provide practical information that new digital entrepreneurs can use to generate ideas, avoid mistakes, and innovate successfully. After interviewing Serge Toarca about his experience with his start-up called ParseHub, we are now able to pass some insights into new digital ventures. Serge Toarca is a founder of ParseHub, a visual tool to extract data from the web.

Philosophy on Start-ups When starting a new venture it can be important to follow a process to increase your chances of success. Consider the problem that is in the world and the solution you have to that problem or need. How does this apply in a practical setting? Question- What is your process for starting a new venture?

Philosophy on Start ups Serge's answer- “Find something that can be improved and consider if its valuable enough to work on and improve” “Once finding something that is broken and valuable, then you can enter a prototyping phase to test what is possible” Implication- This seems quite similar to what you expect for creating a solution to a problem or need, but the idea of prototyping can allow you to try multiple things and test ideas.

Learning to code vs generating ideas We wanted to find out how important it is to be a good programmer. Is a good programmer more important than someone who creates good ideas? Question – As an entrepreneur in a start up is it more important to be a good programmer or to come up with good ideas

Learning to Code vs Generating Ideas Serge’s answer- If you are missing the ability to program enough or generate the right ideas then “ you are at a significant disadvantage.” Any idea has the ability to fail if you are missing a key piece to launch such as a good programmer Implication- It would be good to invest in having enough programming and quality ideas in order to launch

Minimal Viable product The minimal viable product is the minimum features required to test a product The MVP allows entrepreneurs to work with a product with a minimal investment Question- What was your minimal viable product?

Minimal Viable product Serge’s answer- The goal with the minimal viable product was to satisfy the needs of one person. “What was the minimal amount of work we can do to solve a second persons problem and continue to build until you can solve many peoples problems.” Implication- You should involve customers in the process of developing a product to determine its viability

Interoperability Interoperability is the ability of systems to communicate or operate with each other Question- Do you face any challenges regarding interoperability? Do you make your product interoperable with others?

Interoperability Serge’s answer- “It’s a very new market, and you are unsure as to which product will be the best” “The nature of a new market makes everyone incompatible with each other” “As a market matures, people have the ability to choose there standards for there product and suit it to their liking Implication- Interoperability may be an issue if you are entering a new market You should expect your digital creation to not be interoperable in the early stages

Semiotics Semiotics is the study of signs or the meaning of signs. How does this apply in the digital world? How would the use of semiotics improve a digital tool? Question- What considerations have you made for your product in terms of semiotics?

Semiotics Serge’s answer- “We’ve become standardized by certain icons, the save button is a floppy disk, a refresh button is the round arrow” “The things we are doing in our tool are new and no one knows what they mean, no one knows the interpretation of a relative selection, which is a combination of two elements on a page. “The strategy is to pick an icon people will recognize but include a name when the mouse is hovered over” Implication- After users try out your product, you may learn that certain things are unintuitive. Serge found his customers had a hard time visualizing the tool, so he adapted by changing the way semiotics work in his tools.

Disruptive Innovation (Dying phone #s) Innovating in current digital products is one thing, but understanding future trends may also lead us to better ideas and innovations. Disruptive innovation is when a new market is created that makes another market obsolete or weakens the strength of another market. For example, Netflix digital movies disrupted the physical movie rental market. What areas of business are at risk of being disruptive? Question- What business do you think will be subject to disruptive innovation or what new technology will be disruptive innovation?

Disruptive innovation (Dying phone #s) Serge’s answer- “Phone numbers will die” It’s a long number to remember, you can’t dial a persons name it has to be a number There is no video call, a phone number only works for one device. Google hangout and Facebook offer options of video calling, screen sharing We have the technology to make communication better without the use of phones Implication- The idea that phone numbers may disappear in ten years is something that may spark some new ideas Another important aspect is that determining whether a technology is disruptive is a matter of weighing the limits of current technology with how much potential a new technology has to substitute the current technology.

Innovational Design thinking Design thinking is a more critical application to designing a product. One of the aspects to design thinking are involving human factors in the design process. This means testing how people react and respond to your product. How does this concept apply in the digital world? Question- What have you learned about what it takes to innovate successfully since the beginning of your startup?

Innovational Design thinking Serge’s answer- “Information doesn’t travel freely, to move information it is costly.” “Marketing costs are very expensive, it costs a lot to teach people about your product and to tell people your product even exists” “We have had the best product, but compared to our competition we weren’t known by as many people” Implication- Entering the digital industry, people may think that information is something that should travel instantly and for free because digital information travels instantly on its own. However humans behave differently, which means entrepreneurs should not assume that their product will just easily be noticed or learned by the population.

Innovation In today’s world it may seem like a daunting task to try to be innovative. What we think about innovation may also change in a practical setting. Is there any advice that someone who has already done a start-up can give to others who are possibly considering doing a start-up. Question- What does it take to create something innovative today?

Innovation Serge’s answer- “It takes balls” “You have to be willing to go try it and most people aren’t because they are afraid of failing.” “You put yourself in a situation where you will most likely fail” Implication- This relates back to the ideas of MVP and design thinking where we must incorporate the consumers into the process. We should not be afraid to test our products or our hypotheses in our MVP because this is the only way to learn what will be a successful innovation and what will not.

Conclusion It goes without saying that the perspective of Serge is invaluable if you are looking to start your own venture into the digital industry. With the right ideas and the right team, and by addressing the very real human implications, a successful business can be born What worked for ParseHub may not necessarily work for your own start-up but the advice given shows us what to adapt to and consider Hopefully, after seeing this presentation you too have gained an insight into the process of digital ventures as much as we have and perhaps have generated more ideas, learned to avoid mistakes, and/or learned more about what it takes to innovate successfully.