Blogs

I am organizing a 1 day event together with Accelerando, as part of the IBP project for all companies in digital businesses.

It will take place on the 23rd of September 2010 (thursday). Somewhere in Helsinki.

The event is targeted for growth companies who are perhaps already international, or currently seeking to get there. Some are startups, some are more than 10 year old established companies that seek to enter new markets and expand their business. There's a whole big list of companies that have claimed to belong to this group, here.

There's a questionnaire up behind this link. I urge you to take it (just a few questions, very quick) - its purpose is to help us plan the best kind of event for you. Possibly getting in international speakers etc, tailoring the program to your most urgent business needs.

I invite you to participate now! Go through the questionnaire and contribute your ideas, views and hot topics. The budget for this is humble, but there's still tons of options to get things organized; so feel free to aim big and really "vent" what you would like to see & hear about the most.

Today Sanoma Magazines announced the details of their new glossy magazine AKU ("Donald"). It's going to be out on June the 9th (Donald Duck's birthday) and they describe it with: "Targeted at adults, AKU. is a completely new kind of glossy magazine that combines fashionable lifestyle contents and hilarious comics."

Part of the magazine's concept is choosing and naming real life people as witty representations of Donald Duck characters. They announced the "Duckburg characters of real life" today at around 15:20

Kalle Palander (alpine skier, celebrity) got chosen as Donald Duck ;) a good choice considering his personality, ups and down, temper etc.

They chose me as Scrooge McDuck. Not because I would own 607 tillion 386 zillion 947 trillion 522 billion dollars and 36 cents, but rather because of the similarities in Scrooge being an entrepreneur and succeeding by his own merit.

Scrooge left Scotland for the US at the age of 13. I started working at the same age.

Scrooge's motto is "Work smarter, not harder." - which I totally agree with!

To me Scrooge is a very positive character; demanding for sure, has a bit of a nasty temper (or lacks some patience?), while simultaneously being very keen towards learning new things and having an adventurous spirit. Amateur treasure hunter and all. Despite of being a centennial Scrooge still has the energy left in him to get excited about new opportunities, new adventures and winning over his competitors. That's the spirit!

Often the character of Scrooge doesn't come off as a big corporate industrialist (you never see him working a gigantic corporate HQ, with office politics and all that crap..), he comes off as an entrepreneur-adventurer instead. Always looking for the next-big-thing and feeling depressed if there's no action around.

Makes you wonder; is Scrooge's character really a tribute to entrepreneurship?

Sure would like to see Scrooge invest more of his money into startups ;)

Since the Slush'09 event I have been touring with the IBP (International Business Program) across Finland, listening to startups, coaching, giving feedback and trying to give a few ideas on how to get things going. This has been interesting to me, as I am not a consultant, but an entrepreneur by class and nature. Usually I work with a few chosen companies, typically as an owner, board member, advisor etc. I have 10 successful funding rounds and several exists behind me so I know a thing or two about pitching, presenting and shaping a company to be interesting and successful. Semi-frequently I also get asked to act as a judge in a pitching competition, I'm up there presenting and talking myself about once every two weeks nowdays. So, it's been good fun with the IBP!

The project describes its own goal as : "International Business Program is offering help for digital business companies which have proved to be growth willing and estimated to have potential global competitiveness."

In essence; we try to make promising companies sprout, grow and be more internationally successful.

We have been touring Helsinki, Hämeenlinna, Kouvola, Tampere and Vaasa. The whole program has been free for the companies (sponsored by public ESR funding) and the format has been quite effective varied format: pitches, feedback, Q&A, written analysis from experts, one-on-one coaching, and plenty of good talks. It's not necessary to be a startup to participate, tho many have been clear startup cases, some even pre-incorporated ideas. While others have been actual corporations and well-established companies.

All together we'v had 33 companies participating so far. Here's my list:

Siltaloppi Productions - Videoarkisto.fi
Fitness Media (Maximal.tv)
Elixir
JoinMeTube
Advant Games
Citynomadi
KLOK
Steam Republic
XMLdation.com
Kutalab (djonline.fi)
Wavesum
Solver
Pallo.com (in stealth mode, therefor no link)
CTS Engtec
Jalusta Technologies / Aptual
TWID
Simosol, Ltd
Mediamaisteri
IT-Palvelu.net
Mikrolinna
Webbinetti S&T Ky (kaitafilmi.fi)
Viestix, Ltd (Breeze Tags)
SongHI Entertainment
Red Tail
Rolohub
Zokem
Floobs
Illtags
Ball-IT
BRIIM
Futuuns
Fambit
Aito Technologies

We also had a bunch that joined up, but bailed out for some reason or the other ;-)

I have been there throughout all the sessions and have listened to each of those companies pitch, given them all feedback, and written them some notes. There have been a few other established industry people doing the same. Namely the crew of Accelerando. and Timoteus Tuovinen from DOORStories.

After hearing 33 companies pitch (and naturally bunch of others outside this program as well) it becomes quite apparent what we need to focus more on here in Finland. One of the main points in illustrated here in this picture:

Which candy is the most delicious? The best thing, based on solid Finnish technology? Can't say huh?

Often enough neither can I.. This repeated quite a few times in the pitches and presentations of our companies: not really paying enough attention to differentiation, competition, competitive response and uniqueness..

If all the competitors in your market are like bridesmaids dressed up in their pretty black dresses. Then your startup simply HAS TO BE the gorgeous white bride that clearly stands out from the crowd.

Sounds simple enough? Differentiation, uniqueness and standing out clearly from your competition is one of the most essential things any company should have figured out. Also when you pitch your company it should be one of the first things you illustrate. Illustration can happen (or should happen) through captivating action; like showing the audience a demo of your product etc. It is OK to say it, but even better to show it; how much you differentiate from your competition.

In 2008 Jason Calacanis wrote these two (first here, second here) excellent posts about presenting and "how to demo your startup". Read them. Study them religiously. Take them seriously and act on them. This is amongst the best advice I have seen out there.

Differentiation for a startup is more important than things like relevance or price. It's more important than your revenue model. Get it figured out first and worry about the revenue model later.

I also like two kinds of companies: those that pick an opponent and go and pick a fight, and those that just ignore all the competition and mold themselves to be so different from anybody else that they just about create a category of their own; they go their own way.

If you have longer than a few minutes to demo or pitch your startup (some of the 33 companies there had a full 30 minutes), then you can go a bit deeper and use a structure like the one here by Sequoia Capital. It is also simultaneously one of the best structures to follow as your business plan slide deck.

Many companies I heard pitches from have excellent products, existing customers, many references and showcases on the market. But did they show them? Almost universally; NO. only very rarely did anybody show us any proper real cases and executed references at all.

One of the best things you can show in a pitch is a real demo of your product. Engage the audience with a story, a real showcase, show them a reference, talk about what you did for that customer, how valuable it is, and how it's different from the ability of your competition to deliver the same amazing value. You should do this as the first thing of your presentation (you should start with this) the rest is much more interesting if this first part arouses the interest of the audience.

What's the worst kind of presentation then? Here's a small list:

- Starting with your name, title and industry background (usually everybody in the audience can read; and they have been reading some preparatory material already and know your name for example).
- Going through the general market first and not even mentioning what it is that you do (general market is only interesting if the product is).
- Using only bulletpoint slides, preferably in black and white (boring everybody to death)
- Not showing your excellent product, despite the fact that you do have it
- Speaking only technical stuff and ignoring the minor things such as competition, differentiation, customer value, and revenue model... etc

A 17 part list of good pitching.

The opposite of this is an engaging exciting presentation that goes right to the point and really leaves the audience reeling from sheer awesomeness of it. What could it include then?

1. Start with a real demo or real reference case, show your product
2. Immediately explain what we see, how awesome and easy it is
3. Followup by what value it creates (problem it solves), how vital it is to the customer (how well it solves it)
4. Go into differentiation; show a few key competitors and explain why you are superiorly unique to them
5. Head into how much money you make and how
6. Next only one or two sentences about the market opportunity (why this is hot now?)
7. Showcase your excellent team in a memorable way
8. Throw in all the awesome customer references and wins you have accomplished. Show pictures, video or live demos of each quickly
9. Do the grande finale with a call to action: do you seek funding? customers? partners? state it!

In a short pitch my opinion is that you should totally ignore these:

10. No long introductions of yourself and your work history, plz. (it may be interesting that you are a paramedic by training, but it's certainly more interesting after you tell us about your amazing company first)
11. Explaining the history and evolution of the market (forget it, no time)
12. Financials (boring, forget it. If they like your company, they will ask and talk about the finances later on.)
13. Technical stuff about the product (unless its globally patented and very very cool like an anti-gravity machine, forget it. It doesn't matter how exactly it works underneath, it only matters what you use it for).

Besides the content, what else should you concentrate on?

14. Good open and exciting body language. Move around, engage the audience, make it SHOW that you are excited about the opportunities of your company!
15. maintain a good contact with the audience: have constant eye contact. Don't stand behind a podium or a laptop. Always use a wireless presenter when pitching so that you don't have to be there to push keyboard buttons.
16. Answers all questions after the pitch in a short efficient and honest manner. Challenge the people asking them: ask for justifications, more details and examples of what they really mean etc. Engage them in an intelligent rapid-fire conversation
17. Make your presentation materials very visual. All pictures and video and live demos would be the best. No text (except single words or a few words at the maximum) and absolutely NO bullet points and boring slides. A decent tool to use for this would be www.prezi.com

.. OK enough about pitching. What else did I learn from ICP clinics?

We have great companies and great products here in Finland. We need to be much much better in presenting them. We also need to think about differentiation, uniqueness, competition and summarizing it all much more. Growth potential is there, we just need to shape it out!

If this post has managed to grasp your attention and you want in; good news! That can be done. There will be a full day IBP camps coming up that you and your company can join:

IBP Camp Helsinki: 20.4.2010 (topic: internationalization and funding)
IBP Camp Hämeenlinna: 7.5.2010 (topic: partnerships and networks)
IBP Camp Tampere: 6.10.2010
IBP Camp in UK September/2010

The camps cost a negligible sum each (200 EUR + VAT) and there's room for only 20 companies: so joint up now! (there's a link below)

There are also more up and coming clinics (these pitching and coaching sessions):

Clinic Tampere 17.-18.5.
Clinic Helsinki 8-9.9.
Clinic Vaasa 23.9.

There's also a full GoToMarket package that you can apply for; the best companies get it. That means very competent people to help you out for a strongly supported fee (ESR public funding up to 75% and 10.000 EUR)

You can apply to all of those through this form here.

Don't be tied up with your digibusiness! Join us and we'll tackle the challenges you have together. I hope that the links and lists on this blog post would be a good start to take your company further.

Godspeed!

Yesterday morning I was a guest at the Good Morning Finland (Huomenta Suomi) TV show again.

The overall topic was adult usage of the Internet, privacy and people's rights to their own content.

Language handicap: unfortunately the talk is entirely in finnish again, sorry. Here's the embedded video:

Taneli Tikka in Huomenta Suomi at 11.2.2010 from Taneli Tikka on Vimeo.

Couple of things concerning this: I don't talk about the usage of the Internet for entertainment purposes - because that's a given. Everybody does that. So only focusing on the differences of usage. With adults its much more official and serious -toned, while the younger age groups simply have all aspects of their life online, one way or the other.

I mention insurance and finance product comparisons as one of the uses adults have. That's linked to www.vakuutuskone.com

The end segment is about banks who do not provide XML feeds of people's own data to the people, while it would be technically simple and while they simultaneously do provide it for companies. That's linked to www.balancion.com

Banks have intentionally decided to stand in the way of progress and disable the XML feeds for private accounts. I have understood that they would have the infrastructure in place already because of SEPA and the way their backends are build. In some banks enabling the stream would be almost like flipping a switch, some others would have a small amount of work to do.

Why do they disable it then? Because they have failed in their strategic thinking. They have made the false conclusion that by being protectionist they would somehow run a better business - while in fact they are missing out on a huge opportunity for growth and new revenue generating services, entire new business models, etc. Opening up the feeds would grow the entire market and increase the size of the pie for the whole sector. Their decision is cowardly, showcases weak leadership and communicates fear and lack of self-confidence from their part.

Finland had it's first telephone line in the year 1877. Back then the printing press, the "newspaper men", were afraid of this modern form of progress; and protested against the telephone by arguing that it will kill out the print media because now news can travel faster. While in fact the opposite happened; faster communications and the telephone is a big reason why the print media grew to be bigger than ever, as gossip spread faster and people were even more focused and interested about the news they provided. The telephone increased the need for their newspaper products and grew the entire market size.

When ever I see this kind of fearful and weak resistance to change with false logic behind it, I most certainly remain unimpressed. Banks should do better than this, way better. And we as their customers should actively demand them to do so.

Banks have opened up their XML (and various other formats) feeds in Estonia. Finland is the backwater hillbillytown of progress. A country of fearful weak banks that would rather fall behind in progress than go for the huge opportunities ahead and grow their businesses. Not progressing a vital infrastructure the like the banking system makes us fall behind even on a national level, which makes it even more sad and reprehensible.

Few links about the Balancion discussion:

http://www.tietoviikko.fi/taustat/apaja/article370344.ece

http://www.arcticstartup.com/2010/02/01/osuuspankki-says-no-to-balancion/

http://twitter.com/#search?q=balancion

http://www.kasvua.org/~toivotuo/cgi-bin/blosxom.cgi/2010/01/29#banks-and...

http://www.tarkkamarkka.com/blogi/2010/01/osuuspankki-kielsi-balancionin...

http://www.sombiz.net/content/osuuspankki-says-no-balancion

http://www.pinseri.com/2010/02/01/balancion-ja-opn-oma-talous/

http://tweetmeme.com/story/513122620/osuuspankki-says-no-to-balancion

http://onespot.contentnext.com/paidcontent-uk/2010/02/01/a/572900074-osu...

A while back there I joined Netcycler as an advisor. It's been motivating and interesting to be a part of a startup with great green values. Focus on something that potentially makes a big impact; recycling and swapping secondhand stuff amongst us instead of just throwing it away to a landfill "someplace".

I bet many of you have seen "The Story of Stuff", right? if you haven't, go check it out at:

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

The Story of Stuff is a very nicely done fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our (arguably unsustainable) production and consumption patterns. Basically the ugly truth is that we consume too much and mindlessly throw away valuable resources and raw materials, waste energy and pollute our environment in the process of doing so.

A little more than a decade ago (or a few decades) there wasn't such an industry as "the self-storage industry". Now days that segment alone is worth more than 20 billion USD annually (already past 20Bn in 2007). That means that people (and some companies) pay up more than 20 billion USD a year to lock away their unused stuff & crap to decay in a storage facility someplace.

Besides the housing bubble we have pretty much had every other sort of economic bubble since the late 80's: people have been going crazy with their credit cards and amount of personal debt. Way above sustainable levels. People have bought so much stuff that the storage space they have isn't enough to pile it all up: hence the fast growth and the emergence of the self-storage industry. It sounds crazy, right?: to have a separate storage rented out somewhere just to throw your unused treadmills, exercise equipment, dirt bikes, canoes and other stuff in.. Well, it IS crazy, and there's a better way to do this, there has to be.

Netcycler is a service that allows you to swap stuff you don't need (or are willing to give away, if you get something good back) for other stuff that has more value to you. For example: you could swap the pair of shoes you only wore twice for an iPod.

Netcycler does very effective swapping with a little help from computational power and mathematical science (one of their founders has a PhD in physics). Netcycler finds long swap-chains of stuff; so that the chances of getting something excellent back, when you let your old skateboard go, are excellent. In fact they are exponentially excellent; the more people Netcycler has in their system, the more swap-chains they can form and the better value it will be for everyone.

Here's a simple pic to illustrate how it works:

I want a trombone and give away my old iPod. Somebody else wants an iPod and gives away a pair of shoes.. To somebody else who wants the pair of shoes and gives away the trombone. Netcycler already has swap-chains that extend to 5 people, and they are just getting started.

The interesting thing about very long swap chains is that the value of swapped goods can increase every step of the way. With a little luck you might end up trading away your old iPod and receive a sea-canoe, or even something crazy like a house in return. Swapping a red paperclip for a house is precisely what happened to Kyle MacDonald. Apparently the swap-chain took him a year to execute, and you can read his story from here. So, potentially, if you are extra lucky, you can end up with an amazing swap-chain getting you something much more valuable in the trade than what you are giving away. Remember that the value of stuff is highly subjective. This means that it is possible to get long swap-chains were every swap in the chain is perceived as a "tradeup" to something more valuable, making all participating folks happy. The more stuff you put on Netcycler and the more people are on it, the better the chances of this happening are. In Netcycler you'll see nice lists of the stuff that's available as a swap against your items; so you can pick and choose the things that have the most value for you.

More illustrations on how it works:

First you add your stuff. You can place offers (offer a stuff for something you want) and you can go and click items to your wishlist that would be valuable to you.

Next: the magic happens and Netcycler does the matching. You can end up with a really long swap-chain, or a shorter one. It takes into account anything that's on your offer & wish -lists and tries to optimize the swap-chain for every person involved.

Finally you go and do the swap for real. Or agree how to do it. There are several Netcycler meeting points and using one of them is a good option. If you don't wish to leave your apartment (or your storage room ;-)) you can just mail the item to the other swapper.

One of my things in there is a bodyboard, check it out.

I find the whole idea behind Netcycler exciting. This is certainly something that we, as a very material society, would need. I'm a hamster; which means that I'm the kind of guy that ends up rarely throwing anything away. I just pile up and save way too much stuff; and when I get rid of it, I try to come up with an intelligent way of disposing stuff. Throwing things into the garbage bin just isn't a good option - I much rather give stuff away to friends or somehow put them in recycling or charity. Netcycler hits this need and "consumer behavior" precisely and promises something better; you can actually trade up, not just get rid of stuff.

You can request beta-access to Netcycler from this signup page:
http://www.netcycler.fi/signup